Hey. Here's chapter 7, sorry I couldn't finish it before Christmas.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.


"Man, that mission was boooring!" Naruto complained loudly as he walked down the streets of Konoha, turning and looking over his shoulder at his teammates who were walking behind him. Sakura to the right wearing a sleeveless version of her usual clothing, Sasuke with his hands casually in his pockets to the left and Kakashi was trailing behind, reading his precious Icha-Icha as usual. "I mean seriously, nothing happened. We just stood around the whole time."

"We know, we were there." Sasuke responded dryly, though inwardly he agreed with his teammate. He was hoping for an opportunity to test himself, but none had arisen since Jiraiya's test a few weeks ago.

Sakura shook her head at the blond. "You shouldn't complain because we had an easy mission, or are you hoping for a repeat of what happened in Wave?"

Naruto placed his hands behind his head. "No nothing as extreme as that, I just wish something exciting would happen, you know? Even something as ordinary as attacking a bandit camp."

"Don't worry. The exams are right around the corner. I can guarantee you'll see plenty of excitement soon enough." Kakashi said to the blond before looking over all his students. Almost as if on cue, he heard the call of a bird. Tilting his head upward, he saw said hawk flying high over the village. He stared for a few moments before turning back to his team. "Well, I need to go submit the report for this mission. You guys don't need to come along since it was so uneventful. See ya." With that, he vanished in a burst of speed.

Naruto broke out in his trademark grin as he looked to his fellow genin. "Great! Then how about the three of us go and celebrate another job well done?"

Sasuke scoffed and turned away. "Not interested." He said as he began to walk home.

"Come on, Sasuke." Sakura stepped forward. She may not fawn over him anymore, but she still wished to be with him. Besides, she wanted to let him know that they were there for him. After all, that was what a team and friends were for, right? "Would it really be so bad to get a bite to eat with us?"

"…" Sasuke closed his eyes and seemed to consider it for a moment before turning and resuming his path to his clan's compound. "I have better things to do."

Sakura watched the retreating figure of the object of her affections before sighing. She'd hoped that after learning how beneficial teamwork could be, he'd be more willing to let them in. Naruto watched her for a moment before stepping forward and placing a hand on her shoulder, getting her attention. "Don't worry; I'm sure he'll lighten up someday."

"Yeah." Sakura replied, brightening up. "So, where do you plan to go? Ichiraku's?"

Naruto shrugged. "Nah, I know most other people wouldn't want to go there all the time. How about…" he began he heard something behind him. He turned to see a square rock with eye holes approaching him from behind, coming to a stop the moment he turned. The young Uzumaki sweat dropped. There were only three individuals who would attempt to sneak up on him with such an obvious disguise. "I can see right through that disguise, plain as day. Come out of there you three, I know it's you."

With that, the poorly disguised box was lifted up to reveal Konohamaru and his friends, Moegi and Udon. The grandson of the Hokage crossed his arms and looked up at the Rinnegan bearer. "Just as expected from the man I chose as my rival."

"Hey guys." Naruto greeted before his expression became slightly curious when he noticed what they were all wearing. "What's with the goggles?"

Konohamau reached for them with a wide grin. "We're copying off of you, boss!"

Moegi took a step forward. "Are you free right now? You promised to teach us something cool today."

The blond slapped his forehead. "Oh right, I completely forgot!" he then turned to his pink haired teammate. "Sorry, Sakura! I kind of promised them. Rain check?"

Sakura gaped at the Rinnegan bearer. "You're going to teach someone? You?"

Naruto shrugged at her shocked expression, not seeing what the big deal was. "Yeah. What about it?"

Sakura stared at Naruto, almost paling at the thought of him trying to teach someone before reminding herself he wasn't the same idiot he was two months ago. He may act the same most of the time, but he was definitely smarter, took things more seriously, and actually thought things through now. "This I gotta see."

Konohamaru, who watched the two in silence along with his friends, stepped forward and tugged on the blond's shirt. "Hey, Naruto?" He said, getting his attention. "Who's she? Is she your…?" He asked, bringing up his hand and extending his pinky to indicate she was his girlfriend.

Naruto smiled at that, if one looked closely, held a hint of sadness as he wished she was. "No. Guys, let me introduce you to my friend and teammate, Sakura Haruno." He gestured towards his teammate, who snapped out of her stupor and waved at the children.

"Ah, I didn't think so. You could do a lot better than her, boss; I mean, look how wide her forehead is!" Konohamaru replied.

Sakura's head jerked downward, her hair shadowing her eyes as Naruto's expression became one of shock as he was aware this was the biggest trigger for his pink haired teammate's temper. However, another thought was going through his mind at the moment. He was aware of how similar he was to the Third's grandson, who was quickly becoming like a younger brother to him. He knew that sometimes he couldn't help putting his foot in his mouth, but…

'I'm not that bad, am I?' Naruto asked himself. He quickly cast this thought aside as he noticed Sakura's rage was going to go off any moment.

Now the blond had two choices. He could protect the three academy students from his teammate's wrath, earning Sakura's ire, or he could stand aside and hope they got away. Though they might see it as a minor betrayal, it only took a moment for him to decide.

"Konohamaru…" he said before jerking his head in the pink haired kunoichi's direction, causing him and the other kids to notice the girl's simmering anger. Their eyes widened as they shivered in fear at the small amount of killing intent leaking from the girl. "You should start running… NOW!" If Naruto protected him from this, he wouldn't learn anything. Besides, the three academy students would get over it when he came through with his promise.

The Konohamaru corps immediately bolted, running as if their lives depended on it as Sakura took off in pursuit, her eyes crazed and her mouth twisted into a wicked smile.

Once alone, the blond sighed at what he'd just witnessed. Was he really going to stand by and do nothing, especially after having been on the receiving end of Sakura's fury so many times in the past himself? He briefly wondered if he should have told Sakura who Konohamaru was. While the brown haired boy didn't like using his grandfather's name, it might save him a beating here. Deciding he'd better rescue Konohamaru, he started off in their direction only to halt when he heard a yelp in the direction the four had run off in.


Meanwhile, in the mission room of the administration building where several chunin were lounging as they awaited their turn to claim a mission or payment for a completed mission, Kakashi was handing the mission account to Iruka.

"Thanks for the report." Iruka said to the silver haired man as he took the paper from him. The chunin skimmed over the report briefly before turning his gaze to the jonin before him. "So, how's Naruto? Is he getting along ok with his teammates?"

"Oh, he's doing quite well." Kakashi replied in his usual relaxed tone of voice. "His rivalry with Sasuke's the same as ever, but he and Sakura are on good terms these days."

Iruka smiled and chuckled slightly, remembering Naruto's one sided crush on the pink haired girl and how it drove her to no end of irritation. "Really? That's good to hear." He raised his hand to his face and scratched his cheek. "I've been so busy around here… I haven't seen him since he got back from the Land of Waves. I'm a little worried."

"There's nothing to worry about." The copy ninja replied. "Naruto's grown a great deal since the mission to Wave. He seems just the same as ever on the surface, but he's improved dramatically and has matured quite a bit. Someday soon, his skills may even surpass the person he respects most: you." He said with his eye smile. 'Actually, considering what I've seen of him lately, that day's not too far off…'

"Is that so?" Iruka asked with a grin, glad to hear his younger brother figure was doing so well. Maybe after his shift here was over he could check up on the blond rascal. If nothing else, spending time with the hyperactive child would cure him of the boredom he felt from sitting around here for several hours.


Sakura's eyes narrowed as she stared at the two figures before her, one of whom was holding Konohamaru by his collar, as she stood protectively in front of the other two academy student. Her quest to unleash her righteous fury upon the brown haired boy had come to an abrupt end when he ran into the foreign ninja who now held him in the air.

They both seemed to be a few years older than her and wore the forehead protector of Sunagakure. The first wore a black, baggy, full body suit with a red and yellow circle on the front with a black hood that covered his head completely, and had cat-like ears and his forehead protector stitched into it. He was also sporting purple face paint and had black eyes, and unidentifiable object wrapped in bandages tied to his back.

The other, a kunoichi, had green eyes and blonde hair tied into four ponytails and a rather generous figure. She wore a light purple garment that went down about half way down her thighs with a red sash across her waist that held a large iron fan to he back and fishnet worn over her shoulders and legs on her right calf and her left thigh. She wore a black forehead protector tied around her neck.

"That hurt, you little runt." The male ninja said to Konohamaru, his eyes squinted close in a way that was similar to the way Sakura was accustomed to seeing from Naruto.

The blonde kunoichi glared disapprovingly at her teammate. "Stop it, Kankuro. You're going to get us in trouble."

Sakura took a step forward. While she'd wanted to pound the young boy for that comment on her forehead, it wouldn't have been any worse than what she used to do to Naruto. This Suna ninja might seriously hurt him. "Listen, it was my fault he ran into you. I'm sorry. Now, why don't you just put him down?"

"Eh? Well, there's a slight problem with that." Kankuro responded with a slight grin as he raised his fist. "You see, I hate annoying runts like him. And seeing them act so disrespectfully… makes me want to kill them." Sakura's eyes widened before she fell into a fighting stance while the two other members of the Konohamaru corps cowered behind her, tears of fear trailing down from Moegi's eyes. "Oh, so you want to protect him, huh? Well sorry-" He said, his tone insincere. "-but I can't let him get away with disrespecting me like that."

The blonde turned her head away with a sigh. "Whatever. Do what you want, I'm not getting involved."

"Well then, I think I'll have a little fun before he shows up." Kankuro replied, turning his attention back to the boy in his hand and preparing to punch him. Sakura made a move to interrupt his attack, only to be stopped by a hand on her shoulder.

Kankuro threw a punch to the academy student in his hand, his smirk widening slightly as he struck true and his fist collided with the boy's cheek… only for his and the kunoichi's expressions to morph into one of shock when the boy burst into smoke at the moment of impact.

