I do not own, or receive any benefits from the Naruto properties.

A Teacher's Glory: A Union of Rejects: Chapter 7

By Larry Huss

Yakushi Kabuto finally admitted to himself that he was getting jumpy. After so many years and changes of allegiance things were finally going to come to a head, and he would be able to openly proclaim who his master was. For a while at least; then it would be, no doubt, back into some double or triple-cross conspiracy again. First, though, must come his success… the complete turning and seduction of the Uchiha boy. Then the war, and finally his reward; to be Orochimaru's right hand and chief medical consultant. Unlimited research opportunities to grow and transplant a dozen improvements in selected warriors. And when they were proven safe, putting them in himself.

As he sometimes did when restless, Kabuto began to roam the streets of Konoha, passing by different family areas and speculating on them. Did the Inuzukas have a blood-line talent? How did the Aburame endure their parasites tunneling through their bodies? Once he had enough specimens to dissect, especially living ones, Kabuto knew that a thousand rewarding avenues of research would open to him.

But the opportunity to start was going to be over a month away, and as he roved the dark streets now he was looking for some interesting diversions.

Uzumaki Naruto gave a slight twitch, and turned to his teammates. "The fish is out on a midnight swim; guess the waiting for the Exams is getting to him. We go for it now. If he takes the lure we have one less thing to worry about in two days. If he doesn't, we can call this laying some more groundwork.

"We'll be coming in from the west, if this works. So it'll be worksite B. Make sure it's wired up and ready to go. And it will work. Believe it!"

With that he left the darkened parlor of the Uchiha mansion. Sakura followed soon after with her rolls of strong and darkened wire. She wanted to be up in her camouflaged perch in plenty of time for her night vision to be at its best.

Tamaki began to prepare the drugged drinks and hors d'oeuvres in case things went to the Second Alternative. Sasuke grumbled and fretted. If the Second Alternative came into effect he would have to be on premises playing the genial host, so if things went well he would be out of the action. It didn't seem fair; it was his retainer that was being avenged. But if they weren't going to do this right, they might as well not do things at all, and that wasn't how Team Seven worked.

Tamaki hoped everything would work right. If the Second Alternative was in effect it meant that Kabuto would show up at the house and have to be distracted. Sakura and she had agreed that their cover story would only work if he thought that she was taking the drug and acted like it. Tamaki had no desire to start doing the act she would have to do to distract the traitor. Nudity with the others, at the baths, was one thing. But the alternative plan wasn't beautiful and warm, it was as creepy and nasty as the man was himself. Tamaki sent a little prayer to Nekogami. She would look favorably on what they were doing, right?

Kabuto was a little surprised at the number of genin out and wandering the streets so late, or rather so early in the morning. It seemed he wasn't the only one with a bit of a sleeping problem, with the Examination starting in two days. One face wasn't really unexpected; Uzumaki Naruto was out on the town, bottle in hand.

"Hey, Sempai, please join me in a sip. I swear this is the good stuff! See! And I've taken your lesson to heart. Tomorrow and the next day I stay sober as a Hokage. Just joking, I won't be drinking at all!"

After he wiped his lips and took a swig, Kabuto had to admit that the sip he'd had was of a mellow vintage, not raw spirits as expected. It was true that Uzumaki looked as stupid as ever, but the older genin was willing to make allowances for the tension of the situation, and the fact that people's faces didn't always tell their true nature. As their paths seemed to be lying in the same direction they ambled a street or two together, swapping the bottle for another drink on their way. At an intersection where Kabuto began to make his separate way Uzumaki got a conspiratorial look on his low-browed face.

"I owe you Sempai, so… so here's the deal. Gonna be a little party over at Uchiha's place tonight." With that the short blond made a wide, expressive, gesture in the general direction of the Uchiha compound. "And I'm invitin' you, 'cause you actually help other Konoha nins, and you're not a party pooper like Crazy Anko who don't teach nuthin' to me. She's all the time goin' round shopping with Sakura-chan and stuff, when we should be getting super-secret special stuff taught us."

Kabuto was tempted to take Uzumaki up on the offer; an innocent introduction with the object of his interest would be even better than the plan for meeting him at the beginning of the exam.

Uzumaki continued: "But don't tell Sakura-chan nothing about this, it's a guys' only thing tonight."

"That sounds… interesting. Does Uchiha-kun have some geisha's coming over tonight?"

It sounded that Team Seven was severely splintered, even before any offers were given to the Uchiha.

"Nah, no geishas; they're all promise and tease and then giggle and run away and they've tied your sandal straps together. Nah, Uchiha-bastard picked up this maid to cook and stuff because he's too noble to wipe his own butt you know. Anyway, she turns out to be a real nympho, he can't keep up the pace anymore, so I got a special Teammate offer for this night only to," his voice took on a pompous air, "'use the little slut as you will.' The last part should be all in quotes Sempai, 'cause it's how he talks. Anyways, 'cause you're a real 'Will of Fire' sort a guy, how I will is goin' to be to take turns with a real pal."

Kabuto decided the conversation had taken a sordid, but amusing, turn as Uzumaki poked around in brush at the edge of the woods surrounding the Uchiha area.

"Anyways, he's always talkin' like he is something special. 'You mean ten times a night isn't normal?' he asked Sensei Crazy Anko once." At that the boy's voice grew small and plaintive. "An' I ain't sure I got more than six in me. So, come on, it'll be fun. And she's only a civilian anyway."

