Daichi woke on the couch in the living room of Naruto's house. The Iwa genin rubbed his neck to work out the kinks in it. Had they been staying at the Namikaze compound, he could have had his own room to stay in. Unfortunately for Daichi, Team Marufugi was staying with Naruto in the house he had inherited from Kasumi. It was a very nice house, Daichi would give it that. However, it only had four bedrooms and he was left with options of either bunking with Fubuki or the couch. Neither option appealed to Daichi, but at least the couch was quiet and didn't unleash a gas attack after eating Fire Country cuisine.

The brains of Team Marufugi strolled over to the kitchen and grabbed a hot cup of tea. Daichi quickly drank his cup and smiled. Say what you will about these forest dwellers, but they sure knew how to make a tea that will wake you up in the morning. Now waking up, Daichi noticed that his host was working in the kitchen with a half dozen clones.

Naruto smiled at his guest and called out, "Breakfast should be ready in a few minutes. You can use the hall bathroom to freshen up. Fabuki's already been in and Ryo stated that he was going to sleep in a bit."

Daichi nodded his head and replied, "Okay. Uh, what about Asuka? I've been on missions with her before and I know that she can take forever to get ready." There was only one fault that all kunoichis, even the good ones, had as far as Daichi was concerned and that was that they in the end were girls. Not that there was anything particularly wrong with girls, but they took forever to get ready. At least with Asuka Team Marufugi didn't have to wait even longer for her to do her makeup like teams with fangirls did.

The Iwa genin's musings were interrupted when Naruto yelled out to one of his clones. "Hey baka, don't go so skimpy on the hot sauce. Fabuki likes spicy foods so make sure that his is extra hot!"

Naruto's clone quickly shot back, "No backseat cooking dumbass! Besides, what kind of moron calls himself an idiot?"

"Look in the mirror," Naruto muttered to himself before returning his attention to Daichi. "Sorry about that, Kage Bunshins tend to get a little reckless and careless when I set them to domestic tasks."

As one, the shadow clones shot back, "No we don't! You just hate doing chores!"

A sweat drop formed on the back of Daichi's head as he watched Naruto argue with his kage bunshins. There was nothing more pitiful than watching a person lose an argument with himself. That Naruto was having an argument was with half a dozen copies of himself only made the situation all the more embarrassing. Daichi was so engrossed in the floorshow that he missed his chance to take a shower and was brought out of his surprise by his teammates coming down for breakfast.

Breakfast was an enjoyable meal for the five people. Naruto's clones had prepared something relatively light, but still very energy packed and delicious. It was the type of meal that all ninjas were used to having before going on duty. The five ninjas were sitting at the breakfast table with Naruto at the head, Asuka to his right, Ryo to his left, Fabuki next to Asuka, and Daichi next to Ryo.

Fabuki spoke up towards the end of breakfast. "So Naruto, I know we discussed a couple of strategies with your team yesterday. Is there any particular plan that you like the best?"

Naruto closed his eyes and sighed. He then opened them and glanced to Asuka. "Personally I don't like this plan, but I must admit that 'Trouble in Paradise' is our best option. It will allow us to hide our cooperation better than any other plan until it is too late for our opponents."

The eldest Tenjounin sibling nodded his head with a serious look on his face. Fabuki's usual joker persona had frozen to allow the team leader that he was to emerge into plain view. "Alright, let's go over everyone's part just to make sure we all remember how we're supposed to act. Naruto, as far as everyone in the exam is concerned you've recently found out about the betrothal and you're annoyed because you had to your eye on a girl from Konoha for some time. The only reason no one knows who this girl is because you wanted to prove that you were more than just your father's son before asking her out. Your teammate Shino doesn't need to act outside of his usual self. However, Ino is to play the part of the jealous stalker who was trying to worm her way into your heart. She'll need to act extremely hostile to Asuka; not cold shoulder hostile, but itching for a catfight hostile. Make sure that your teammates know their roles when they get to the Academy."