Kankuro stared at the palm of his now empty hand with wide eyes. "What the…?" He started.

"Hey, jackass!" A voice called out, drawing his and the kunoichi, his sister's, attention. They both turned their heads away from the fading cloud back to the group before them to see that there were two new additions. One was familiar, the boy that had been in Kankuro's hand, who was now looking slightly startled at what had occurred in the past few moments.

One moment, he had been helpless in the hand of the Sand ninja. The next thing he knew, he'd suddenly been transported to safety so fast that his vision had been reduced to a blur. The young boy had been replaced by a shadow clone at the last moment. Unfortunately, being unaccustomed to moving at such speeds, this left the boy extremely disorientated.

The other was unfamiliar to the Suna ninja and the one who had pulled Konohamaru out of the proverbial fire and held back Sakura, Naruto, who was now looking at Kankuro with a scowl. "Didn't anyone ever teach you not to pick on someone smaller than you?"

Sakura smiled, relieved to see the boy was safe and unharmed. "Naruto!" At the same time, Konohamaru had finally regained his bearings and said along with his classmates, "Boss!"

Kankuro's eyes narrowed at the blond in front of him. "Heh, that's funny coming from a midget like you. So, think you're hot stuff, huh?" He said, unwrapping the bandages that held his mummy like weapon to his back. "You know the one thing I can't stand more than annoying runts…" He slammed the object to the ground and rested his hand top of it. "…are show offs who don't know their place."

Naruto put his foot forward and raised his fist. "If you want a fight, bring it on! Just don't blame me when I shove that mummy up your ass!"

The fan wielding kunoichi was startled her brother was taking it this far. "Hey, wait a second! You're not planning on using Karasu here, are you?"

"This punk needs to be taught a lesson, Temari." Kankuro replied before suddenly, a rock collided with his wrist with enough force to tear the skin, causing him to recoil and pull his hand back, his mummy like weapon dropping to the ground, as a small amount of blood trickled out from the wound.

All turned eyes turned towards the source of the attack and saw Sasuke sitting their, casually tossing two more stones in his hand with his eyes closed. "You shouldn't start a fight you can't finish." He said to the suna nin before opening his eyes and turning his black orbs on the two foreign ninja. "You two… what are you doing in our village?"

"Sasuke." Sakura called out with a smile.

The blonde kunoichi blushed slightly. 'The local heartthrob, I take it?' She thought. 'Though the blond's pretty cute too…'

Naruto grinned briefly, having known his teammate was there. Zabuza had trained him in stealth and helped him hone his already impressive but untrained skills in that field, which also improved his ability to detect others.

Kankuro sneered. These two brats had been making light of him, and had to pay. "So another punk crawled out of the woodworks, huh? Come on, I'll take you both."

"Kankuro…" a calm voice, one the one the Suna nin had dreaded to hear echoed through the area and cut off their conversation. All eyes widened in shock as they were suddenly alerted to this new presence. The attention of all those present were drawn to the source of the voice, a branch opposite the one Sasuke sat on.

Standing upside down on the branch with his arms folded over his chest was a boy with short, spiky red hair and green, pupil-less eyes. He lacked eyebrows and had thick black rings around his eyes and the kanji for love written in red on his forehead above his left eyebrow. He wore a black full body suit with short sleeves, legs that stopped just below his knees and an open neck, along with a white sash that went over his right shoulder and the left side of his hip and a wide leather band opposite it, which held a large gourd to his back and had a black Suna forehead protector wrapped around it.

Looking down at his fellow sand shinobi, the newcomer spoke in the same calm manner, his tone unchanging. "Stop… you're an embarrassment to our village."

'What… when?' Sasuke thought, slightly startled before his eyes narrowed. 'He was there the whole time I didn't even notice…'

"Losing yourself over something as insignificant as this… how pathetic. Have you forgotten why we came here?" The newcomer said said, his tone and expression lacking any semblance of emotion.

"Bu- but they started it…" Kankuro tried to defend himself.

"Shut up… or I'll kill you." The red head interrupted, causing Kankuro to jump slightly and tremble, beads of sweat rolling down his face as the threat combined with the redhead's soulless gaze chilled him to the bone.

The black eyed suna ninja held up his hands in a placating gesture and gave the redhead a seemingly cheerful smile, his sister quickly adopting a similar posture. "Ok, I got it. I'm sorry, I was totally out of line."

"Me too. Really sorry." Temari added.

The red head turned, his inexpressive stare trailing over the leaf villagers. "I apologize for any trouble he caused." He said politely.

'So, he's the one in charge.' Sasuke thought as he examined the boy he was sure would be a future adversary. '… He has an evil look in his eyes, it's like they're teaming with murderous intent just below the surface.'

'This guy's dangerous… Even after training with Zabuza, I couldn't detect him. And what's with him? From that look in his eye…' Naruto thought, staring at the redhead with a serious expression as he remembered the arctic stare he'd given his teammate and the slight amount of suppressed killing intent which emanated from the boy. 'He wasn't just talking or making an empty threat, he'd really have gone through with killing his comrade!'

'This one managed to stop Kankuro with a pebble… and the blond got that kid out of his grasp with no trouble at all… they made it look easy. They're good…' The green eyed boy analyzed the two who had dealt with Kankuro so easily before he vanished in a swirl of sand, reappearing beside his teammates. "Let's go. We didn't come here to play games." He said before walking past his teammates, who followed after him.

"Wait!" Sakura said, taking a step forward, causing the Suna ninja to halt.

"What is it?" The redhead responded, not even looking over his shoulder.

Sakura scrutinized the foreign ninja. "You three… you're genin from Suna, here to take the Chunin Exams, right?"

"Hm. You've got that right. Now since you know why we're here, can we go?" The kunoichi replied in a slightly annoyed and patronizing tone.

The Sharingan user joined his teammates with a Body Flicker. "Before you go, what's your name?"

Temari brightened up considerably at that, pointing to herself with a wide smile. "You mean me?"

"No. You with the gourd." Sasuke replied, pointing past her at said ninja.

"Geez, real courteous of you there Sasuke." Naruto grumbled, but he was ignored by his teammate.

The redhead turned to face the leaf villagers, his expression and tone never changing. "My name is Gaara of the desert. I'm interested in you and the blond as well. What are your names?"

Sasuke smirked. "Sasuke Uchiha."

The Kyuubi Jinchuriki gave them a small smile as he said, "I'm Naruto Uzumaki. And this is our teammate, Sakura Haruno." He gestured to the pink haired girl, who nodded. He then turned to his fellow blond. "And how about you? I didn't catch your name"

"Oh, you're actually interested?" Temari asked, annoyed at being snubbed by Sasuke.

"Yeah, unlike my teammate, I have some manners." Naruto replied, not mentioning he'd been forced to learn said manners. That aside, he knew being ignored like that would piss him off.

The blonde kunoichi huffed before replying, "It's Temari."

Naruto put his finger to his chin and raised his head to the sky and said thoughtfully. "Now that I think about it, he usually acts this way to all the girls around him… kind of makes you wonder…" Temari snickered at the implication.

Sasuke rapidly turned his head to look at the blond, his expression one of pure shock as he sputtered briefly before he broke out in a scowl. "What exactly are you implying?" If he was suggesting what he thought he was, then the Uchiha heir was going to teach him a lesson in pain that would make everything Zabuza put him through seem tame by comparison!

"N-Naruto, don't say things like that!" Sakura scolded.

"Relax, I was just kidding." Naruto waved them both off with a slight grin before turning to the amused sand kunoichi. Seeing an opportunity to mess with the face paint wearing boy, the young Uzumaki gave a mischievous smirk before plastering a friendly smile on his face, his eyes curling into eye smiles similar to his sensei's beneath his sunglasses. "Before you go, how about I give you some friendly advice?" He said. "It'll make a bad impression of your village if you go around beating on kids who aren't even ninja yet…" When Kankuro scoffed and was about to retort, the Rinnegan bearer continued. "… especially when that kid happens to be the Hokage's grandson."

Kankuro's dismissal of the blond's words died in his throat as he and Temari were left visibly stunned by the revelation and the color drained from the boy's face. Unfortunately for Kankuro, his sister recovered first. Her mouth twisted into a snarl and with a growl, she raised her foot and slammed it down onto her brother's, causing him to cry out in pain before bending down to grasp his injured extremity as Naruto snickered and Konohamaru laughed outright. "You fool!" The kunoichi berated her sibling. "You almost caused an international incident! And over what!? Nothing!"

Kankuro looked up at his sister in mild panic, fearing her wrath and knowing he was probably going to get yelled at over this later. "H- How was I supposed to know!? And weren't you the one who just stood there and watched, Temari!? Don't try to pin this all on-!"

"Enough." Gaara intoned, his monotone voice causing both of his teammates, who happened to be his siblings, to freeze. "Shut up, both of you."

"Y- yes, Gaara." The both said meekly.

Gaara scoffed before taking a few steps away before leaping out of sight.

While Temari followed suit, Kankuro turned and glared daggers at the still snickering blond, gritting his teeth in anger at the boy who'd made a fool of him before following his after siblings.

Once they were gone, Naruto stopped suppressing his laughter. "Sorry about that, Konohamaru. I know you don't like using the old man's reputation but…"

"No problem!" The young Sarutobi said through peals of laughter. "That was great, serves him right!"

Sasuke, doing his best to put his Rinnegan using teammate's earlier insinuation out of his mind, continued to look in the direction the Suna ninja departed in with a smirk. 'Things just got interesting.'

Unnoticed by all of them, three other genin rested on a higher branch of the nearby tree. All three had forehead protectors marked with musical notes, identifying them as genin from Otogakure.

All three wore snake patterned pants and scarves. The kunoichi of the group had long black hair with a violet ribbon tied near the end that matched her eyes, and wore a pale green vest similar to a flak jacket. The first boy had spiky, dark hair and dark eyes and wore a beige shirt with two black stripes and three prints of the kanji for death down the front.

