Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. However, I am responsible for the characters, and their actions…mostly.

Word of Honor

Chapter 6: The First Test

Team 7 stared at their old Academy building, each with their own thoughts about the upcoming Chunin Exam. Sasuke was interested, wondering if he'd be able to push his limits and become stronger by fighting shinobi from other countries. Sakura was nervous, not quite sure what she was getting herself into. And Naruto…

"Kami-sama, did I do something to anger you?" Naruto said to no one in particular as he stared at the Academy. He remembered how he'd said he'd rather teach at the Academy than be Sasuke, and wondered if Kami was using this as a way to test his resolve. "'cause if I did, I'm sorry and you don't have to try and punish me anymore. And if it's because of the log, I planted the required five saplings yesterday!"

"Naruto, what are you talking about?" Sasuke asked, questioning Naruto's fading sanity.

Naruto shook his head. "Nothing, let's just get in there and show just how awesome we are."

Both Sasuke and Sakura rolled their eyes at the way Naruto eagerly attempted to jump towards the Academy. He looked like a dog, running towards the Academy then returning to them with a look that begged them to pick up the pace. It was nice to know that he hadn't changed to much since being with Ino.

After walking up the first flight of stairs, they came across a crowd of chunin hopefuls trying to push their way into the room that said 301. Two genin stood outside the door, baring the way into the room. One other genin hopeful was sitting in front of the door, having been knocked to the ground one of the two guards.

"Ha! You plan on taking the Chunin Exam's with that?" The other 'door guard' said, smirking at the downed genin. "You should quit now. You're just a little kid."

His companion nodded in agreement. When the genin's female teammate made to push her way through as well, he backhanded her away from the door. His face never changing as he glared over the crowd. There was muttering from several of the other genin at his blatant attack on a fellow genin. "What did you say?"

His friend nodded, crossing his arms over his chest. "This is our kindness. The Chunin Exam isn't easy…even we have failed it three times straight. Those that take this Exam and end up quitting as shinobi's, those that die during the Exam, we've seen it all. And chunin often become captains of military teams. The failure of a mission, the death of a comrade…that is all the captain's responsibility." He scoffed at the girl who he'd hit as she picked herself up. "Yet kids like you think you can pass? We're just thinning out those who will fail anyway. What's wrong with that?"

Naruto ignored their little speech, looking at the surrounding crowd in confusion. Leaning over to Sasuke he whispered, "Why is everyone here? We only went up one floor."

Sasuke nodded, "Yeah. It's probably a genjutsu to make the sign say that it's the wrong room."

Naruto scratched his head. "So…it's like a test? They're not beating them up because they can't go in the room, but because it's the wrong room?"

Sakura groaned, wondering why Naruto was even bothering to say anything. "Yes Naruto, it's the wrong room. They're just confusing them with the genjutsu so that the people who aren't paying attention like good genin should are weeded out." Sakura blinked, suddenly realizing something. "Wait, you noticed it?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, it wasn't hard. I mean, we've been to the Academy more than foreign shinobi, and I've escaped from the Academy more times than I can count, so I know that sort of stuff pretty well."

Now both of his teammates were staring at him. Naruto was still the same little idiot, but he'd obviously become more attentive to his surroundings. It was a rather scary prospect.

Naruto took the lead, sidling around the crowd of genin and making his way to the next flight of stairs. His teammates, still gob smacked by Naruto's strange intelligence, followed him. A few minutes later, they stood before the final door to the test, which once again had someone in front of it. This time though, it was Kakashi.

"Oh, so Sakura made it." He said lazily, looking over his genin. "Now we can properly take the Exam."

Sakura flinched at Kakashi's comment, barely catching the hidden meaning. "What do you mean by that Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi eye smiled at Sakura. "The truth is that this test can only be taken by teams of three."

Naruto scratched his head in confusion, remembering the conversation that they'd had with Kakashi the day before. "But Kakashi-sensei, you said that taking this test was an individual choice? You lied to us?"

"If I had told you the truth, you or Sasuke would have pressured Sakura into taking the exam." Kakashi said, turning to Sakura. Naruto had a sheepish look on his face, while Sasuke just flinched. "Even if you didn't want to, if Sasuke had asked you, you would have come. For Sasuke's sake…and…well…Naruto too."

Sakura didn't bat an eye at doing it 'for Naruto'. "So if only Sasuke and Naruto had shown up?"