After Naruto nodded his head, Fabuki continued on stating what roles Team Marufugi needed to play. "Asuka is to assume an ice bitch persona. As far as her role is concerned, Naruto is nothing more than an annoyance that she'll half to put up with. My role is that of the honor obsessive big brother. I will be constantly harping on you two for needing to stay together and 'fulfill the duties of the treaty'. With my part, the fact that your parts hate their current situation is immaterial. Daichi, your role is to play the bitter comrade. While not in love with Asuka's character, your persona will be furious that the 'butcher's son' has carried off a scion of a noble Iwa clan as a war trophy. Does everyone understand their roles?"

Team Hiashi met up at their usual training ground and then headed towards the Academy. Along the way, Naruto briefed his teammates on their roles in 'Trouble in Paradise'. Naruto paused when the trio got to the Academy and he muttered to himself, "Okay. Let's get this show on the road."

Hiashi's students calmly made their way to the third floor ignoring the faint genjutsu on the entrance to the second floor. Whoever got caught by that lame genjutsu should be sent back to the Academy to learn how to be a ninja. It didn't even make you feel like you had gone up a second flight of stairs! The trio walked onto the third floor with Naruto a step ahead of his teammates. Ino was positioned to Naruto's right and Shino was walking by Naruto's left.

To the team's surprise, their sensei was standing in front of the exam room calmly waiting for them. Hiashi glanced at his students and nodded his head. "It's good that all three of you are here as otherwise none of you could proceed with the test. I expect each and every one of you to bring honor to Konoha and your clans today with your progress in these tests." With that said Hiashi let his team pass and left for the teachers' lounge that had been reserved for the Jonin teachers.

The trio entered the waiting room and quickly noticed that they were one of the early arrivals. They then watched as a new team would arrive every couple of minutes. Suddenly, a host of teams started pouring through the door muttering about a genjutsu. Ino looked at the arriving ninjas and shook her head. "I guess someone must have blabbed about the illusion cast on the second floor."

Both Shino and Naruto nodded their heads. Shino then stated, "It is likely that someone cancelled the illusion in order to showcase their abilities. Whoever did so is probably a green genin who is insecure about his or her abilities and was trying to enhance their self-image by making these ninjas look like fools. Such a ninja is most probably a minimal threat to us. Likewise, the ninjas in this current batch are likely to be less ready to become Chunin than we were anticipating for our competition."

As if to prove Shino's point, Team Hiashi heard Shikamaru grumbling. "Why do you always have to be so troublesome Sasuke? Things would have been so much simpiler for us if you hadn't made the announcement about the genjutsu. Now we have more competitors to deal with."

Kiba added his own two cents before Sasuke could respond. "Oh shut up you lazy bum. So the jerk got us more competitors to trounce, I don't see what your problem is with this situation."

Naruto quickly glanced at his teammates and whispered to them. "I think it would be a good idea for us to move to another location. We wouldn't want Kiba's mouth to bring undue attention on us now would we?"

Unfortunately for Team Hiashi, Kiba had already spotted them. The rambunctious Inuzuka quickly led his comrades over and called out, "Hey Naruto. How's it hanging man? Can you believe that we're in the Chunin Exams?"

Ino glanced at Naruto and motioned with her head towards Kiba. "You were friends with this fleabag back in the Academy?" She then turned to Sasuke and Shikamaru. "How do you put up with this smelly loudmouth? It must be terrible when you try to hide and have him giving away your location from a click away."

Suddenly a new voice cut into the conversation. "Shikamaru was talking to me the other day. He said that Kiba's been scheduled to have the problem fixed as soon as their sensei finds the time." The six rookies turned their heads to look at Choji who was being followed by his teammates Sakura and Hinata.

Kiba gave Choji a dark glare and muttered, "That was cold man."

The nine former classmates quickly started catching up with each other. While a few had hung out with each other, the nine hadn't been in one place together since their team assignments back in the academy. Naruto used the greetings to discreetly signal to Team Marufugi that it was time for the show to begin. He then began to glare at his fiancée's team and falling into part. Hinata noticed the unusual anger in her crush's face and meekly spoke up. "Um Naruto, is everything alright?"