The leader of the three genin, sitting down in the center of the group, had bandages covering most of his face, leaving only his left eye uncovered and was wearing a large poncho with long sleeves, along with a straw raincoat and a porous metal gauntlet on his right arm.

"So, what do you think?" The spiky haired boy asked their leader.

"Just the usual weaklings, nothing to worry about, but we should keep an eye on the blond and black haired leaf ninja, as well as the sand rat with the gourd."


"Thank you all for coming here so quickly." The Third Hokage began, looking out on the crowd of shinobi gathered before him in the meeting hall consisting of the sensei of the various genin squads, the teachers from the academy and the proctors for the upcoming Chunin Exams, including Anko Mitarashi. At the head of the group were the three jonin who led the rookie squads. "I'm sure some of you are wondering why you've all been called here. It should already be obvious to some of you here."

"It's already been reported to the other nations. Some of them have already begun gathering in the village." said Genma, a special jonin with shoulder length brown hair, wearing his forehead protector like a bandana and held a senbon in his mouth.

"So, it's already that time again." Kakashi commented in a nonchalant tone.

"When is it?" Kurenai asked.

The aging shinobi took a puff from his pipe before his eyes, not the eyes of the grandfatherly side of himself he showed when off duty or around those close to him, but the firm gaze of the Hokage, returned to the group. "I'll formally announce it one week from now. On the first day of the seventh moon, the Chunin Examinations will begin."

He paused for a moment to let his words sink in. "Now, it is time to choose our candidates. To begin, will those in charge of the rookie genin step forward. Kakashi, Kurenai, and Asuma."

The three specified individuals walked towards their leader, whose black orbs focused on them. Kakashi stood to the right of the trio, Asuma the left, and Kurenai stood at the center.

"What do you say you? Are there any among your squads that that you would recommend for the exams despite their inexperience? As you know, any genin who has completed eight or more missions may is eligible for the exams with the nomination from their sensei. Of course, most genin require at least twice that many missions, but it is up to you to decide if they are ready."

Iruka watched the proceedings. 'There's no need to say all this. It's too soon for them.'

"So Kakashi, you begin." Hiruzen said to the copy ninja.

Kakashi, in a more serious manner than his usual indifference, responded, "The Kakashi-led Team 7: Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno… I hereby nominate them to take the Chunin Selection Exams."

That statement surprised many of the spectators, and none more so than Iruka. "What?" The Chunin whispered, unwilling to believe he'd just heard right.

Kurenai was next. "The Kurenai-led Team 8: Hinata Hyuuga, Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame. I hereby nominate them to take the Chunin Selection Exams."

Finally, it was Asuma's turn. "The Asuma-led Team 10: Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara and Choji Akamichi. I hereby nominate them to take the Chunin Selection Exams."

Once all three had given their recommendations, the assembled crowd broke out in loud mutterings about the turn of events. Not in five years had even a single rookie team been recommended to take the exams and it had been decades since all three rookie squads had been put forward.

"Now wait just a second!" Iruka stepped forward.

The Hokage's gaze shifted to the academy instructor. "What is it, Iruka?"

"Lord Hokage, please let me have a word! I may be speaking out of turn… but all nine of these genin were my students at the academy. Of course they're talented and have great promise, but it's too soon for them to take the exam." Iruka objected heatedly. "They need more experience. I can't understand their reasoning."

Kakashi turned to the scarred chunin, knowing what, or specifically who, he was really concerned about. "I became a chunin when I was six years younger than Naruto."

"Naruto is nothing like you!" Iruka shouted back. "Are you trying to destroy these kids!?"

Kakashi gave the instructor with his usual impassive stare and said, with his usual air of indifference, "Well, they're always complaining about not being challenged enough, maybe getting crushed in the exams would be good for them. A little pain might help them grow."

"Wha- what did you say!?"

"Well, joking aside…" The masked jonin continued. "I understand how you feel and how personal this is for you, but-"

"Kakashi, back off. You've said enough." Kurenai cut him off, seeing and understanding Iruka's aggravation.

"No, he needs to hear this." The copy ninja stated with a slightly harsher tone than usual. "He needs to understand that they're not his students anymore; they're my soldiers."

Iruka growled lightly from worry and irritation at what he perceived as Kakashi's stubbornness.

Kurenai sighed and Asuma mentally groaned. "Man, what troublesome people." The laid back jonin thought.

Kakashi decided to offer the scarred chunin a little reassurance. "You may have taught them in the academy, but you haven't seen how they improved since they graduated. Since that time, their skills have greatly improved, and Naruto's has skyrocketed. Their light-years beyond where they were when they graduated. Trust me, I wouldn't have nominated them if I didn't have every faith they could succeed."

Iruka took a step back. He knew that Kakashi spoke the truth, but at the same time, couldn't help but worry. "But these exams could destroy them, you know that!"

"Iruka!" The Hokage cut in, feeling the argument had gone on long enough. "You have made your point and I understand where you're coming from, but Kakashi is right. It is no longer your place to decide whether or not they are ready."

Iruka finally relented, knowing their leader's word was final and it was out of his hands. "Yes. I apologize, Lord Hokage."

"Good, then let us return to the matter at hand."


The next day, the three genin of Team Seven had gathered together at a bridge, waiting for their sensei. Naruto stood with his back against the railing, reading a book. He had just finished his book on the basics of sealing and had moved onto the first volume of the series of intermediate level sealing, written by non-other than Jiraiya of the Sannin. The Sannin had actually given him the complete series as a reward for mastering the basics so quickly. Sasuke and Sakura were on the opposite side of the bridge, Sakura leaned over the railing, her elbows resting on it as she looked out at the river, while Sasuke rested against it a few feet away from her, his eyes closed.

Sakura briefly glanced at the Uchiha heir, averting her gaze when a blush spread across her face at how cool he seemed. Even if she'd stopped gushing over him, she still felt the same, but she realized now with certainty that how she used to act did, in fact, annoy him. She then looked to Naruto. It still amazed a part of her to see him calm and quiet, reading of all things. A few months ago, she would have wondered if she needed glasses if she saw him reading so studiously.

She turned around fully to face them. "Why do you think Kakashi-sensei had us meet here today?"

Naruto shrugged and mumbled what sounded like 'I don't know'. "If ninja from other nations are showing up, the chunin exams must finally be about to start. It probably has something to do with that."

"Hn." Sasuke grunted as he opened his eyes and looked away from them, thinking on that. He'd been looking forward to the Chunin Exams ever since they'd heard of it. At last! The perfect opportunity to test himself against other powerful members of his generation. Gaara and, though part of him didn't want to admit it, Naruto came to mind.

"Nail on the head, Naruto." The voice of their sensei came from out of nowhere. Looking up, all three saw him sitting in a crouch above them on the arch of the bridge. "Yo!" The jonin greeted once all their attention turned to him. He quickly leapt down and joined them.

"Kakashi-sensei." The Jinchuriki said as he and his fellow genin gathered before their sensei. "So, it's finally time?"

The copy ninja nodded, taking out three papers. "That's right. These are for you three." He said, handing the sheets to his students. "If you feel you're ready, sign those and come to the academy tomorrow at 4 pm. As one day of training won't really make any different, I suggest you take the rest of the day off. That's all." And with that, he vanished in a puff of smoke before they had a chance to say anything.

"Alright!" Naruto said with a excited grin as he held the consent form. "Finally! I can show everyone how much I've grown! This is gonna be awesome!" Sakura smiled at seeing the blond act like his old self before turning her gaze to her paper.

Sasuke smirked. "For once, I have to agree with you."

The blond turned to Sakura as she looked at her sheet, a contemplative look on her face. "You ok, Sakura?"

She closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, she gave the blond a more confident look than she'd ever given before Wave unless Sasuke was involved. "Yeah. This is what we've been preparing for, right?"

'This is my chance to prove I'm not just dead weight anymore.' She thought.

"Then let's go and celebrate!" Naruto said before turning to Sasuke. "Are you coming this time?"

Sasuke thought about it. He was in quite a good mood at the moment. Of course, he'd like to do some last minute training, but he could do that afterwards. He usually preferred to do things alone but… "Hn. Fine."

Both the other genin seemed surprised before a fox-like grin broke out across the blond's face. "Great! Let's go!"


The next morning, the young Uzumaki slowly stirred from his slumber as the first rays of the new day filtered into his room. He slowly sat up, bringing a hand to his still closed eye and rubbing it as he muttered groggily, before he stretched, letting out a yawn as his still hazy mind began to catch up with him.

He began to wake up far faster than he once did, having grown used to waking up early as a certain sadistic sword wielding jonin required of him. He edged over to the corner of the bed and sat there, once again rubbing the sleep out of his eye as he opened one of his purple orbs for the first time in the morning.

Once he was up, he quickly ran through his morning routine. He got breakfast, a decently balanced breakfast of eggs, fruits and orange juice as opposed to his previous diet of cereal and ramen, brushed his teeth and took a shower.

After getting out, he put on one of his track suits and his sunglasses as well as one small addition to his usual attire; a pair of black wristbands. He grinned as he put these on, having prepared the seals on them just for the exams. Afterwords, he took stock of everything he'd be taking with him. Aside from the kunai, shuriken, etc. that would be loose in his pack for quick access, he'd be bringing with him five scrolls that were currently laid out before him, two of which were blank and the others all had storage seals containing all the weapons and supplies he and his team could need, which he could easily afford thanks to their recent missions, something his sensei had suggested.

He nodded to himself as he thought of how useful and convenient even this basic sealing jutsu was. The pervy sage was right; they should teach this at the academy. When he became Hokage, he'd make sure they taught at least the basics to the academy students.

After gathering his scrolls together and placing them in his pouch, the Rinnegan bearer made his way to the door.


The blond arrived at the academy about half an hour before the deadline to find his teammates were already there waiting for him. Several other chunin had gathered outside the building, some doing warm ups, others talking about the exams and what to expect.

