Chapter 4 Start! The Chunnin Exams!

Disclaimer: Still no Naruto or Jake ownership for FusaoKairi.

The next morning Sakura rose at the crack of dawn to prepare for the Chunnin Exams. She decided that now she would begin to show her true self. No more lies (well at least about her real personality).

After all foreign ninja would be participating at this exam and Sakura wanted to be taken seriously. So she headed to the inner cave fresh water pool, heated it up to high temperatures using her fire, and bathed herself. Then she reactivated her seal so she had her complete human appearance again. Later she went to gather some clothes from the pile at the corner of the cave.

She put on a dark green version of a shirt/dress that her father had given her, and changed her pants to cargo camouflage combat pants. She put on a pair of armbands similar to Sasuke except they were black and had a secret pockets for concealing various weapons. Finally she dawned a pair of black gloves (similar to her shippudden pair) and her blue standard shinobi shoes.

Looking into the pool of water that was inside the cave she modeled her appearance, and when she decided it was good enough she got ready to leave the cave. Sakura turned to the still sleeping Ramus in the curled up to the side.

"Come on Ramus time to get going" Sakura announced rubbing Ramus on the stomach to goad him awake.

"Hmmm? Okay, okay I'm up, I'm up" Ramus yawned raising to his hooves. He shook his body lightly to get the sleep out of his system.

Sakura smiled at her friend. He hadn't changed at all these years and Sakura loved him for that.

"So you ready for your exam thingy?" Ramus questioned as he stretched his long gangly legs.

"It's the Chuunin Exams and yeah I'm pretty sure I should be okay" Sakura sighed not sounding at all convincing to Ramus.

Ramus moved his eyes from side to side trying to formulate an idea to comfort his friend.

"Hey, why don't I stick around and help you on your exam? After all one part of the exam is supposed to take place in here. I'm sure my dad won't mind me helping a friend" Ramus assured stepping closer to Sakura.

Sakura thought about the proposal for a while extremely enticed by the idea. It would make her feel a lot better knowing Ramus was in close range, and he was right one part of the exam was supposed to take place in here.

Roku had told her that part of the Chunnin Exams would take place in this very forest, and that the object of that part of the exam was to gain a heaven and earth scroll.

Roku had always complained about the loud fighting noises that would always take place close to his den. He absolutely hated this time of year, but then again Roku had always been a grouchy old bear so he hated just about anything.

"Well alright I would like the extra help. Just be sure to go and tell your Otou-san what we're doing this time, so we don't have a repeat of the last endeavor." Sakura warned as Ramus gave her a sheepish smile.

"Will do! I promise! Now I can finally make it up to you for when you saved my life" Ramus shouted happily before jaunting off to the cave entrance.

Sakura laughed merrily at her friend.

"Alright, alright hold your horses Ramus" Sakura said as she doused the remaining fire and followed Ramus outside. Once she was outside Sakura moved the boulder that was placed in front of her cave to its original position at the entrance. Then she cast a sealing jutsu so anyone without Dragon or magical blood couldn't get in.

She had perfected this technique when she began to stay out in the forest longer and longer and as a safety precaution as Sakura knew many leaf ninja, jounin especially trained in this forest.

"Okay Sakura I'm off to see my dad, but before you completely leave the forest why don't you go visit Roku? He may actually have some very helpful tips for you" Ramus advised before bounding off into the thick trees.

"Good idea Ramus! Alright I'll see you later!" Sakura shouted back at the deer waving as she moved in the opposite direction.

After visiting Roku and receiving some more useful tips and a promise of his help if needed she headed for the academy.

Sakura of course had to think up a pretty good lie to tell her team about why she had a sudden change in her attitude and appearance.

Sakura was pleasantly surprised to see that shehad been the first of her team to arrive outside of the academy. Sakura was happy because this gave her much more time to think of an appropriate lie to tell her teammates herself.

Twenty minutes later both Sasuke and Naruto arrived walking toward her bickering as usually. Sakura became exasperated they had been like this ever since the Land of Waves.

"What did you say teme, come on say it again to my face, and you'll regret it" Naruto yelled at Sasuke comically flexing his muscles in what he thought was an intimidating display.

"You heard me Dobe, and stop that you're just embarrassing yourself" Sasuke coolly replied back, not at all phased by Naruto's boasting.

Suddenly both of them looked away from each other and then stared at Sakura in shock, well Naruto stared in shock, Sasuke had an unreadable expression on his face. Neither could make heads or tails what to ask Sakura first, about the new slightly somber attitude she displayed or her drastic change in outfits. But like with any of these type of situations Naruto voiced his thoughts loud and clear first.