Naruto glanced at Hinata and gave her a weak smile. "Things are tolerable. Lets leave it at that shall we?"

The Hyuga heiress didn't have time to respond because a new voice cut into the nine's conversations. "Would you rookies please settle down? You're drawing too much attention to yourselves. As a fellow Leaf Ninja, let me assure you that attention is never a good thing."

Everyone turned to look at the older Konoha ninja who had silver hair, round glasses, and was walking towards them. Sasuke gave the older ninja a distained look and said, "Just who are you to be telling us what to do?"

The older genin smiled and smoothly replied, "My name is Kabuto Yakushi and I have participated in these exams several times."

Shikamaru looked at Kabuto and asked, "Exactly how many times is several times?"

A slightly sheepish look came over Kabuto's face as he answered Shiamaru's question. "This is actually my seventh time in the exams. You see, these exams test both your own skill and the skill of your teammates as you work with them to pass all of the exams. I failed my first three times because I focused too much on my medical studies and thus couldn't meet all of the requirements of the exam. My failures the last three times were because one of my teammates wasn't ready for the exam. Alas, that happens when you get moved onto new teams because your colleagues are more gifted then you."

Naruto then decided to speak up. "So Kabuto, what do you think your chances of passing this year are?"

Kabuto smiled at Naruto and promptly replied to the friendly question, "Pretty good actually. Both of my teammates have the skills needed to pass and we work together very well. Baring rotten luck, we all should finally get those Chunin jackets. Besides," Kabuto paused for a second to pull out a pack of cards, "This time around I've got these. They're info cards that I've created from gathering as much data as I could on my competition. With these I'll know vital information on my opponents and be able to plan a strategy to defeat them."

The older genin smiled and then replied, "Tell you what. I'm in a good mood this time around so I'll let each of you pick one ninja here and I'll share what I've gathered on the person. Consider it a little extra leverage between comrades. After all, we wouldn't want these foreign ninjas to show us up in our own village now would we?"

Hinata quickly spoke up, "Would you mind telling us what your card says on Naruto?" The Hyuga heiress quickly noticed that several of her former classmates were throwing her some odd looks. She then quickly and politely defended her actions. "I wanted to see how well Yakushi's information was."

Kabuto shrugged his shoulders and quickly replied, "That's perfectly understandable ma'am. Now, where did I? Ah, here's Naruto's card. Let's take a look shall we:

Name: Naruto Namikaze

Age: 14

Parents: Minato Namikaze (Yondaime Hokage, deceased) and Kushina Namikaze (formerly of Uzu, deceased)

Allegiance: Konoha

Teammates: Shino Aburame and Ino Yamanaka with Hiashi Hyuga

Mission History: 2 C rank missions and 20 D rank missions

Abilities: competent in all ninja skills with a specialty for bojutsu, ninjutsu, and fuuinjutsu.

Note: betrothed to Asuka Tenjounin of Iwa since birth."

Teams Inoichi and Itachi let out a shocked cry of surprise when they heard the note on Kabuto's info card. Kiba started scratching his head and then blurted out, "Okay Kabuto's info cards suck. I mean come on! There is no chance at all that Naruto really is engaged."

Fall into character, Naruto sent Kiba and Kabuto a dangerous glare. "Thank you two so much for reminding me. I was trying to forget about that little arrangement during the exam."

Sakura blinked her eyes and then asked, "So what Kabuto told us was true? How did that happen? I mean, how could you have been engaged since birth when your parents died when you were born?"

Naruto sighed and then answered his comrade. "It was part of the treaty to end the last war. Because of some backroom dealing, I've ended up with her," at this Naruto pointed to where Asuka was standing, "as my future wife. If my father was still alive I'd beat him black and blue for doing this to me." Everyone turned to look at Asuka and her comrades.

Kiba gave Asuka a quick glance over and then let out a wolf whistle. "Damn Naruto, you are one lucky sonofabitch. I wish that my old man had arranged for me to get such a hottie before he kicked the bucket."