"Hey guys." Naruto greeted with a wave as he approached the building.

"Good morning." Sakura replied with a nod as the Uzumaki approached them and came to a stop.

Sasuke smirked. "Hn. For a second, I thought you were chickening out." He said in a slightly mocking tone that made it clear he didn't really mean it.

"Yeah, right!" Naruto grinned confidently, bringing his fist to his open palm. "Not a chance! The three of us are going to own this exam."

"Then let's go. I don't feel like standing here waiting around." With that, Sasuke turned and walked towards the entrance, his teammates following suit.

A minute later, the three genin had just climbed the steps to the second floor and stepped into the hallway when they walked right into a crowd. All three frowned when the sounds of someone being stuck, grunting in response, and then skidding across the floor reached their ears. Taking a look, they saw what appeared to be two kids their age standing in front of a door marked 301 at the focus of he crowd.

Before the two, sitting on his rear on the ground and nursing a fresh bruise on his cheek with his wrist, a small amount of blood leaking from his mouth, was a boy. He had black hair cut in a bowl cut with matching large, rounded eyes and wore a green jumpsuit, orange leg warmers, a red forehead protector around his waist like a belt, and bandages around his hands and forearms. However, his most attention grabbing trait was that he had ridiculously thick eyebrows.

"Hah! You intend to take the Chunin Exams with lousy skills like that? You should just back out now, while you still can." One of the boys looking down on the bushy browed genin said.

Naruto looked around the hallway, wondering why all the genin had gathered here and feeling something was… off. It was then that he noticed the '301' on the door. His sensei had made sure to teach him how to break genjutsu, and though it wasn't his forte, he'd gotten pretty good at sensing and breaking them even without having his dojutsu active. This was aided by the fact that the Rinnegan gave him an affinity for all the elements, including yang and, more importantly in this case, yin, which included genjutsu in its sphere. He was the worst one on his team with it and he had no interest in that particular art beyond learning how to counter them. Still, this one was fairly obvious to him.

"Man, how could all these guys not notice they're being played? And they're supposed to be the best and brightest from the other nations?" Naruto mused. He squinted at the two 'genin' standing in front of the door, finding something familiar about him. After a few moments of looking intensely at the boy and his partner, he blinked. "Hey, isn't that Kotetsu and Izumo?" If it was, those had to be the absolute worst henge he'd ever seen.

Sakura scrutinized the boys in question and seemed as surprised as Naruto. "Hey, you're right…" She said, remembering how them as the two were almost always guarding the gates. She put her hands on her hips and frowned at the lack of effort on their part. "Geez, they didn't even bother to change anything about themselves other than their age and cloths. Talk about lazy."

"Hn, they must be trying to weed out the losers who wouldn't stand a chance here before the exams start." Sasuke commented before turning away. "Let's move on. If these guys can't see through this genjutsu, I say we should just leave them here." He wanted to face powerful opponents. If these guys couldn't even figure out they were on the second floor, he didn't want to waste his time on them.

There was a time they would have shown off by outing the disguised chunin's deception. Zabuza had made sure to beat that out of them during their group training, ensuring that they learned on of a ninja's most important rules. One that could win you fights and save lives, but was all too often ignored: 'never show more of your skills than necessary'.

As Sakura began to turn around someone caught her eye. She faced the crowd again and frowned, trying to tell if it was who she thought. She then called out, "Hey, Tenten!"

Both her teammates stopped and turned to face her just in time to see another kunoichi notice them and step out of the crowd, walking over to them with a wave. The girl had brown hair tied in two buns and dull brown eyes. She wore a pink, sleeveless blouse and dark green pants and a blue forehead protector. "Hey Sakura, good to see you. Why didn't you tell me you were going to be here? I had to hear Kakashi's team was going to try the exams from the rumor mill."

Sakura looked a little sheepish as she replied. "Sorry. I didn't really think about it."

"Um…" Naruto cut in. "Sorry to interrupt but, your name's Tenten, right? How do you know Sakura?"

Sakura turned back to her teammates, rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment. "Oh, sorry. Guys, let me introduce you to Tenten." She gestured to the bun-haired girl, who waved. "She graduated from the academy a year before us. We met at the hot springs. We happen to have a few things in common." Like having one extremely energetic and enthusiastic teammate, though Naruto was calmer and more in control now, and one stoic, arrogant and highly attractive one and a sensei with some odd quirks. Both also liked to relax from their respective hell training at the hot spring.

Tenten nodded and took a step forward. "Nice to meet you. Sakura's told me a lot about you two."

"Nice to meet you, too." Naruto greeted in return before giving her an appraising look and saying quietly. "Uh… do you and your team know-"

"That this is the second floor?" Tenten finished for him. "Yeah, we know, but my hot-blooded teammate overplayed his part and got singled out. Now where stuck acting like we don't know anything."

"Well that sucks." The blond commented. His expression then became curious when he recalled he mentioned his sensei. "Hey, how do you know Kakashi-sensei?"

"You mean aside from the fact that he's one of the most famous ninja in the village?" The bun haired girl replied, rolling her eyes. "Our teacher, Gai-sensei told us a lot about him. He considers himself his 'eternal rival'."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed at that and he spoke up for the first time, wanting to know more. "Is that so?"

Tenten turned to the Uchiha. "Yeah… I've seen them fight a few times and they're pretty evenly matched, but a lot of the times it seems like your sensei just wants to get rid of him. Gai-sensei's kind of… eccentric. I remember once Kakashi tricked him into settling for a game of rock-paper-scissors when he challenged him a fight." Seeing the baffled expressions on their faces, Tenten nodded. "I know, it was as embarrassing as it sounded, but he's actually a pretty good sensei… when he's not having us run endless laps around the village or something." She grumbled at the end.

Tenten then turned away. "Anyway, you guys should go before those two jerks decide to call you out and you get stuck here too. Good luck."

"Good luck to you too." Sakura said, waving at Tenten as she and her teammates took her advice.

Unnoticed by the three genin, Sakura's call to the older kunoichi had attracted the attention of her teammates. The bushy browed genin had stepped away from the crowed. He wiped his hand over his face, all his injuries and bruises vanishing with the motion as he watched their retreating forms, his gaze focused on the Uchiha symbol on Sasuke's back.


The three genin were walking across a large, open room used for sparring, nearing a set of stairs. However, as they made their way across the room, a voice called out to them.

"Hold on!" The three genin halted and turned around and looked to a balcony on the opposite end of the room. There, looking down on them was the genin with the oversized eyebrows, looking down on them with an expression that spoke of fierce determination.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he observed the green clad boy, noticing something off. '… All the injuries he had are gone… was he faking?' Indeed, the teen above them appeared to be unharmed.

"I am Rock Lee." The older genin identified himself. "You with the black eyes. If I'm not mistaken, you are the rookie of this year: Sasuke Uchiha, are you not?"

"Hn. What of it?" Sasuke answered as he looked up at the now named Lee, who leapt over the edge of the balcony and landed before them in a crouch.

The green clad teen's unwavering gaze focused on the Uchiha as he spoke, "I would like to fight you, right here and now."

Naruto frowned as he looked at the older genin, having also noticed that the bruises and blood that had previously marred his face were now absent. 'He must have been trying to hide his real strength back there… so why would he want to show off now?'

"A fight? Right now?" The Uchiha heir asked.

"Yes. I wish to test my abilities against the progeny of the famous Uchiha clan." Rock Lee said, determination practically burning in his eyes. "But first…" his gaze turned to Sakura and though his expression became no less intense, a smile spread across his face light blush painted across his cheeks. "You're name is Sakura, right?"

The pink haired kunoichi blinked in confusion. "Uhh… yeah, why?"

The smile on the bushy browed genin's face broadened as he gave her a thumbs up and fell into a nice guy pose, complete with a spark of light from his teeth. "Sakura, please be my girlfriend! I promise to protect you with my life!"

The members of team 7 could only stare at him dully over the sudden shift in his demeanor. After a few seconds, Sakura managed to respond. "Definitely… not…"

Lee's face became a mask of despair and disappointment as his arms fell limply to his sides. "… Why not?"

"Because you're a weirdo." Sakura answered bluntly, causing the green clad teens head to fall forward and his shoulders to slump further.

Naruto snickered slightly and placed his hands behind his head as Lee stood still for a few moments before shaking his head as if to ward off the anguish he'd just experienced and fell back into his fighting stance. "Very well. I will do everything in my power to prove myself to you. But for now, Sasuke, do you accept my challenge?"

Sasuke scoffed, closing his eyes and giving his soon to be opponent a confident smirk. "You're challenging me even when you know of my lineage. You're even dumber than you look." His expression then turned serious, his eyes hardening into chips of ice. "If you want to know more about my clan, then I'll teach you the hard way."

Lee gave a smirk of his own. "Bring it on." 'How fortunate. I already get to face this year's number 1 rookie. Here and now, I will prove myself to Gai-sensei.'

Naruto huffed in annoyance, both at being ignored and at his teammate's arrogance. He inclined his head to look at Sasuke, his features twisted into a slight scowl. "Hey Sasuke, don't go showing off all our tricks before the exams start."

Sasuke scoffed. "Like I need you to tell me that."

Sakura took a step forward. "Wait a minute, you guys! There's less than thirty minutes left for us to register."

"This'll be over in five." With that, the Uchiha heir shot forward, rapidly closing the distance between himself and the older genin. Though Kakashi's training regiment had been no where near as intense as Zabuza's, his speed had nevertheless improved along with his reflexes.

As he neared his opponent, he threw a punch at his green clad opponent. Lee swept the attack to the side and responded with high kick, which the Uchiha bent backwards to dodge before leaping back.

Lee vanished, reappearing above Sasuke in a burst of speed greater than anything he'd ever seen from a chunin level ninja and spinning into a powerful roundhouse kick. "Severe Leaf Hurricane!"