"The exam would have ended right there; they wouldn't have gotten any further." Kakashi replied. He looked over his team one more time, his eye turned upward in a smile. "But you all came of your own free will; you guys have made me proud. Now go!"

All three members of his team grinned widely, turning to the door and walking in. A moment after they'd entered, Kakashi sighed. "You can come out now Iruka."

From behind a nearby corner, Iruka stepped out. He appeared fine for the most part, however, the main change in his appearance was a dark bruise on his forehead. He scowled at Kakashi before staring after his former students. "How do you think they'll do? And I mean really, how will they do?"

Kakashi shrugged, not answering Iruka's question. Truth be told, he truly didn't know how well they would do. Sasuke might do decently, but he needed to be knocked down a peg or two if he truly wanted any kind of shot at defeating his brother. Sakura needed to experience the real world, outside of her fan girl mindset. Naruto though…

He honestly couldn't say anything for or against Naruto, mainly because he didn't know. If one were to take all of the different elements needed to become a chunin, Naruto wouldn't make it to chunin. His genjutsu skills were nonexistent, his intelligence was subpar, and he barely had any 'useful' ninjutsu. He did have very…inventive uses for different combinations of the jutsu's he had, but a chunin that did not make. He had a long way to go before he had the taijutsu skill, but if they were to judge him on pure brawling skills, and odd observations, he would have a shot.

Iruka sighed, rubbing the bruise on his head. Kakashi took note of it, his curiosity peeked. "How'd that happen?"

"Naruto." Iruka stuttered, remembering the fight. Had Naruto been a real enemy, and had done what he'd done against Mizuki –create a one man army or shadow clone- Iruka would have been left a broken smear on the ground, which wasn't a part of the test whatsoever.

Kakashi raised his eyebrow at that. He'd expected Naruto to give Iruka a run for his money, but to actually land a solid blow against Iruka was impressive. "He actually managed to hit you?"

Iruka nodded. "Three times. And you've obviously got his ability to detect genjutsu far above what he could do in the Academy."

"Really? But I haven't taught him anything about genjutsu." Kakashi said.

Iruka blinked in shock. "But…but he got through the genjutsu I set up. If he didn't know how to dispel it, then how…?"

"I don't know." Kakashi stared at the door where his team had just left with his eye slightly widened. That…was unexpected. Kakashi winced, resisting the urge to slap his face. "Then again, we really shouldn't have underestimated the most unpredictable shinobi of Konohagakure."

Turning from Iruka, he walked to the jonin lounge. As he walked, his mind tumbled with the new information Iruka had given him. He knew that the Sharingan and Byakugan could see the chakra flow so they could know when they were caught in the genjutsu and dispel it easier, and there were other clans like the Yuuhi and Kurama that showed prowess in said art. However, not even the Sharingan could simply look through genjutsu. That was a skill he'd never heard of before; mainly because according to everything they knew, it was impossible.

Frowning, he decided he would take it up with the Sandaime after the second test had started; he would find out what was going on no matter what it took.

-xxxxx-

A chill ran up Naruto spine, his eyes wide in terror, and teeth clenched. He knew that it would happen eventually, however he was hoping that it wouldn't happen until after the Chunin Exams. Or never…never would have been so much better.

"Sasuke-kun, did you miss me?" Ino asked, hanging off of Sasuke's shoulder. Thanks to some advice from Naruto, Ino had altered her attire slightly. Like her outfits before, she had a midriff showing purple shirt and skirt, her hiate worn like a belt, bandages around her midriff and legs, and arm warmers. However, despite her lack of real obvious change, there were subtle things. Like how instead of white, the bandages and arm warmers were black. The arm warmers had a thick dark red leather straps hanging slightly off them from wrist to elbow. While they looked pointless, they actually had the purpose of holding hidden kunai or other weapons she wanted to sneak into them in them. If she ever was captured, and still had her arm warmers she would still have a weapon on hand. Plus, it did make them look even cooler.

How Ino had managed to sneak onto Sasuke's shoulder, Naruto didn't know. All he knew was that he had to move away from Ino now, and anywhere where she wouldn't be able to see him.

Thankfully, another team was headed their way, and were the human shields he currently needed. Sneaking away from Ino, he grinned widely at the approaching group. "Hey guys, what's up?"

He knew who the first guy was; his scruffy hair, little white dog, and red marks on his cheeks identified him as Inuzuka Kiba. Kiba grinned as Naruto approached. "Hey Naruto!" He looked past Naruto at Naruto's teammates, his feral grin widening as he saw Sasuke and the rest of the rookies behind him. "It looks like the gangs all here."

