A/n: I guess I'm going to call this a boring filler chapter, at least it is in my opinion...

Disclaimer: This is my disclaimer, which states that I own nothing related to Naruto created by Masashi Kishimoto and not by me. (If I was given a few more years, then maybe this would be mine and not his, lol) But since it's not, I'm stuck taking up space with a Disclaimer. I don't own Naruto.

Chapter Three:

Now Team 7 had missions to do. The objective today was to find a cat with a ribbon on its left ear and return it to its owner. It was easy enough; actually, it wasn't hard enough for Naruto. He complained and complained about it like a bratty child, and sat on the floor with his arms crossed. Finally the Hokage gave in, to everyone's, especially Iruka's, surprise. Naruto shouted enthusiastically, "Really?" Hokage nodded, inhaling his pipe, and gestured to the door.

"You can come in now," he said.

A man that looked to be in his fifties, maybe, opened the door, grunting, "What's this? They're all a bunch of brats, especially the short one with the stupid-looking face!" He leaned against the doorway.

Naruto looked to his teammates, laughing, "Ha-ha, who's the short one with the stupid face…?" But his laughs were ended a second later, after the other three moved closer to him and he realized he was the second shortest of them all, next to Natsuki whose face certainly wasn't stupid-looking. The blond lunged toward the insulting man, screaming, "I'll kill you!" Kakashi grabbed him by the collar and scolded him before he could make any moves.

"I am the master bridge builder, Tazuna. I expect you to provide me protection until I get back to my country and complete the bridge," he told them. The squad of five and Tazuna walked to the gates leading out of Konoha, and that was when Natsuki spoke up. Well, after Naruto had shouted, 'Let's go.'

She was wearing the same clothes she'd been wearing: a dark blue jacket with loose sleeves and khaki shorts, with gauze around her left thigh and her right fore-arm, where she kept a four-inch long and three-inch wide rectangle-shaped pouch that couldn't have been used to store weapons. Regular blue sandals were on her feet, and square sunglasses over her eyes; she wore the Leaf forehead protector in its original place. "Hey," they all stopped walking and stared at her. The girl said this through a smile, "Sorry, but, I can't join you on your mission today. If you're going all the way to the Land of Waves, I won't have enough medicine to last me the entire trip. I'll have to stay here." Naruto looked befuddled and Sakura's expression didn't show any signs of her caring, a bit similar to Sasuke's. Kakashi responded with an 'all right,' and then another short statement. The builder didn't even look her way.

So, then the team left, Naruto still screaming ardently and Sakura telling him to shut up.

*-*

Close to three months later, the team was on a nearly finished bridge, along with Tazuna, more than thirty men who wore vicious smirks, and another man separated from them. The bottom part of his face was bandaged and his arms appeared limp. Naruto was screaming at him about a boy named Haku.

"He threw away his life for you!" he said through tears. "Without his own dream… to die as a tool… that's just too sad…" The liquid was streaming out of both corners of his closed eyes, and snot ran out of his nose.

The man he was bawling to responded, his own tears leaking down his face, "… You don't need to say anymore…" Naruto looked at him astonished, and so did Kakashi. "Kid, it pained him to fight you… Haku fought not only for me… he fought for you, too. He was too kind. I'm glad I got to face you in the end. Yeah, kid, you may be right…"

"Huh?"

"A shinobi is still human… we may not be able to become emotionless tools. I've lost…" The tall man with ruffled brown hair grew solemn just then. "Kid, let me borrow your kunai." Naruto looked at him, still crying, and tossed it over to him.

He mumbled, "Yeah." And the man holding the blue-eyed ninja's kunai charged at the gang of men.

Meanwhile, Natsuki climbed out of a miniature boat she'd taken to the village and onto the unfinished bridge. She made her way over to a weeping Sakura, who was leaning over a badly injured Sasuke. "Hey, move it; you're in the way," she said in a tone that couldn't be deciphered as any certain feeling. The green-eyed kunoichi looked up, sniffling.