Sasuke ducked down to avoid the blow, but the bushy browed genin placed his hand on the ground and used it and his momentum to spin into another, sweeping kick aimed at the Uchiha heir's face. Sasuke brought a left arm up to block, using his right to reinforce his guard and halted the attack, the force of the older genin's blow sending a brief flash of pain through his extremity.

The Uchiha retaliated with a kick of his own, forcing his opponent into the air, flipping in mid jump and landing on his feet as the raven haired boy shot forward and engaged him in a fierce exchange of taijutsu. The Sharingan wielder was growing frustrated, he'd had several close calls and had yet to come close to actually landing a blow on his adversary.

'He's better than I thought he'd be.' The bushy browed genin mentally noted as he blocked a left hook from the Uchiha heir with his right arm. 'Truly, he's deserving of the title of genius. But…'

Sasuke's eyes widened as Lee used the opening created by deflecting his attack to get within his guard. He was powerless to protect himself as Rock Lee rammed his left elbow forward, slamming it into the Uchiha heir's solar plexus, knocking the wind out of him and sending him a few feet off the ground. The green clad teen gave him no respite, shooting forward and kicking him, striking his chin and sending him sailing through the air.

He landed on the ground and rolled to a stop on his side, coughing as he tried to catch his breath.

Both his teammates looked on in shock at how easily the raven haired boy had been fended off. "Sasuke!" Sakura cried.

The young Uchiha rose up to one knee as he got his breathing under control. He glared at Lee as he brought his hand up and wiped off a small amount of blood that had trickled from his mouth from the blow.

"You are skilled, but you cannot defeat me." Lee said, looking down at the Uchiha. "Because right now, I am the strongest Leaf genin."

Sasuke took a deep breath and closed his eyes. 'So he is strong after all…Good. I'll have to take this more seriously.' A smirk grew across his face and he opened them and looked at his opponent, revealing the black in his eyes had bled away to the red of the Sharingan.

Sakura smiled at seeing this, believing that with this, Sasuke's victory was assured. Lee's eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly as he looked into those crimson orbs. 'So that is the famed Shairngan. I'm sorry, Gai-sensei, but I may need to break your rules. I may need to use that move.'

'From the looks of it, he's just using extremely advanced taijutsu.' Sasuke thought to himself as he launched himself back into the fray. 'The Sharingan will allow me to read his moves, no matter how much faster than me he is!'

Lee ducked under a punch from the Uchiha and spun into a low, sweeping kick, which Sasuke leapt over.

As he watched the battle, Naruto's eyes narrowed. Even with the Sharingan active, while he was defending himself better, Sasuke just couldn't get the upper hand. Deciding he wanted to see the battle in more detail, he channeled chakra into his eyes, activating his dojutsu.

His purple orbs widened behind his glasses as he sensed a new presence. Tearing his gaze away from the still ongoing battle, he looked up at the balcony to see that two more spectators had joined them.

One was Tenten and Naruto realized that Lee must be the hot blooded teammate she mentioned, while the other was a boy with long, black hair reaching the middle of his back and was tied back a few inches above the end in a loose ponytail and seemed to wear a small headband under his black forehead protector. His eyes showed he was a member of the Hyuuga clan. He wore a khaki shirt, dark brown shorts with bandages wrapped around his right arm, chest, and right leg.

To Naruto, the Hyuuga's eyes were glowing with chakra, the telltale sign that a dojutsu was active. Veins were bulging around those white orbs and the outline of its normally imperceptible pupil was visible. However, what drew the blond's attention was the fact that the older dojutsu user's intense gaze was focused on him, seeing his eyes and knowing that the blond had a dojutsu as well.

Naruto had read up on dojutsu while looking for information on his own and thus knew about the Hyuuga's Byakugan, though there weren't many specifics about its abilities written down, and was aware that, along with Sasuke's dojutsu and his own, it was one of the 'Three Great Dojutsu', the three known as the most powerful of all eye-based kekkei genkai. He knew that his cover had been partially blown.

Naruto sensed a hint of condescension in the Hyuuga's stare when he noticed his dojutsu, which stemmed from a combination of arrogance, his belief in his eyes superiority and that a failure would always be nothing but a failure. He was well aware Naruto was the dead last of his class, and therefore under normal circumstances, wouldn't have paid him any attention. In response to this, Naruto glared at the white eyes teen.

At the same time, the Hyuuga stared down at the blond with his arms crossed felt a small amount of surprise. He'd had similar thoughts to those of the blond, surprised the rookie facing his teammate was doing so well without his dojutsu, and could now see the glow indicating of an active dojutsu from the younger genin's concealed eyes and his own narrowed as he studied this new development.

As with many great clans, they were quite proud of their bloodline, believing themselves to be the strongest force in the leaf, and thus acquired as much knowledge as they could on their rivals, especially the dwindling Uchiha clan. While that knowledge wasn't complete, there were many dojutsu from other nations that they had vague knowledge of if any at all, they knew that aside from the aforementioned Uchiha and their Sharingan, their Byakugan was the only eye related bloodlines in the village.

So then, how did the blond kid, who he recognized as the dead last of his class and the infamous prankster of the village, have a dojutsu? As far as he was aware, he had neither Hyuuga nor Uchiha blood and the white eyed teen highly doubted he was of either lineage. So what was this new rival to his clan's kekkei genkai?

He also absently noted that the blond's chakra reserves were enormous. He'd never seen anyone possess this much chakra before, not even his sensei.

Suddenly, the blond tilted his head to look at him and his teammate, his eyes focusing on his Byakugan, staring at them with the same intensity as the Hyuuga's scrutinizing gaze. The Hyuuga matched his stare with one just as powerful.

The two glared at each other, almost trying to will the other to back down and avert their eyes as if they were fighting to prove which of their dojutsu was superior, until the sound of an impact and a grunt of pain from Sasuke drew their attention away from their contest of wills.

With Sasuke's Sharingan blazing, allowing him to read his opponents moves like an open book, but he was still at a disadvantage before Lee's greater taijutsu skill, speed and experience.

Sasuke managed to block another high kick from his opponent, but the force of the blow sent back a few feet, skidding across the ground.

"The Sharingan is certainly a useful tool, isn't it?" Lee questioned. "With it, you can read your opponents chakra and decipher his hand signs and movements, allowing you to guess what he's going to do, almost before he knows himself."

"And…? What's your point?"

"My point is that such an ability is pointless if you cannot keep up with your opponent. I use neither ninjutsu nor genjutsu, there are no tricks. My moves are simply extreme taijutsu, and it is the worst match up for your Sharingan. Let me show you what I mean!"

With that, he went on the offensive, vanishing in a burst of speed only to reappear behind Sasuke and spin into a sweeping kick, which the Uchiha heir leapt back to dodge.

Sasuke threw a powerful right hook at his green clad adversary, who brought his arms up in a cross guard to block. Lee allowed himself to be pushed back by the attack, jumping back a few feet. Sasuke leapt forward and threw a punch at his face, only for Lee to duck down. Sasuke's eyes widened as they followed him, aware he was wide opened and powerless to do anything about it.

Lee lashed out with a high kick, striking his jaw and sending him into the air, blood flying from his mouth as his lower jaw was slammed painfully against its upper half. 'Damn it! He's too fast! I can't keep up!'

Both the other members of Team 7 watched, mouth's agape as Lee crouched down and vanished in a burst of speed, reappearing directly behind Sasuke in the air. The Uchiha heir turned his head and looked back at Lee out of the corner of his eyes. "This is… Dancing Leaf Shadow!"

"Good eye." Lee complimented. "Sasuke, you are a true successor of the Uchiha lineage, worthy of the title of genius. However, did you know that there are two different categories among ninja? There are those who inherit their power and do not have to work at it… and those who have to train everyday of our lives if we want to get anywhere. My goal is to prove that hard work beats out raw talent. And I'll prove it with this attack!" With that, he clawed out his fingers, causing the bandages around his left arm to unwrap.

"Hn." Sasuke grunted in response, wondering, but having no intentions of finding out what he intended to do with the bandage now trailing in the air behind them. "Nice speech, but don't think it'll be that easy!" He spun in the air and unleashed a kick of his own, which Lee blocked with his knee, maneuvering the bandages to begin to wrap around Sasuke.

Both Naruto and Sakura prepared to move, able to tell that whatever the hot blooded genin was about to do to their teammate would no doubt be extremely painful…

…Only for a pinwheel to come out of nowhere and stick the bandage to a wall just as it was about to enclose around Sasuke for the first time. "That's…!" The large browed genin said.

"That's enough, Lee!"

Everyone present turned their attention to the source of the noise to find a large tortoise with a red shell with a yellow underside and swirls on the top, as well as around his eyes and a konoha forehead protector around its neck.

The bandage stretched as far as it could go, bringing Lee to a halt once it reached its limit. Both Sasuke and Lee flipped in the air, landing on their feet on opposite ends of the room. Sasuke immediately turned, sending a fierce look at his opponent who kneeled before the tortoise as his teammates moved to join him, silently fuming. He knew that if tortoise hadn't interfered, he'd have just lost the fight.

"So you were watching us the whole time?" Lee asked the reptile.

"Of course! That technique is forbidden, Lee, you know that!" The tortoise chastised.

"I'm sorry… It's just that I…"

'He's getting chewed out… by a turtle.' Naruto thought incredulously as he watched Lee the reptile dress down the green clad teen.'It must be his sensei's summon.'

"… Is that a summon?" Sakura questioned as she watched the scene with the same amount of disbelief as Naruto.

"Yep!" They heard Tenten say from behind them. Turning, they saw her and her Hyuuga teammate approaching them from behind. "He's our sensei's personal summon: Ningame." She said before looking to Lee and sighing. "Geez, he tells us that we shouldn't draw attention to ourselves, and not half an hour later he's challenging a rookie and using a kinjutsu… Why's he gotta be like this all the time?"

The Hyuuga scoffed.