Naruto shrugged, keeping his eyes straight ahead. "Yeah, I guess we are."

He looked at Kiba's teammates, unable to recognize either of them. The girl on his team had a baggy jacket, and pupil less lavender eyes; he vaguely remembered her as Hyuuga Hinata. The other guy on his team had a high collared jacket, spiky brown hair, and dark sunglasses that didn't allow anyone to see his eyes; Naruto didn't remember who he was, having never interaction with him. Naruto didn't particularly care seeing as he and his team would be helping keep him away from Ino.

"Yeah, we are." Naruto muttered, looking between the three. "So…what's new?"

Kiba grinned, "We've been learning all sorts of cool stuff since we became a team. Plus, our teamwork has gotten so that we're totally awesome we could take on anyone!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow , wondering just how much stronger they'd become. Kiba had been pretty boastful in the Academy, though he'd been pretty good at holding up to his word all things considered. Which meant that if he'd gotten better, that might actually be saying something.

"Hey Naruto, come over here!"

Naruto went ramrod straight at the voice, paling slightly. Slowly, he turned around. Sure enough, Ino was staring at him with a coy smile. Naruto shuddered as she motioned for him to come over. Ignoring her would be a very bad idea, though he wasn't exactly known for having bright ideas in social situations. Turning back to the other team, he tried to get back into conversation with them.

Unfortunately, Sakura noticed. "Naruto, come over here." She said in a sickeningly sweet tone.

Naruto paused, shaking his head 'no'. Sakura's eyebrow twitched dangerously, promising pain if he didn't do as she said. Naruto shook his head again. With a stomp of her foot, she began to march over.

Right before she got to him, there was an explosive blast of smoke in the front of the room. "Sit down and shut up you maggots!"

There were a few startled shouts as all eyes were directed to the front of the room. Any and all talking in the room ended as the bandana and trench coat wearing jonin entered the room, a small entourage of chunin following after him. He had a dangerous aura around him that put all the chunin hopefuls on edge, no matter what village they were from. His sharp gaze pierced them all as it sweep over the room.

"Thank you for waiting. I am Morino Ibiki, the examiner for the Chunin Exam's first test." Seeing the frightened look of the genin, he chuckled. "I'm going to lay down some rules that you all will follow. There will be no fighting without the permission of the examiner. Even if permission is given, killing your opponent will not be tolerated. If any of you fail to follow these rules, you will fail instantly. Do I make myself clear?" He asked, his eyes shadowed by his bandana. Seeing no one objecting to his rules, he continued. "We will now start the first test in the Chunin Exams. Instead of your current seating, you will pick a tab and sit in the seat assigned to you. We will then hand out the exams."

There was a pause that could almost be heard throughout the room as they processed what he'd said. Naruto voiced a great deal of the confusion as his mind caught on. "What? A paper test?"

-xxxxx-

Iruka groaned as he walked into the classroom. While most chunin were helping with the Chunin Exams, he was still working in the Academy papers. "Yeah, enjoy some down time during the weekend. I've never had a day off since I started teaching."

With another sigh, he went back to his papers, chuckling under his breath as he remembered the first test of the Chunin Exam. While it was definitely different in their own ways, he still found that Konoha had the monopoly for the most humorous 'intelligence gathering' test. After all, no one really enjoyed paper tests. Once they'd gotten out into the field, they wanted more action, fighting, and overly dramatic jutsu. A paper test usually appeared degrading at first glance.

"Well, Sakura might be an exception to that." He muttered, remembering how the young girl had constantly had her nose in one book or another, memorizing information and learning to speak in the same incomprehensible gibberish most books consisted of. Point was, she was smart, and the test might actually be considerably more easy for her than for his other students.

With a small sigh, he picked up another paper. Smiling as he read the name, Sarutobi Konohamaru, he gave it a quick once over. He resisted the need to palm his face as he read over some of the ridiculous answers to the questions.

"'What do you do if one of your teammates is captured?'" He read, before turning his attention to his answer. "'Promise your friends that you'll bring them back and then beat the bad guys up.' If only life were that simple."

He rubbed the bruise on his forehead, once again reminded of his confrontation with Naruto. It was true; he'd had to play the bad guy, and truth be told, Naruto had done exactly what Konohamaru had put on his paper. It wasn't the right answer, but it obviously held true for certain situations. He marked him half points, and moved onto the next question.