"N-Natsuki?" she inquired, wondering why her teammate was there, but ultimately thinking about the other one; he was lying on his back, presumed dead. Glancing at the boy, she added, "S-Sasuke is…"

Natsuki pushed her aside gently and Tazuna watched as intently as his heart-broken guard did. "I already know," was the only other thing she uttered before placing her hands over the boy's wounds. It won't do me any good if he dies, so I had to come all the way here to save his butt! There was a reason I stayed; geez, I can't trust these wimps, to do anything! Even their sensei is useless. I mean, they didn't even check to see if he even had a pulse, and when they found one they could've spent their time bandaging the kid instead of crying on top of him. Oh, but well, she corrected herself, I guess those senbon gave the affect that he was dead, temporarily stopping his heart. But, that's still no excuse. A blue-green chakra poured out of her palm, to Sakura's amazement.

What's she doing? Was all she could ask herself.

In a matter of minutes, Natsuki stood and dusted off her hands. "There, he'll be okay now, but I only healed in partially. He'll need those needles pulled out of him and his wounds bandaged," she voiced, backing a few steps away and turning to face the battle at hand. It was nearly over. One against ten… twenty… no, almost thirty gang members; the solo person didn't have very good odds. She pictured everything that was happening then, listened to some men fall to the ground, and to a loud splash in the water, and to Sakura's obnoxious whining. Sakura must not have heard me when I told her he was fine, she said to herself, concentrating on the divided sounds.

Thump!

Did I… die…? There was a distant sound at his thoughts, crying. Sakura…?! Am I… Am I…? "Sakura… I can't breathe with you on top of me." Sakura immediately sat up, her tears settling. Needles were in Sasuke's arms and legs, his neck and back, through him. He was a mess, though it would've been pretty difficult to decide who looked worse, him or his female companion; who had snot dripping out of her nostrils and countless tears rolling down her cheeks.

She sniffled and hiccupped, and when the information that her crush was alive finally registered, she pulled him into a tight embrace, yelling his name; at this the boy, who had only just regained consciousness, moaned, "Sakura… that hurts…" She apologized and let him free of her tight grip. He asked about Naruto and the 'masked kid,' Haku; informed that the loud-mouth ninja was fine and that Haku was dead, he queried, "Dead? Did Naruto kill him?"

"N-no, I'm not sure. I came in late."

"I see," Sasuke slowly got to his feet.

Smiling, "I… had faith in you. I knew you couldn't die. It's amazing how you stopped attacks from hitting critical areas," she told him. Sasuke was fully at his feet now, and with that, Sakura stood as well and notified Naruto that he was all right. Naruto's response was a few sniffles and a bellowing guffaw.

Then, just as it seemed the trouble was all over, with Zabuza on the ground unable to move and Haku dead, the men hired by the also dead thug were irate that their 'meal ticket' was gone. They were going to attack the remaining shinobi, four Genin and a Jounin. Kakashi was just about out of chakra, Naruto and Sasuke were completely beat up, and Sakura couldn't handle every one of them by herself; not even with the unable-to-use-full-strength Natsuki. That was when Inari, Tazuna's grandson, arrived with the rest of the village; he declared they, the hired thugs, leave now or face the wrath of the islanders. Naruto and Kakashi made a ton of shadow clones, hoping it might fool them as well, and they all ran off the end of the bridge and swam or rode away in the boat that was there.

Once the men were gone, Zabuza, lying on the ground with many long, sharp spears and the like stuck in his back, requested Kakashi to take him to Haku. And he did, and that was where he died; right next to the boy that had been beside him for years, as it snowed. They left the Land of the Waves two weeks later after visiting Zabuza's and Haku's graves.

*-*

A while later, Kakashi's squad returned from another, easier mission. Kakashi had left and so did Sasuke, and Sakura was chasing Naruto and his younger Academy-student friends after one of them named Konohamaru asked if she was even human with that wide forehead of hers. That was when he ran into someone whose forehead protector stated that he was a Sand Nin. There was also a girl with him that had blonde hair in four spiky ponytails and green eyes. He wore purple make-up and a black outfit, with a mummy-like object being carried on his back. The fourteen-year-old looked angry.

"That hurt, you brat," said the Sand ninja, picking up the boy by his shirt. His female companion warned him not to do that, that they'll get into trouble later. Sakura apologized, saying that they were only playing around, while inwardly she was wondering who those people were.

Naruto bellowed, "Hey, you, let go of him!" The older shinobi easily figured out that Naruto was a Leaf Genin, and decided to mess around with him. Still holding Konohamaru, and having the blond kid charging at him, he stopped him easily. What was that? He thought. The foreign ninja laughed at how weak he was, while Sakura wanted to know why they were there when they weren't from their village.