"He's obsessed with proving his belief that through hard work, one can move beyond their destined station." He turned a cold eye towards his kneeling teammate. "You know as well as I do how far he'll go to prove his conviction."

Something occurred to Sakura as she looked at the Hyuuga. "You must be Neji. Tenten told me about you."

He nodded curtly. "She informed me of such. You must be Sakura Haruno…" He turned to look at Naruto. "Naruto Uzumaki." Finally, his gaze fell on Sasuke. "… And Sasuke Uchiha."

"Hn." Sasuke responded, still looking at his former opponent while Naruto grinned.

"Nice to meet you! Hey, do you know Hinata?" Naruto asked Neji.

"Yes." He said, his voice possessing a slight edge that wasn't there before causing Naruto to frown. "She's my first cousin."

Before Naruto could say anything else, the conversation was interrupted as the tortoise's voice rose high enough to drown out his next words. "You think you can get away with a bunch of lame excuses like that!? A shinobi never reveals his techniques unless it's absolutely necessary! It's a basic rule, you should know that! Are you prepared for the punishment for your actions?"

"Yes sir…" Lee replied dejectedly, holding his head down.

"All right. If you will, Gai-sensei!" As soon as the Ningame finished speaking, a poof of smoke burst into existence on his shell. When it cleared, a man with attire matching Lee's with the addition of a flak jacket, even possessing the same bowl haircut and, shockingly enough, even larger eyebrows. He possessed a stronger build than his student as well as high cheek bones.

"Hey, everybody! Life treating you good?" The man who was obviously their sensei said with a smile. "Yo, Lee."

All three members of team seven gaped at the jonin. "That's Gai-sensei? H-he looks like an older version of Lee, but his eye brows are even thicker! A- are they even natural!?" Sakura tone held hints of shock and unease. Gai then brought his hand up and made a thumbs up, a spark of light reflecting off his teeth. "S- so lame!"

"That's enough, Lee." Gai waved off the insults, calming his mini-clone.

Tenten sighed. "Here we go…"

Gai suddenly shot forward, rearing his fist back and throwing a punch at the green clad genin's face, sending him flying half way across the room, landing on the ground in a heap. The jaws of the three rookies dropped while Tenten pinched the bridge of her nose and Neji closed his eyes in annoyance.

Gai walked over to Lee and crouched before him as he picked himself up.

"I'm sorry Lee but… it's for your good." He said to his student, his voice cracking slightly at the end.

"S- sensei…" Tears began to stream from the faces of both the student and the teacher.

"Oh, Lee…"

"Sensei…"

"It's alright Lee, it's over. You don't need to say anymore." Gai said.

Lee suddenly shot forward and into his sensei's arms. The jonin embraced his mini-clone, and the pair tearfully cried out each other's names as a genjutsu of a cliffside sunset, complete with water splashing against the rocks, appeared in the background of this emotional display.

This image horrified Sakura and Naruto, both of whom frantically tried to break the illusion to no avail.

"Kai!... Oh god, why won't it break?!" Sakura yelled, her eyes wide with horror and revulsion.

After his futile attempt to break the genjutsu, Naruto had activated his Rinnegan, hoping the superior vision and genjutsu breaking abilities of his dojutsu could see through this image. Sadly, it wasn't meant to be. 'N- no way! Even with the Rinnegan, I can't see through it! What is this?!' At least it was slightly less dreadful in black and white.

Sasuke meanwhile, looked on in annoyance. His mind too preoccupied with another thought to be consumed with disgust and horror at the nightmarish scene. '… How could I lose to someone that lame?'

Of course, this was probably a good thing as he likely would have attempted to use his Sharingan to break the technique otherwise and thus been cursed with its perfectly preserved image for the rest of his life.

Like he needed another mental scar.

The two broke apart. Gai put his hand on Lee's shoulder in a reassuring gesture. "It's ok, Lee. Mistakes are just another part of adolescence, don't let it drag you down!"

"You are so kind to me, Gai-sensei!"

"Now, as punishment, run one hundred laps around the practice field!"

"Yes, sir!"

"What's wrong with you two!?" Tenten broke in, taking a step towards them with a clearly irritated expression. "Have you forgotten about the Chunin Exams!?"

"Oh, yes that's right." Gai said, pausing for a moment. "All right Lee. Since you've disrupted the Chunin Selection Exams, this warrants a more severe punishment. Give me five hundred laps!"

"Yes sensei!" Lee said enthusiastically.

Everyone just stared at the two dully. "… They're insane." Sakura deadpanned before turning to Tenten. "… Are they always like this?" This was far worse than she'd made it out to be when they talked about their teams.

The bun haired girl's head fell forward in despair. "… All the time…" She said lamentingly.

Gai then looked to the other genin in the room, focusing on the members of Team Seven. 'Hmm… if I'm not mistaken, those are Kakashi's kids.' "By the way, How's Kakashi these days?"

Naruto shrugged. "Oh, same as always I'd guess. Did he go around reading a certain orange book last time you saw him?"

"Unfortunately, yes. I see he has not changed his un-youthful habits." Gai responded with a slight, raising a few eyebrows at the word 'unyouthful', before the jonin placed a hand on his chin and chuckled while his mouth curled into a smirk. "So, I take it he told you about me?"

"No, he never said a word about you. We just heard about your rivalry from Tenten." Naruto deadpannded, causing the bushy browed man to jerk, his expression twisting into a grimace. "You know, when she said you were a match for Kakashi-sensei, somehow I expected someone I could take more seriously, but you seem pretty goofy."

"What!?" Lee challenged.

"Settle down, Lee." Gai said, once more calming his mini-clone before looking to team seven again, his smirk returning. "Well, you may find it hard to believe that Kakashi and I are rivals, but you know what they say-" Suddenly, he vanished, reappearing behind them and continuing his sentence without missing a beat. "-looks can be deceiving."

Naruto and his teammates spun on their heels, shock clear in their features at the jonin's speed.

"Just to let you know, our current record is 50 wins and 49 losses in my favor." Enjoying their astonishment for a moment, he pulled out a kunai. "Now, why don't you all run along. Lee, your punishment will be postponed until the exams are over." He turned to Neji and Tenten. "Neji, Tenten, I don't need to tell you that you two have come far in past year. I know that you're ready for whatever you'll face ahead of you, and you're far clear minded than this knucklehead here." He gestured at Lee before throwing his kunai at the pinwheel, knocking it to the ground and causing Lee's bandage to fall loosely to the floor.

"Take care, my students!" With that farewell, the jonin and his summon vanished in poofs of smoke.

Naruto turned to look at Lee, who was rewrapping his bandages. His eyes narrowed behind his sunglasses when he noticed his hands were heavily scarred.

"Sasuke…" Lee began. "I was not being entirely truthful when we fought. I told you I was the strongest leaf genin, but that was not true. There is another top genin, you are just a stepping stone. Next time we fight, I will crush you." Sasuke's eyes narrowed in response to that declaration.

Neji gave a confident smirk and moved towards the stairs. "I have to agree with my teammate. I look forward to seeing what your team is capable of, though I have to pity you."

Naruto scoffed at that. "Save your pity. You're going to regret those words when we wipe the floor with you!"

Neji gave a grunt in response, similar to Sasuke. "We'll see." He replied, not wishing to waste anymore time on this conversation. He walked ahead, following after his teammate, who simply jumped to the top of the stairs in a single bound.

Tenten placed her hands on her hips and shook her head as she watched her teammates. "Those guys…" She said before following them, turning and waving at the rookie genin. "See ya."

Sasuke glared after the green clad genin. Once all three of the members of Team Gai were out of sight, he spoke. "Next time, I'll drive him to his knees."

"Maybe." Naruto said nonchalantly. "But you know, he probably wasn't going all out either. Did you notice?" Both his teammates turned to him. "His hands are covered in scars. He's probably trained himself into the ground, everyday, and he's been at this longer than us." He then grinned. "We're going to have to go all out if we want to win."

Sasuke smirked. "Hn."

"Come on, Sakura, Sasuke. Let's go." Naruto took the lead as they began making their way to stairs.


Soon enough, the three genin reached room 301 and were met with an unexpected surprise. Standing there waiting for them just before the door was Kakashi, his book hidden away.

"There you are. Glad to see you all got here in one piece." Kakashi said noted with a slightly lazy tone.

"Kakashi-sensei? What are you doing here?" Naruto asked.

"Oh, I just came here to wish you all luck. You know, there's something I neglected to mention… the chunin exams can only be taken as a team. Had any one of you not shown up, the exams would have for you, ended here and now." Kakashi responded, pausing at their surprised expressions, then he gave them his eye-smile.

"Once upon a time, I would have worried that one of you would back out." He didn't need to say that this was Sakura. "But I didn't doubt for a moment that all three of you would show up, nor do I doubt that you'll go far in these exams. I wish I could say I was solely responsible for you coming as far as you have, but regardless, know that I'm proud to call you members of my team." Seeing the genin, even Sasuke, smile, he stepped aside. "That's all I came here to say. Now go!"

The three then walked past their sensei. Flanking Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura each opened one of the large double doors before them.

The moment they stepped into the room, all eyes were drawn on them. The members of team seven were met with the glares of virtually every other genin in the room, all from various villages including their own and many older than the rookies. The newcomers felt a wave of killing intent wash over them as the assembled older shinobi tried to intimidate the obvious newbies.

Naruto, Sasuke and, though she faltered for a moment from the surprise of seeing so many individuals staring so fiercely at her, Sakura all returned their glares, showing that they wouldn't back down and making it clear they wouldn't back down.

Both Naruto and Sasuke even met the killing intent with their own, the former being trained in its use by Zabuza, and both felt a hint of satisfaction when a few would-be adversaries averted their gaze.

However the tension that permeated the air around the three newcomers was broken a moment later with a loud, ecstatic cry of, "Sasuke!"