By the third question, Iruka had to push the paper away from himself and take a breath to keep from going out and throttling Naruto. Every single answer that Konohamaru had put down for the other day's test had something to do with their encounter. He'd have figured that Naruto had more tact than to fill their heads with useless information that could get them killed if they weren't careful. This was why Naruto wouldn't make chunin.

"Yo."

Yelping and falling out of his chair, Iruka groaned as he recognized who had just spoken. 'And this is why I'm not a jonin. Freaking sneaky jonin always getting the drop on me.'

"What do you want Kakashi?" He asked with a hint of venom. He'd bowed out in the Academy because it wouldn't have been very professional. Here, in his home, he didn't feel quite the same way.

"Mah, that's no need to bite my head off." Kakashi said, obviously taunting the fallen man. 'That was totally worth it!'

Iruka picked himself up, turning away from Kakashi. "I understand that Naruto and his team have entered the Chunin Exam's of their own free will, so if you're here to reprimand me further there's no need."

Kakashi shook his head, reaching behind himself. "No need. I was just making a delivery."

Iruka heard something being placed on his desk and tensed up slightly. Turning back to Kakashi, and his desk, he froze at what had been placed there. For there, sitting in all its fake glory, was his Ame shinobi hat.

"Naruto gave it to me." Kakashi explained, taking a step back from the hat. "He'd yelled something about him not being able to track down some Ame shinobi who tried to kidnap one of his friends. Then he'd stopped and remembered that I could track stuff, and he asked me to find the guy so he could beat him up." He eye smiled at the shocked Iruka. "I told him I'd do it for him."

Iruka tensed, waiting for the onslaught that was bound to come. When Kakashi didn't just start beating on him, he bit his lip. "So, you're here to finish what Naruto started?"

'Should I tease him some more?' Kakashi thought, mentally shrugging. Iruka had obviously had enough of his games. "No, you're not the guy I'm looking for. You're a fellow Konoha shinobi, not an Ame shinobi."

Iruka let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Looking back to the hat, he thought over what had just happened. Naruto, the fool of his class and Hokage dreamer, had admitted that he wasn't all powerful. He had bowed to someone superior, and asked him to help him where he was not as capable.

Maybe there was some hope for Naruto being a chunin yet.

-xxxxx-

Naruto was having a small major panic attack. The problem? He actually knew more than half of the information on the Academy exams, but didn't bother filling any of it out as it really didn't seem to have any importance to him in the future. Now though, with the uber difficult test in front of him, he silently wondered if filling out the other stuff on the test really would have made any difference at all.

He looked over the test again, not able to understand the questions at all. It didn't help that when he became too frustrated with one question, he'd jump to the next only to find it harder than the first. The worst part was when he went back to the first question, only to find that it seemed to be an even more confusing jumble of nonsense.

Next to him, Hinata was covertly looking over the shoulder of another genin hopeful who was answering his test. Thanks to the Byakugan, which allowed her to see all around as well as through objects, she had no difficulty seeing his test from where she was seated.

It also gave her a chance to see Naruto's test without having to turn her head. Feeling his desperation, she calmly turned off her Byakugan. Turning slightly towards Naruto, she whispered –not much of a change for her all things considering- to him. "Naruto-kun, you can look off of my test if you want."

Naruto blinked, unsure if he'd heard Hinata right. 'She'd risk getting into trouble…so that I could look off her test? Sweet! Answers here I come! But wait…what if they're watching me.' Covertly, he looked around the room. Several chunin proctors had their eyes on him, or on the people around him. If he were to just copy her answers, because he sucked at cheating like that, he would get caught and they'd probably both get in trouble for it.

Swallowing his desire to just take her up on her offer, he gave her the biggest smile he could. "Don't worry, I'll be fine."

Hinata couldn't help but wonder if that were really true, but felt that if Naruto knew what he was doing, she would believe in him. Nodding, she turned her attention back to her now overturned test paper.

Behind them, Ino muttered a string of curses. 'Of course Naruto wouldn't take answers from Hinata, he's too nice! Gah, if he fails and makes Sasuke-kun fail, it'll look bad for me. I mean, he let me hang off his shoulder and seemed really interested in our conversation. Naruto is the key to getting Sasuke's attention!'