Natsuki was there the entire time, but was only watching until she decided to join in; or rather, stop the ruckus. "Hey, you should really---" Only her soft warning was drowned out by more loud dialogue from Naruto and the others there. Oh, why do I even try? But all the same, I am curious about this guy, and the other one, too; though, she hasn't said much. I wonder… oh, could it really be time for that?

A small pebble flew out of a tree just before the unfamiliar person struck the child in his grip. It was Sasuke. "What are you doing in our village?" he queried, throwing a few small rocks up and down in his hand, sitting in a tree branch. The way he was sitting and looking at them made him seem pretty arrogant, but that didn't stop the Haruno from screaming his name and the Sand kunoichi from blushing at him. "Get lost."

"Hey, punk, get down here! I hate show-offs like you the most," he fisted his hand and looked at Sasuke. Before Sasuke had a chance to get down from the branch and the other ninja could pull out the thing on his back, someone said in a creepy-like tone:

"Kankuro, stop it." Sasuke's eyes widened; the voice was on the other side of the tree he was in. He had reddish-brown hair and sky blue eyes, a gourd on his back. Upside-down, his feet clinging to the bottom of the bough and his arms crossed, he told his comrade, "You're an embarrassment to our village."

The boy, Kankuro, grinned sheepishly; it was almost as if he was nervous about something. "Ga-Gaara…"

Him… when did he…? Sasuke pondered, staring at the new presence. That's Jonin-level sneakiness.

"Losing yourself in a fight, how pathetic," continued the boy, who appeared twelve or thirteen. "Why do you think we came to the Leaf village?"

Kankuro tattled, "Listen, Gaara, they started it and…"

"Shut up… or I'll kill you," advised Gaara without any hesitation whatsoever. Kankuro apologized twice, and Gaara apologized to the Leaf Genin, all the while thinking about Sasuke throwing a stone and stopping the companion.

When they turned to go, Sakura made them halt and told them to state their purpose for being there, as it was forbidden for shinobi to enter other villages without permission. "Hah, talk about clueless," said the female from the Sand. "Don't you know anything?" She showed them her pass.

Natsuki explained the reason they were there: "The Chunnin Exams will be taking place soon," and she continued on with the explanation until they--- mostly Naruto--- fully understood. And after Sasuke had his short conversation with Gaara, the shinobi from the Sand left.

This is getting interesting, maybe these Exams won't be so bad after all. But still, I would've preferred to be finished with this place by now. So far I've gotten no clues at all about who he is, and Sasuke's no help; it's been months and I haven't been able to speak with him about my personal problem because someone is always around. This sucks!

*-*

Kakashi had just given the group their Chunnin Exam applications, feeding the lie that they could choose individually whether or not they wanted to take part in this exam. Both Naruto and Sasuke were confident about it, Natsuki was angry that they were taking place so soon, though she hid that feeling with a fake smile. The other female of the group, the weakest of them all, was having doubts, noticing that she couldn't even keep up with her male teammates; she didn't know any skills that Natsuki had, but assumed that she was probably stronger if she could heal. She fell over when she ran to reach for the bells and went into a coughing fit, but she knew she could do something useful when her squad members were impaired. That was better than Sakura, at least.

Natsuki slowed her pace to wait for Sakura to catch up to her. The younger team member didn't care about her other, but she saw that something was wrong because she was far behind Naruto and Sasuke, and herself, who was behind them. Naruto was ranting about being the best, the Uchiha thinking about fighting strong opponents when she stated simply, "When you're strong, the exam won't be hard. If you don't believe you're strong, you definitely won't be." The dark-headed girl said this through a small smile, a thoughtful tone, and a small giggle following before she walked ahead; Sakura was left wondering what she meant.

*-*

A lot of teams showed up at the academy the next day, all with applications filled out and totally psyched attitudes. Well, mostly everyone. Naruto was getting help with his paper from Sakura, and she herself was still just a little unsure about the Exams, despite the night before. Iruka had disguised himself in order to test Team 7 to see if they were really strong enough to enter this dangerous test. They'd all passed, Natsuki doing so a bit too easily, but his doubts and worries still remained.

When they entered the building, Sasuke saw through the Genjutsu on the floor they were on, and arrogantly continued on. Natsuki went ahead to hand in her application while the Uchiha and Naruto and Sakura went and fought Rock Lee, who had proclaimed love for the wide-fore headed Genin. She later met them outside the doors of the room that would hold the first part of the Exam.