"HUH?! Sakura-chan what's with new clothes, what happened to you yesterday?" Naruto announced still staring at her in shock. Sasuke's eyes also betrayed his curiosity, what did happen to Sakura was she finally taking being a ninja more seriously?

"Well in the case of the outfit I just wanted to been seen as a competent kunoichi, and it is more suitable for combat and espionage isn't it?" Sakura said her eyes displaying true confidence and truth behind her statement, because that was the real reason for her outfit change.

"Well if you say so Sakura-chan, either way you look awesome" Naruto complimented a blush moving across his whiskered checks. He hoped that had gotten him a few more points with her. Sasuke was just nodding his head in agreement slowly; her honest answer earned her a tiny bit more respect in his books.

However Sasuke then stared at the Sakura unsure of what to make of her. Would she finally be useful or still a hindrance he didn't know, but he as more interested in was Sakura's overly confident response.

The way Sakura answered clearly suggested that she wasn't completely telling the truth. For a split second Sasuke had picked up on her eyes shifting to the ground a common telltale sign of lying.

What Sasuke wondered is how gullible did Sakura really thought he was.

Then there was Sakura's sudden serious attitude since when did she care about training. Sasuke decided to keep a closer eye on her. Something had to be wrong.

Sakura could see the doubt and disbelief in Sasuke's face, and it more than pained her a bit to see his sheer disbelief in her skills, but she pushed back those thoughts back for now and focused on the tasks at hand.

"Now that everything is out of the way let's do this guys!" Sakura shouted completely out of her perceived character. Of course though this didn't bother Naruto one bit in fact he seemed to kind of like it.

"Yeah! Sakura-chan teamwork let's go!"

Then together they marched inside the academy and headed for the third floor.

It took longer than they expected to reach the academy test room doors, but they kept getting sidetracked. First there was the fight that was breaking out between two Konoha genin and two bully guards from entering what was thought to be the third floor. It turned out to be an illusion, one Sakura easily detected before they even reached the second floor.

Then they had an encounter with a guy named Rock Lee who was easily smitten with Sakura, which she did not take to well. Although since he seemed like a charming enough guy Sakura gently told him that she wasn't interested in a relationship right now and they moved on.

However; This Rock Lee character couldn't seem to take a hint as he reappeared later, and challenged Sasuke to a fight for Sakura's heart, and a chance to test himself against the so called great Uchiha.

After surprising them by easily knocking out Naruto. Sasuke charged at Lee only to get his butt royally handed to him, by the so-called weirdo. Sakura had always thought that Sasuke needed to be brought down a couple of pegs anyway so that was probably good for him. Though she would never ever tell him that.

After meeting the equally weird Might Guy, Kakashi's rival they finally arrived to the test room doors, only to be surprised by the appearance of their sensei.

"Hello I'm glad to see you made it Sa…" Kakashi stopped mid sentence taking in Sakura's new appearance. It definitely seems Kakashi's assumptions were correct Sakura either has changed or finally decided to be her true self. Whichever one it is he thinks it will improve things for the team for the better.

"Judging by your new appearance I see I had nothing to worry thinking you weren't going to show up". Kakashi noted staring her, had Sakura actually begun to finally take her training seriously?

"Huh what do you mean if I hadn't shown up, you said participation was optional" Sakura questioned what he getting at.

"To be honest with you Sakura if you hadn't shown up, I would have had to stop Naruto and Sasuke from entering the exams, because the exam needs to be taken in a team of three."

"So if they had shown up, but I hadn't it would have really been…?"

"The end of the line, yes but it's a moot point now you're all here Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura I'm very proud of all you" Kakashi said with true pride in is voice making Naurto and Sakura smile, while Sasuke simply smirked.

"We won't let you down Sensei Believe it!" Naruto said, while they all together opened the doors and slowly entered….

Please Review and I'm so excited to see all the hits I received in such a short time.

Thank you all! I really appreciate it .

Things will really start to kick off next chapter!

New Edit Rewritten Highlights!: So as you can all see this is one of the more non heavily rewritten chapters as all I did was fix some grammar and spelling mistakes and edit out any scenes where they were talking about Hiro, where they mention Hiro or any scene he was physically in!

Plus I show off the continuity of Hot water being okay for Sakura bathe in earlier in the story and kept it's rules straight!

Please Review FusaoKairi out!