She tapped her chin with her pencil thoughtfully, going over what options she had of getting Naruto to pass his test. She already had her test answers, and had them memorized for future usage. There were mirrors on the ceiling that another team was already using that she could redirect in Naruto's direction. Maybe she could switch bodies with Shikamaru and…

'Dang, I'm slow today.' Ino mentally muttered as she formed the hand seal for her family's technique. The Shintenshin no Jutsu (Mind Body Switch Technique) was really useful, especially in this particular instance. While this was almost in a more 'battle distance' sort of range, Naruto wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, so she could take all the time she needed. Taking aim, she quickly shot herself into Naruto.

Naruto jerked upwards slightly, an uncharacteristic smirk crossing his face as he calmly began writing down the answers to the test. After all, Sakura had already given the answers to Ino. Why not help out Naruto too?

As Ino-Naruto got to the sixth answer, she felt an elbow to her side. With a scowl, she turned Naruto to face whoever had him her when she paused at the sight in front of her. Hinata was giving her the meanest glare she could. Considering she had her Byakugan activated again, it was actually far more intimidating than it would be normally.

"What are you doing Ino-san?" Hinata whispered, turning her eyes forward. She didn't want to get caught talking, but after seeing Ino shoot herself into Naruto, she was both curious and enraged by Ino's actions. After all, it made no sense for Ino to do something like that.

Ino pouted -which was pretty funny seeing Naruto do- as she responded. "Naruto's a halfwit who barely has the mental capabilities to get dressed in the morning. If he fails, he'll be taking Sasuke-kun down with him. I'm not going to just sit by and let him do that."

Hinata bit her lip, wondering if it would be okay just this once to act out and Jyuuken Ino to death. She'd have to do it to the real Ino though, seeing as she was currently occupying Naruto's body, which would mean she'd have to go to the back of the class. Which would make a big scene, and she really didn't want to be the center of attention. With a sigh of regret, she allowed Ino to continue taking Naruto's test for him.

Ino grinned as she wrote down the last answer to the test. She ignored putting the steps to get her answers, not wanting people to wonder how Naruto got so smart. They'd just figure that he was blatantly cheating off someone else, and just put the answer down because he was too lazy.

'Sounds like Shika.' She thought, smirking at the thought of her lazy friend. Quickly writing a quick note for Naruto on the back of his hand, she made to make the sign to release her jutsu when she thought of something.

She was in Naruto's head. A scary concept, to be sure. But also one of infinite possibilities. Instead of asking him directly, she could just go through his memories, watch what he'd watched, and come to her own conclusions without his droning on about one thing or another. The corners of Naruto's mouth twitched upwards slightly. 'Maybe I'm doing better than I thought.'

Relaxing, and falling in on herself, she pulled herself into Naruto's mindscape. Everyone had one; a 'place' they had created to store all of their memories, personal thoughts, etcetera. For a Yamanaka, enteringing their own was actually the first step in learning the Shintenshin no Jutsu, seeing as the user would have to intimately understand their conscious mind before they could just leave their bodies to their simpler subconscious.

Naruto's mindscape was rather surprising for her. She honestly hadn't drifted into anyone else's mindscape before though, since she tried to respect their privacy for the most part, so she had nothing but her own mindscape to compare it to. Her own mindscape was a garden, large enough to reflect her memories from the center of each flower. Certain memories were grouped together, with others pressed and framed for memories she wanted to continually remember. It was a very impressive trick that the Yamanaka did to improve their techniques; learning their techniques, 'pressing' them, and then going over them to better perform their techniques.

For Naruto, she'd imagined the Hokage Monument, or some other ramen based extravaganza. Instead, it was simple, and quite quaint. In fact, she was pretty sure she'd just been sitting in this exact room a moment before; albeit, there had been other people there.

"Wait a second…" Ino muttered. She looked around more carefully, noting the room she was in. Looking around a second time, she was now certain of it. This was one of the Academy's rooms. It was empty, but that might have just been because this was somewhere Naruto had made for 'future reference' that he hadn't set anything to. After a couple of seconds, she pushed herself up and walked out of the room.

Surprisingly, unlike the actual Academy, the halls were at least three times wider; similar to the Hokage's Tower. Shrugging, seeing as it wasn't something she was concerned about, she began looking for a 'Sasuke' room…or whatever Naruto had for Sasuke.

Glancing around the halls as she passed them, she noticed all sorts of weird rooms. There were rooms committed to specific memories, others for jutsu (or rather future jutsu seeing as he only had five useable jutsu), even a room with a giant bowl of ramen in it. Just as she felt she was going to have to give up, she saw it.

The dark hole in the floor.