The girls in the group didn't get the chance to pulverize Kiba for his crass behavior as Asuka moved forward with her part of the drama. She calmly walked over to the ten Konoha genin and discreetly cast a minor genjutsu to enhance her 'icy' persona. Asuka gave the Inuzuka a distained look and then turned her attention to Naruto. "Must you associate yourself with such insignificant insects? Even a rodent like yourself can do better then these vermin."

Naruto equaled his betrothed acting skills as she shot back, "Don't refer to my friends as vermin! Besides, why the hell does it matter who I hang out with?"

Asuka fortified herself for the next round of barbs she needed to unleash for the play. She scoffed at Naruto's reply and shrugged her shoulders. "It matters because my uncle was a fool to think that you had something that was worth being tied to my illustrious clan. The shame of having to be associated with you is barely bearable, but associating with trash like this would make this situation intolerable. If you really must continue to associate with these weaklings; then do me a favor and get yourself killed in this exam so that I will no longer have to put up with this inconvenience."

Fabuki's character then step foot on the stage by placing a hand firmly on Asuka's shoulder. In a firm voice he commanded, "That is enough sister! You are never to speak that way about your betroth again. Our uncle made this arraignment on behalf of our clan and you will honor it. The reputation of our clan demands no less than that." With that, the Tenjounin siblings returned to stand by Daichi feeling that they had accomplished the goal of 'Trouble in Paradise'.

Kiba gave Naruto a mournful look and shook his head. "Naruto, I take back everything I just said. What the hell did you do in your past life to merit being shackled to such a bitch?" The young Namikaze wasn't able to answer the Inuzuka because a chunin came into the room and announced that the exams were about to begin.

Ibiki Morino had to fight the urge to shake his head in frustration and annoyance. Could these chunin wannabes possibly be any more obvious in their cheating? For example, did that girl on Guy's team really think that they hadn't noticed her putting the mirror up on the roof? Another prime example of these genins lack of stealth was the Hyugas. Did those two really think that no one had noticed that they had activated their Kekkei Genkai? Guy's pupil was on her last chance and the Hyugas had lost three of their five opportunities to gather information.

Personally Ibiki wanted to fail the entire lot for being caught once. After all, if you're caught on an actual mission then you and your team are dead. However, the Chunin Exam Board had ruled that the information gathering test would be passable if the ninja in question displayed 'acceptable levels of competency'. Their definition of competency was showing abilities that could be successfully used in the field with minimal amount of detection by an unaware enemy. The fact that most of said abilities were entirely inappropriate for this kind of information gathering was ignored by the Board. Thus, Ibiki and his fellow examiners had to turn a blind eye towards most ninja actions. They could only boot someone out if they messed up or were simply too sloppy.

Konoha's top interrogator knew how everyone in the exam was gathering their information except for six people. Team Marufugi hadn't attempted to use any of Iwa's normal information gathering methods. Ibiki knew that because they didn't have anything on their papers. The other three people he was puzzled about were on Team Hiashi. No bugs were flying around to single that the Aburame was gathering info and the Yamanaka was positioned in the front row unable to use her clan jutsus.

What was going through the minds of those six? For a moment, Ibiki considered the possibility that they had figured out the hidden loophole in the rules and were just going to pass on raw courage. However, that was a remote possibility as such a move would require them to know about the final part of the test.

Why was he worried about what the brats were doing in the first place? After all, it was no skin off his nose if they passed or not. Ibiki felt a headache building as he continued to think of the situation with the six. He could feel in his gut that something was off about the two teams. Why was it that the two teams had a rather heated confrontation in the lobby and now they were acting so much alike? Was it merely coincidence? Ibiki held off a scoff. If it was coincidence then he was the Shodai of the Village Hidden in Absurdity.

Suddenly a glint of light caught Ibiki's eyes and directed their attention to Daichi's left arm. The Iwa ninja had the arm lazily hanging by his side with two small wires coming out of his sleeve. Ibiki quickly traced the paths of the two wires now that he knew that they existed. One wire went to Daichi's right where it stopped at Ino's feet and then went strait back towards Fubuki. The other wire headed behind Daichi to Naruto and then went to the Namikaze's right to link up with Fubuki. The two wires then headed to Fubuki's right where they came to Shino. From Shino, the wires went down the row to Asuka. Small pulses of chakra were constantly traveling through the wire.