Before they entered, Natsuki told the three of them, Kakashi there as well, "This isn't going to be easy, the exam—at least, that's what I've heard." She paused, not wanting to make a crucial mistake. When she stated the next part, she turned so her back was to the rest. "I won't protect you, got it?" All signs of kindness that sweetened her pitch before were gone now, and she opened the doors, not listening to what Kakashi told them all after her announcement.

They were on their own now, in the large room filled with over fifty Genin. Sasuke looked at Natsuki, careful not to stare, and wondered what she meant by, 'I won't protect you.' Did she really believe that they needed her help, that they were weaklings? Naruto, maybe, but not me, he thought, glancing at the blond boy, who was doing something hyper and annoying. Natsuki was facing him, sitting on the ground against the wall beside the doors.

As a boy with silver hair in a ponytail approached the 'Rookie 9(10 because of Natsuki)', the youngest of them all felt something strange when he stated his name, Kabuto. She could just feel him sneering behind that fake smile of his. He was worse than she was, though it appeared he could maintain himself very well, make better than her. Natsuki had to leave before she found herself too angry, before her real self was let loose. There was something about this Kabuto guy that was just far too natural, too polite and kind. He was even trying to help the others and give them pointers for the Exam, as he'd taken it several times, she overheard.

The test proctor, Ibiki Morino, had made it clear that this part of the Exam was to be able to cheat without being caught. Everyone cheated in their own unique ways, though some of them were not quite good enough to make the cut. Sakura had her brains so she didn't have to peak for any of the nine given questions, Sasuke his Sharingan, and Naruto hadn't even figured out the reason behind the hard quiz; his paper was blank. Natsuki, with her enhanced hearing, listened to the movements of the person's pencil in the seat in front of her. It turned out to be Sasuke's, and he was on the sixth problem. She could tell by the angle his writing utensil moved at, and followed him throughout the next three, then went to other people for the answers to the other challenges.

Down, left, cross… thought the girl. Natsuki was positive she'd have no quandary solving any one of the inquiries set before her, but because the words lacked boldness she couldn't run her hands over them to read. When she came to a finish, she noticed that Naruto hadn't even lifted his pencil once. It wasn't that she particularly cared; she didn't even want to take this Exam in the first place, but she knew him fairly well and was certain he'd be crushed if he failed. So will Uchiha, she told herself, not that she cared about him either.

"Time," said the scar-faced man. The forty-five minutes were up, and the tenth question was to be revealed. Ibiki explained that if anyone got this question wrong, they would never become a Chunnin, which lead to a few protests. In the end, a lot of people raised their hands in defeat and left the room. Sakura mentally told Naruto to raise his hand too, that it was okay. No, thought Natsuki, chewing on her eraser (apples were not allowed here); you can't give up on this yet. I know we aren't exactly friends, but… She scolded herself after thinking what she next thought. Don't give up, you kid!

Sakura saw that Naruto was too stubborn to raise his own hand, so as she was about to, he finally did. Reluctant, but it went up. After a moment of silence, his arm shaking in the air, he shouted, "No!" and jerked his upper limb back onto his desk. "I won't give up, because that's my ninja way!" After his short, heart-felt speech, he ended up giving the remaining people enough courage to stay as well. His pink-headed teammate was relieved, then, and found herself believing in him a little.

"You pass," the instructor stated. That was the last question. Everyone was pretty ticked, but truthfully, Natsuki saw something like this coming. She'd only been through the test once and passed, but they were all different. Way to go, Team 7, she silently praised them, though her fury returned when they were taken outside the Forest of Death.

A/n: Sorry it took so long to update. I've honestly had this chapter written for a month, but didn't have internet usage during that time. Also, now I'm going to school, and I've been collapsing right when I get home (lucky I haven't been getting much homework). Like I said at the top, this is just a boring filler chapter, trying to get to the real point as fast as I can. I've decided that I'm going to place this in Shippuden after this story is finished. That's where, I'm planning, the real action will take place. Hopefully, that is. I want to get to that as soon as possible, as I've written most of it in my head already, though I have so many ideas I can't decide some of them. Well anyway, I've decided that this first story will just be a building block to the real one that will have more of my imagination and less of what actually happens (though there will be some things that do happen, just the scenarios will be changed a bit).