She'd almost passed by it, it not really that overly shiny to see. However, it was just out of place enough to stand out when she looked over it. She grinned when she saw it, figuring it was his 'useless information dump'; an area where people put memories they didn't want to remember, but still did. Her own was a cyclone of leaves, each carrying their own memory with it.

"Jackpot." She said, marching towards it. Naruto had made this very difficult to find, his mind was a maze, and she was just past being patient about getting the information.

Just as she was about to leap down, a hand grabbed her shoulder. Startled by the contact, she jumped around, nearly falling back into the hole. As her eyes connected with her assailant, her heart just about jumped into her throat.

The person behind her was not Naruto. He had the build, the structure that was so familiarly Naruto, but his appearance was not. He was dressed in snow white clothes; a jumpsuit similar to the one the original Naruto wore though completely plain, white sandals, and white fingerless gloves. His hair hung limply, its red tone like a smoldering fire. His face had stress lines, like one who'd lived too long, seen too much, and just hadn't died yet. Heavy bags under his eyes were from an obvious lack of sleep were both troubling, and oddly accentuated his eyes.

And what eyes they were. There were entirety of the eye was black, save for a single dot of white that was obviously some sort of pupil. She stared into the soulless void, unable to break eye contact. She was lost in the emptiness, stripped bare of all thoughts as her mind focused only on his eyes. It seemed like an eternity for her before she realized that he was staring back.

"You're not allowed here." He said, his voice echoing throughout the hallway.

Ino shivered, not understanding what was happening. "I…I'm allowed here." She said, trying hopelessly to sound defiant. "Naruto promised –"

"No."

As this strange person shouted, Ino froze, feeling a sudden weight in her chest. Unable to breath, she collapsed on the floor, desperately scratching away for air while trying to move away from the 'person' in front of her. She didn't get far before she was picked back up, being forced to once again gaze into the void that was his eyes.

"Be gone mind walker. You have overstayed your welcome."

Not a second later, Ino's body jolted upright as her soul returned to it. She bit back a gasp, as she tried not to draw attention to herself. Covertly looking around, she realized that none of the chunin had noticed her sleeping, or had mentioned it to anyone. With a heavy sigh, she hugged herself as she tried not to shiver at the memory of whatever that had been in Naruto's mind.

A few rows ahead, Naruto blinked in confusion as he 'woke up'. Rubbing his eyes sleepily, he looked over at the clock. 'Oh crap! I dozed off and ran out of time. The tenth question is coming up, and I didn't write any- what the?'

Black ink on the back of his hand caught his attention, snapping him out of a near frenzy of panic. Looking closer at what was written, he bit back a curse. He turned over his test, looking over the answered test. Biting his cheek to keep from cursing, he sighed as he sunk into his chair.

You owe me big time.

Ino. That was the only thing he could think of. Ino had told him that she'd recently been taught and mastered one of her clans techniques that allowed her to make people do stuff without knowing they did it somehow. And she'd used it on him to give him the answers to put him in her debt. As if having to do whatever she said as long as it had to do with Sasuke wasn't enough.

"Okay." Ibiki said, cutting through the testing monotony. "We will now start the tenth question."

AN: FIRST TEST IS DONE!

I shuffled through that pretty quick, because there wasn't too much that needed to change. The Sasuke vs. Lee fight, Kabuto, and the Oto genin attack were taken from the story, with good purpose! The Lee one should be more obvious as to why they didn't fight, but the other two will be explained later. Kabuto will be explained soon, and the Oto genin I will explain when they're headed off to attack Sasuke. That'll be fun. *evil cackle*

How many people have thought of that as a way to pass the exam? Seriously, Ino using the Shintenshin to take over Naruto and take the test for him to ensure Sasuke's team passes? Has anyone else done that? I don't think so.

It also was a great set up for the mindscape scene. I liked the guy I showed you, even thought you won't see him for a while. Seems all my OC's are just taking a back seat for now…maybe I should introduce him soon. That'll be so much fun to write. *more evil cackling*

Quick FYI, nothing is going to change from 'The Tenth Question', to the 'Forest of Death'. Team 7 will start in the Forest of Death, and will move on from there. I'm not going to rewrite what you already have read just to get more words to put into a chapter. That's unfair to you guys, and the plot.

Okay then. Next time on Word of Honor; Seal Markings. What Kabuto's team is doing, Naruto makes another promise, and Orochimaru faces off against our favorite team of genin, creating a bigger problem than he knows.