Before said Uchiha heir could react, Ino Yamanaka jumped on him from behind, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Where've you been? You have no idea how much I missed you!"

Sakura's eye twitched. With a slight growl, she yelled, "Get off of him, Ino-pig!"

She was very thankful that she'd heeded Haku's advice and for the fact that she had better control of her emotions at this moment. Earlier, she would have been blinded by indignation at Ino touching 'her' Sasuke in such a way and while that was still there, it didn't consume her thoughts. And so, she didn't miss the extremely annoyed look on the Sharingan wielder's face.

"Oh, so you're here too, Forehead? You haven't changed a bit. Still sporting that big ugly billboard-brow, I see." Ino replied, pulling her eye lid down and sticking her tongue out.

A tick mark appeared on Sakura's head. "What did you say?"

"So you guys are here too, huh?" A lazy voice was heard.

Shikamaru and Choji, who was currently munching on a bag of potato chips, walked over and joined them.

"Hey guys, how've you been?" Naruto asked.

"Eh, same as always. Man, this is all so troublesome…"

Naruto chuckled and rolled his eyes. "You think everything but sleeping is troublesome."

"That's not true, cloud-watching is relaxing." Shikamaru replied glibly.

Naruto just laughed at that before another voice cut in. "Heh, looks like the gang's all here."

They turned to see Team Eight approaching them. Kiba stood at the front of the group with his usual smug grin, with Shino at his side and Hinata hiding behind him.

"H- Hi, Naruto." Hinata greeted with a slightly meek tone from behind Kiba. When Naruto looked at her, she turned her gaze to the ground as a light blush spread across her face.

"This is gonna be fun. Hope you're all ready to lose, 'cause we're gonna wipe the floor with you guys!" Kiba boasted.

"You're acting awfully confident, aren't you Kiba?" Naruto questioned with a smirk. "You should be careful with that, or someone might take it upon themselves to knock you down a couple of pegs."

"Oh, yeah?" Kiba responded, his grin becoming slightly feral and threatening. "Well let's see you try it!"

"You guys are so noisy. You should really keep it down." A voice none of the three teams recognized called out.

Turning around, the rookie 9 saw a young man in his late teens approaching them. He wore a dark purple, high collar shirt and matching pants, a white under-shirt, fingerless gloves with armored plates on the back of the hand, a white cloth waistband worn at an angle. He had gray hair worn in a ponytail, large circular glasses, and wore a Konoha forehead protector.

"You guys are the rookies just out of the academy, right? Geez, you're carrying on like excited school girls… This isn't a picnic, you know." He chastised as he reached them.

"Who do you think you are?" Ino asked, angered by his criticism.

The purple clad genin gave them a polite smile. "I'm Kabuto. But instead of focusing on me, you should look behind you."

The nine genin did and immediately noticed that everyone in the room was glaring at them (still in the case of Team 7). Particularly fierce looks were coming from those that hailed from Amegakure.

Several of the genin became nervous at being the subject of such hostility. Kiba lost some of the confident air that constantly hung around him, Ino shivered and Hinata took a step backward.

Team Seven was largely unaffected, though Sakura was a bit put off that her posture faltered for a brief moment. But then, one of their more common group training sessions had been running through the forest with Zabuza hot on their trails, hunting them for two days with intense pain being the punishment for being caught.

If they could be easily intimidated by a bunch of genin after that, they really would have been hopeless.

"Those guys behind you are from Amegakure. They've got pretty short tempers." Kabuto warned. "The exams have everyone a bit on edge, so pipe down or you'll cause a scene." He chuckled slightly as he watched the rookies take stock at their competition. "I can hardly blame you for being clueless. You guys remind me of myself back when I took this test for the first time."

"You said you're name is Kabuto, right?" Sakura asked.

"That's right." He nodded.

"So this is your second time?" She asked.

Kabuto reached for his pouch as he answered. "Nope, this is my seventh time. The exam is held twice a year, this is my fourth year."

"This is your seventh time?" Naruto repeated incredulously. "No offense, but your team must really suck."

"You'd think so." Kabuto chuckled. "But I assure you, the exams are really just that hard."

"So, you got any pointers?" Naruto tilted his head slightly.

"Better than that." The older genin replied, pulling out a deck of cards from his pouch. "Since you guys are new and all, I'll share some of the info I've collected with you, with my ninja info cards."

"Ninja info cards?" Sakura parroted as Kabuto kneeled to the ground, placing the deck before him.

He placed his finger on top of the cards. "Basically, these cards have information burned on them with chakra. I have over two hundred cards, containing all the information I've gathered in these four years." He flipped up the top card on the deck and showed it to the rookies, revealing it to be blank. "They may look blank, but…" He then placed the card face up on the floor before making a one handed seal and focusing his chakra into it, producing a small cloud of smoke.

"What are you doing?" Ino wondered aloud.

"My chakra reveals the information on these cards." He answered, and sure enough when the smoke cleared, the once blank card now showed a map of the elemental countries, detailing the number of participants from each nation with a bar and a number. "This is the number of participants and the countries they're from."

"Do your cards have information on individuals?" Sasuke asked, thinking of his match against Lee.

"Of course. The information isn't perfect, but I do have it. Just tell me what you know about someone and I'll see what I've got." Kabuto replied with a smirk.

"Gaara of the Sand and Rock Lee of the Leaf."

"Can you tell me about Lee's teammates, Tenten and Neji Hyuuga?" Naruto asked, remembering that the white eyed boy was aware of his dojutsu. Knowing he might have informed his teammates, he wanted to know as much about them as he could.

He didn't notice Hinata's surprised look at the mention of her cousin.

"Do me a favor." Kiba began with a wide grin before pointing his thumb at Naruto. "Show us what you've got on Naruto Uzumaki."

The rest of the rookie 9 turned to Kiba, more than a few with raised eyebrows. Naruto frowned. "What the hell, Kiba?" He asked before a grin broke out a across his face. "Oh, scared of going against me without knowing what I've been up to lately?"

"Hah." Kiba gave a bark of a laugh. "I just want everyone to see how badly you suck and let the air out of that big head of yours."

"Oh, like you're one to talk." Naruto replied before he shrugged and turned back to the cards, a serious look that most of those present weren't used to seeing from him crossing his features. "Whatever. This will tell us how accurate these cards really are."

"Good point." Sakura said.

"Well, if it's ok with you." Kabuto responded before sighing as he picked up his deck. "Man, you already know their names and villages, that's no fun at all…" With a quick swipe of his hand, he'd pulled out five cards. With a quick application of chakra followed by a puff of smoke, the first card was revealed, depicting Rock Lee.

"Let's start with Rock Lee. He's one year older than you guys and he and his team have completed 20 D-ranks and 12 C-ranks. Their sensei is Maito Gai. According to my information, he was the dead last in the academy during his year, possessing no skills to speak of, but his taijutsu has improved spectacularly since then. While he and his team were ready last year, their sensei felt it best to let them get more experience in the field, so this is their first time taking the exam too."

The following card showed Tenten. "Next is Tenten, the team's long range specialist. She's basically a walking armory, using sealing jutsu to carry an insane number of weapons of all varieties, and she supposedly never misses her target. She also has a fair amount of skill at close range combat."

The next card was revealed to show Neji. "And lastly for Team Gai, There's Neji Hyuuga, a prodigy from the renowned Hyuuga clan. Using his clan's dojutsu, the Byakugan, he fights by sending his chakra into his opponent's body through palm and finger strikes, which interacts with their chakra network and causes damage to the surrounding organs. A skilled Hyuuga is capable of killing an opponent with a single strike to the heart."

A few of the genin turned to Hinata, mildly surprised at hearing what her clan was capable of. The shy Hyuuga girl shrunk back under their looks.

"Wow, Hinata. Who'd have guessed someone as gentle as you was capable of that?" Ino asked before giving an amused smirk. "It's always the quiet ones, isn't it?"

Kabuto coughed to get their attention. "Excuse me, but I wasn't finished yet." Pausing to make sure they were focused on him, he held up Gaara's card. "Next up is Gaara of the Desert. He's been on eight C-ranks and, get this, one B-rank as a genin. Since he's a foreigner I don't have a lot of information on him, but rumor has it that he's returned from all his missions without so much as a scratch."

"Seriously? This guy's been on a B-rank and he's never even been injured?" Shikamaru asked, visibly stunned, before his face twisted into a slight grimace. "I knew this was going to be troublesome…"

Sasuke smirked at the prospect of fighting someone that strong. Sakura frowned at the same thought. Naruto's expression was neutral but inwardly, he thought fighting Gaara might be fun, but also dangerous as he recalled their first meeting. If the redhead had really been serious about killing his brother back there, and the way he spoke and his sibling's reactions suggested he was, he'd probably go straight for the kill.

One thing the Jinchuriki was certain of, with so many powerful opponents, the exams were going to be wild. He hadn't felt this excited since the old man decided to let them take their first C-rank mission.

Kabuto pulled out the final card, depicting the young Uzumaki. The picture was a bit outdated, lacking his sunglasses and still having his old blue eyes. "And finally, we have Naruto Uzumaki. Now let's see. He and his teammates, Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno are students under Kakashi Hatake. He's gone on six D-ranks, two C-ranks and…what the?" His eyes narrowed in confusion before he looked up at the members of Team Seven. "One A-rank mission as a rookie genin?"

All the other rookie genin's heads turned to Naruto and his teammates, many of their faces displaying shock or disbelief. Shino settled for furrowing his brow, the closest one would get to him displaying his interest, and Ino frowned as she recalled what Naruto and Haku had told her.

Kiba was the first to speak. "Are you kidding me? You guys have already been on an A-rank mission?" He spoke in an incredulous tone.

Ino placed a finger on her chin and looked to the ceiling. "Oh yeah, Naruto told me about that…"

Said Rinnegan bearer rubbed the back of his head with a slightly sheepish grin. He would like to brag about it, but thinking of that mission was a reminder of how he'd screwed up back then, and that they'd only survived because their opponent happened to be extremely kind hearted. "Yeah, it's a long story. The client's nation was in a really bad way and they couldn't afford an A-rank mission. So he lied about how dangerous it would be, probably because he knew we'd have a jonin with us, and hoped for the best."