'Why, those clever little bastards' Ibiki stated to himself in his head. The six were using the wire messaging technique! It was a technique that allowed forces to communicate through chakra pulses sent through a wire. Most ninjas didn't use the jutsu because it required fine chakra control, was tricky to set the wire up, the wire could be cut at any point, and anyone who touched the wire could listen in on the conversation.

Ibiki didn't take any points off of the six even though he had caught them obviously coordinating a plan to get information by some as yet unrevealed method. It was clear to him now that the six had been staging the earlier confrontation in order to throw off anyone's suspicion of them working together. The fact that they had somehow passed the wire around, probably with a variation of the Kugutsu Jutsu, without anyone noticing showed a greater deal of skill than the average chunin. Hell, the only reason that they had been discovered was the fact that he was a paranoid bastard who knew that they had to be cheating somehow.

The interrogator turn exam giver didn't have to wait long to find out what the six were planning. A series of smoke bombs suddenly went off covering the entire classroom in smoke. Screams of surprise and indignation filled the rooms as the genins and chunins tried to react to this unexpected attack. Ibiki crouched down behind his desk and carefully scanned the classroom. The thick smoke made it hard to see, but he could make out the forms of people standing next to the desks of the wannabes.

It quickly became obvious to Ibiki that the figures were clones of some type since they all looked like him. His lookalikes were all busy trying to steal everyone's tests and the students were busy trying to protect their papers. A few of the chunin observers were about to intercept the clones, but Ibiki signaled them to move back. This was an unexpected situation and he wanted to see how the genin would react. Most of the examinees were able to protect their papers while a couple had their papers stolen.

Eventually, all of the clones were destroyed and Ibiki decided it was time to bring back the fear of the kami into these brats. "If I EVER find who pulled this catastrophe I'll use them as the new T&I practice dummy!" To emphasis this, Ibiki pored all of his killing intent into his sentence causing several genin to wet themselves in fear. He then glanced at the chunin examiners and called out, "Everyone who lost their papers or couldn't hold their bladders is removed from the exam. We don't need ninjas who cannot protect vital documents or remember when to go to the bathroom."

Ibiki used the removal of the incompetent as a chance to glance at Teams Hiashi and Marufugi. Each of the six ninjas had a complete test with their names on it lying on their desks. Ibiki couldn't help himself and he cracked a small grin as he looked at the six. They had used the commotion of the smoke bombs and clone attack to swap their tests for ones that had the complete answers. What a brilliantly coordinated effort at information gathering! The best part of it was that had pulled off the illusion that their attempt to collect the papers had failed when the clones were destroyed and no one could prove that they did anything.

Team Hiashi walked a few feet away from the entrance to Training ground 44 and looked around. After checking to make sure that the coast was clear Naruto spoke up. "Alright, let's go get our partners." Naruto then pulled out a scroll from his pocket and unrolled it on the ground. His teammates didn't look at the seals written on the inside of the scroll because they knew it was way over their heads. The young Namikaze placed his hand on a hand outline on the scroll and called out, "Ally Summoning Technique: Activate."

Three columns of smoke popped out of the scroll and then Team Marufugi appeared standing on the scroll. Fubuki scratched the back of his neck and then muttered, "Man that was weird. I vote that the next time we have to work together that you're the ones summoned."

Naruto just shook his head. "Technically, I didn't summon you three. The seal array on the scroll summoned the tags that I gave you before we left my house. You three simply piggybacked with the tags as they were summoned. But enough of basic Fuuninjutsu principals, we've got five days to get two more scrolls and make it two the tower at the center of the training ground."

Daichi, who was holding his team's scroll, glanced about at Team Hiashi. He then stated as he stepped off the summoning scroll, "We've got Heaven."

Ino nodded her head and replied, "Same here. It looks like we'll need two Earth scrolls."