Kabuto nodded, bringing his hand to his face and adjusting his glasses with his index finger. "I see. Nevertheless, just surviving an A-rank mission is impressive for genin, especially green ones." He returned to his card. "It says here that he was the dead last in the academy, but he's had a dramatic rise in skill in the past few months. Most notably, he managed to learn a B-rank ninjutsu, the Shadow Clone Technique, around the time he graduated. He can also use its A-rank kinjutsu variant and has recently begun learning sealing jutsu."

Naruto furrowed his brow as he looked to the purple clad teen. How had Kabuto known all that? He hadn't even used his sealing jutsu in the field yet! He supposed he should be thankful the gray haired man didn't somehow know about his dojutsu.

Well, at least they knew his information was accurate. And Naruto still had many surprises left in store.

"As you can see, we've had quite the turn out this year." Kabuto said as he placed the cards back on the deck and put them away. "Konoha, Suna, Kusa, Taki, Oto… The best of the best from the various hidden villages have assembled here for the exams." After a moment, he closed his eyes and added, "Well, I'm not so sure about Oto. They're a minor village that just sprung up last year, so they're no namers at this point. But the other villages are full of talented kids."

As most of the other genin considered just what they were up against, Naruto grinned and turned to the crowd, raising his fist in challenge. "All right, all you punks out there, listen up! The name's Naruto Uzumaki! And if any of you are brave enough to take me on, then bring it!" His grin took on a hint of bloodlust, a trait he'd picked up from hanging out with Zabuza and Anko so much, as he made a beckoning hand gesture. "I'll take every one of you bastards down! Ya got that!?"

The blond's challenge was met with many responses. Most of the spectators were annoyed that a rookie would be so audacious. Others were amused and some found his bold statement refreshing or encouraging.

Ino jabbed a finger in her fellow blond's direction, knowing that he probably turned himself into a target with that statement, and the rest of the rookies by association. "What's wrong with him!?" She yelled at Sakura.

Sakura simply sighed, bringing her hand to her forehead. "Some things never change…"

Sasuke smirked, feeling similar to the blond about the upcoming challenge.

"Troublesome…" Shikamaru grumbled while Choji continued to munch on his snack.

Kankuro turned an annoyed eye at the blond, remembering his previous humiliation. "That's that damned kid from the other day."

Gaara simply stared inexpressively in the rookies' direction. He considered how strong willed the boy seemed, together with the skill he showed the other day… Yes. He and his onyx eyed teammate would make good sacrifices to his mother.

Tenten sent an amused smile the young Uzumaki's way. "Well, he's certainly a lively one."

"Hn." Neji scoffed. "Quite the loud mouth, isn't he? He must be either very brave or very stupid to issue such a challenge." He then recalled the blond's dojutsu and once more wondered what it was. Unfortunately, the Byakugan couldn't help him on that front. If he tried to look past his sunglasses, he'd just wind up seeing through to his bone structure.

"Heh. Talk about conceited." The spiky haired Oto genin said. "Hey, that four eyed shitstain called us no namers, didn't he? Why don't we play with them a bit?"

The bandaged leader of the Oto trio chuckled. "Good idea. Why don't we help him out with his information? Let's show them… just how vicious the sound can be."

With that, all three of them vanished in a burst of speed, maneuvering through the room faster than the eye could see. The eyes of the Sand Siblings and Team Gai darted as they detected their movements. They were the only ones to notice them.

Kabuto shrugged at the blond's actions before he, said Rinnegan bearer, and Sasuke sensed the approaching Oto genin, their own eyes turning towards the approaching attackers.

Sasuke decided to do nothing. He wanted to see what to expect from their opponents in the exam. Not just the sound genin, but Kabuto as well. He'd step in if things went too far and Kabuto was actually in danger, but otherwise just observe.

Naruto, on the other hand, readied himself to step in. He wasn't willing to stand by and let a comrade be attacked.

The spiky haired Oto genin leapt into the air. Remembering the stunt the blond genin pulled the previous day when his younger brother figure had been grabbed by Kankuro, the sound genin threw a wave of shuriken at Kabuto and all the rookies.

All of them jumped back to dodge, a few like Choji and Ino needing to be grabbed and pulled away. This put too much distance between Naruto and Kabuto for him to interfere.

The next instant, the bandaged oto genin was directly in front of Kabuto. He swiped his arm at the gray haired man, his sleeve pulled back to uncover the odd metal gauntlet he wore, who leaned back to dodge.

'These are Oto genin…' Kabuto thought, his mouth curling into a smirk as the attack narrowly missed him, only for his expression to morph into one of shock as his glasses cracked and shattered.

"What the?" Sasuke narrowed his eyes, trying to figure out what happened. Shikamaru frowned as he tried to discern if the attack had grazed him or if there was some sort of trick behind the mummified boy's attack.

At that instant, Naruto appeared in front of the bandaged boy, his teeth gritted in anger and a growl leaving his throat. These guys had not only attacked a fellow leaf genin, but his friends too, entirely unprovoked.

The bandaged genin, surprised to find any retaliation, raised his gauntlet to defend as Naruto threw a punch, only for him to discover it was a feint. As Naruto's fist impacted with the cold steel that covered the sound genin's hand, he spun and the bandaged teen's single visible eye looked down to see the blond's leg rapidly moving towards his face, already too close for him to defend.

Naruto's kick impacted with the oto ninja's face, sending him flying through the air, grunting from the impact. He hit the floor with a thud and skid across the wooden surface as his spiky haired teammate rushed forward to engage Naruto in taijutsu, throwing a right hook which the blond deflected.

When the bandaged genin flipped to his feet, he coiled his body, ready to spring back into the fray and take down the blond for his resistance when his enhanced hearing picked up movement. Unfortunately, he wasn't in a position to do anything as he felt something press against his neck. He looked down, and then to the side, to see the object in question was a kunai, held against his jugular by Sasuke. The Uchiha had decided he'd seen enough and that he'd better help his teammate before it became three against two.

A wave of senbon came at Naruto, only for Sakura to jump in their path and deflect them with a kunai as the spiky haired oto genin jumped back, joining his kunoichi teammate. While the girl looked on impassively, he grit his teeth in frustration.

"That was a neat trick." The Uchiha heir complimented his captive, looking down at him with cold eyes. "You caused damage without even touching him. What kind of jutsu was that, I wonder?" He mused, not actually expect the sound genin to answer.

Despite his position, the sound genin's eye curled with amusement, hinting at a malicious grin beneath his bandages. "Keep watching, it's about to get a lot more interesting."

Sasuke frowned but before he could question this, his eyes, as well as those of his teammates widened as the sound of someone voiding their stomach reached their ears. All their heads turned to Kabuto, who was on his hands and knees dry heaving, taking a rather unwilling second look at his breakfast on the floor before him.

The world was spinning for the purple clad genin. He could barely keep from falling over and no matter how he tried; he couldn't suppress the wave of nausea that had come over him. Of course, he'd expected this. He'd identified the type of attack the moment his glasses had shattered and knew at that instant that it was going to suck.

"He threw up?" Naruto asked in mild shock, wondering what kind of attack could cause that. Like his teammates, he'd seen that Kabuto had dodged the attack but was somehow still hurt.

"Kabuto!"

Sakura rushed to her fellow Konoha genin's side to help, thinking the same thing Naruto was. The difference was that out of the three, she was the smartest and with her mind now applied to her ninja career as opposed to simple book smarts and having trained under Haku, her analytical abilities had vastly improved.

'I know he dodged that attack just now, so what happened?' Her mind processed what just happened as she helped the gray haired ninja. 'That weird gauntlet on his arm…' Everyone in range had caught a glimpse of the strange gauntlet. '…and the way Kabuto reacted…' She thought recalling the way his glasses shattered and he threw up. What kind of force could cause all that? After a moment, her face showed realization and her head jerked up slightly. 'Of course! It's so obvious!'

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he too tried to discern the attack, before they widened as an odd ringing sound reached his ears. While he was distracted, the mummy-like oto genin had brought his hand to his gauntlet and flicked it with his finger.

To the Uchiha heir, the room was now slightly distorted, his sense of balance thrown off as the sound reverberated through his skull.

"What's wrong? You don't look so hot." The sound genin said as Sasuke's hand moved about an inch away from his neck.

That was all he needed to get away. The mummy like teen dropped down and spun into a kick which the Uchiha leapt backwards to avoid, falling to one knee and bringing his hand to his forehead as he landed, shaking his head in an attempt to clear it.

"Sasuke?" Sakura turned to him, knowing exactly what happened.

The sound genin joined his teammates and glared at the members of team seven. He didn't really care about the fact that he'd needed to use his weapon more than he expected. After all, the way he showed it off before against Kabuto would probably alert at least a few of their adversaries that they didn't want to let him get close anyway, whether or not they figured out how he attacked, and he was confident there wasn't much anyone could do to counter it. He was, however, angry about being struck and captured. "I hope you enjoyed your moment of triumph. After all, miracles only happen every once in a blue moon."

Naruto met the one eyed genin's fierce stare with one his own. "Oh yeah? Well why don't you try that again? I'll be happy to re-introduce your face to the floor!"

Before anything else could be said, there was an explosion of smoke at the front end of the room.

"Alright, pipe down you worthless bastards!" A voice called out from the cloud. It cleared to reveal the exam proctors, all of whom wore gray utility flak jackets. Their leader, the tallest among them, wore a black long coat and a bandana-style forehead protector. He had two long slash marks that ran down his face and black eyes. "Sorry to keep you waiting. I'm Ibiki Morino, the proctor of the first test of the Chunin Exams."


Hope you liked it. Please review.

Have a happy New Year.