Asuka was the last member of her team to step off the scroll and allow Naruto to roll it back up. She then glanced at Shino and stated, "Am I correct in assuming that you'll be directing us to our first enemy team?"

Shino nodded his head. "I was able to plant a kikai on all the other teams while Ms. Mitarashi was explaining this test. The nearest target is approximately 100 meters to our right."

Naruto merely grinned and spoke up. "Well, what are we waiting for? We outnumber them 2 to 1 and we know where they are. All we have to do is ambush them and move on to the next opponent before we head to the tower."

The six ninjas quickly followed Shino until they ran into a team from Taki. Both teams were currently hiding in the tree branches silently watching the Taki ninjas bumble about through the forest. A strong but thin wire connected all six so that they could use the wire messaging technique.

Naruto sent out, "Okay here's our target. What's our plan of attack and it better not be a frontal assault. We need to save our strength in case our next enemy is better then these three."

Fubuki quickly responded, "That's obvious bro to be. Of course, I doubt that any team could possibly be worse than these three in the field."

Asuka entered the conversation. "I suggest that I put a genjutsu on them to think that they're under attack. That could direct them to a spot where we can then ambush them."

Daichi got on the line. "I'll take care of the ambush part. Close quarters is my specialty after all."

Naruto nodded his head as he 'listened' to the conversation. "Good, that's a very good plan. However, I suggest that we modify it slightly with Ino in a sniper position to take out anyone that Daichi can't easily get to. What poisons to you have on hand Ino?"

"I've got paralysis poisons and some neurotoxins Naruto. Which do you think I should use?"

The young Namikaze closed his eyes and thought for a second. He then sighed and gave his answer. "Better make it the neurotoxin Ino. We can't use short paralysis or they might attack us and longer paralysis poisons would leave them defenseless to the predators roaming this forest. A quick and painless death is the most merciful option we've under these circumstances."

With the plan decided on, the six quickly went to work. Daichi quickly moved to hide in a bush near the Taki ninjas. Ino took to a tree branch several meters in front of Daichi and coated her senbon needles in the fastest acting poison in her kit. Asuka maneuvered herself into a position to better cast the genjutsu. Finally, the three remaining shinobi took supporting positions in the tree canopy so that they could jump in if things went sour.

Asuka quickly cast her genjustu and everyone watched as the Taki ninjas reacted to an unseen assault. The Tenjounin heiress quickly corralled her enemies and directed towards the bush Daichi was hiding in. Daichi waited until his enemies were close enough and then he struck. His hands shot out to the bush towards the two closet ninjas slamming into their backs. This activated the two hidden blades on his wrists quickly came out of concealment and embedded themselves into his opponents. Both blades cut strait through the ninjas spines and pierced their hearts killing both in an instant. The Taki ninja farthest from Daichi spotted the attack and tried to run away. Unfortunately for him, Ino quickly threw a senbon that pierced his jugular vein allowing the neurotoxin to enter his system.

Naruto, Shino, and Fubuki quickly dropped out of the canopy and approached the deceased ninjas. They then quickly rummaged through the bodies until Shino found the scroll that they were carrying. He gave it a quick glance and simply stated, "It's an Earth scroll."

Naruto nodded his head and pulled out a blank scroll. He then opened it and rapidly started inscribing it with seals. "Okay Shino, just give me a moment and then we can move on to our next target." Naruto then set the scroll down and placed the Taki ninja's bodies on it before calling out, "Seal!" There were several puffs of smoke as the three bodies were sealed into the scroll.

Asuka gave her bethrothed a questioning glance and then asked, "Uh Naruto? Why did you seal those bodies in that scroll?"

Naruto simply shrugged his shoulders and replied, "So that they could be returned to their families after the exams are over. I figure that it will be hard enough on their families to have the three die in these exams. There's no need to make it any harder by leaving their bodies for the predators when it's no trouble to bring them along like this."

A faint blush appeared on Asuka's face as the six headed out. It was touching that even in an exam like this Naruto was concerned for his enemies. Most ninjas, herself included, wouldn't have bothered themselves with what could happen to an enemy team or what their families would feel.

New Jutsus: Puppetry technique