In general Kabuto preferred a more mature and dignified form of horizontal recreation, knowing any number of nurses and shop girls (and even the occasional grieving widow) impressed by his medical credentials and bedside manner. Having the schedule for which hospital rooms were empty allowed a certain added convenience to his erotic encounters. But it wasn't every day he was getting ready to take the Chunin Examinations for the seventh time, and the idea of showing up this evening, and finally getting a chance to actually talk to the subject of so many hours of observation was interesting. The deciding factor, though, was Tamaki. Having her have to be polite, and pretend the man who so obviously terrified her at every meeting they'd had was a mere guest, would be even more pleasurable than when he finally got his chance to ride the drugged girl. And it would all be part of his cover, too! He couldn't resist that. He followed the other genin onto a narrow path that he was assured was a shortcut to the current Clan Head's residence.

"A little slippery here Sempai, let me give you a hand," said Uzumaki, turning and laying his right hand on Kabuto's shoulder. There was a sudden sharp smell in the air, like the arrival of a storm front but not quite, and suddenly Kabuto felt his left arm and side spasm and send him messages of unbearable heat and pain. He was knocked back a dozen feet onto his back, unable for a moment to even understand that the stupid blond genin had ambushed him, and was running at him with short sword raised in his right hand. Frantically Kabuto performed the one handed sign to call up his
Chakra Scalpels on his right hand, and barely had them in place before the blade swung down at his head.

The metal snapped on hitting the hardened manifestation of Life and Will, but Kabuto felt the blades extending from his fingers disappear from the shock of meeting the sword head on. He pulled a quick Kawarimi substitution technique, and managed to get a nearby shrub in his place, intercepting the whirling thrown sword hilt and broken stub-blade. The suddenly berserk genin attacking him backed up a half dozen steps, drawing a kunai, and using his other hand tossing a needle too close for Kabuto's peace of mind. What had gotten into Uzumaki, and what had he done? Kabuto was slowly regaining the feeling on his left side, but it wasn't doing him much good. His shoulder had a dark and seared area as large as a hand burned through his uniform shirt and deep into his muscles.

Still, the little bastard was backing up now; whatever insane impulse had led him to attack hadn't made him crazy enough to think he could beat his clear superior once the initial treachery failed. Kabuto drew a kunai (he knew he had to conserve his chakra until he had a chance to use it to heal himself) and pursued Uzumaki. His longer legs got him to the younger boy quickly, though his low line gut-cutter slash was blocked, and Kabuto had to leap up to avoid a leg sweep. He had seen Uzumaki spar a dozen times on his spy mission, when did the blond get so fast? Flipping his otherwise useless left arm in Uzumaki's face, Kabuto was able to get in a stab through the boy's left cheek, the blade grinding against his teeth.

Uzumaki backed up again, to the left, and Kabuto followed making quick feint stabs with the knife. Once he was in range Kabuto stopped advancing, flipped the kunai into the ground at his feet, and drew and threw three poisoned senbon at Uzumaki. Somehow the clumsy genin managed to block one and avoid another; only one managed to graze the assassin. That should be enough, Kabuto thought, when he felt two burning spots of pain start low on his left side, then heard a sound like a fistful of firecrackers going off all at once. He leaped back, his hand clawing at the medical kit at his waist. Only amateurs relied on unpoisoned needles when things were serious, and now Kabuto knew now that there were at least two people after him.

There! Sasuke had heard the sound of Sakura's Quick Needle. It meant that the initial ambush hadn't gone off well, and things had gotten nasty. Well, Second Alternative was down the toilet now.

"Tamaki, hide and take the cats with you. I'm going out for a stroll."

Grabbing his favorite woodland ramble tools, Uchiha Sasuke ran to the sounds of fighting.

Throwing two wide-spectrum anti-venom pills into his mouth and hoping for the best, Kabuto felt the muscles of his left leg begin to burn, and start to tremble. Until whatever hell-brew that was on the needles that had hit him was counteracted he didn't dare to try to add a third dimensional element to his evasions or attacks. Suddenly he felt a weight drop onto his head, and searing pain as his ears, cheeks, and jaw were shredded, and then the five kilos of cat leaped off him and disappeared into the night and shrubs. He automatically threw his hands up to cover his bleeding ears, at least the right one responded. His ability to use chakra to heal himself would have him operating at a useful level in a few minutes, if he could only get the time!

Uzumaki was limping toward him, throwing a kunai and drawing another. Why wasn't the little monster dead? Why was this happening?

Kabuto felt the burning in his leg subside. His anti-venom, and his long-term project on building up as many toxin immunities as he could, had saved him. Despite the pain from the two needles still imbedded in his thigh, he leaped toward a limb five meters up. He fell four meters short. For some reason his legs weren't working at their chakra enhanced level at all. He tried making another set of chakra claws to use as climbing irons; nothing happened. Somehow his entire chakra system was messed up, the set of claws he had been able to make at the start of the battle were evidently the mere remnants of what should have been in his body. He'd have to get some elevation the hard way. After all, Uzumaki couldn't work the trees worth a damn. Once up high Kabuto would hunt down whoever was helping the genin, and then finish him off. If Uzumaki wasn't dead due to the poison by then, it was going to be a pleasure to slowly take him apart.

Reaching a tree limb, leaning against the trunk and panting, Kabuto looked down on Uzumaki. The vicious blond was actually moving better than a moment earlier, and looked up, smiling. Kabuto felt a sharp pain in his right hand, heard again the sound of firecrackers, and from the corner of his eye saw Uzumaki jumping down toward him from another tree, kunai in hand. Desperately, Kabuto leaped, hitting the ground awkwardly he sprawled face down. His hand exploded in pain. There was a spear impaling it, and pinning him to the earth. Before he could think of some desperate way to escape, he felt the cold tip of a kunai at the base of his skull.

"No one hurts us, or ours."

Then, the blade was driven up into his brain.

Sakura leapt from her perch in the prepared hunting platform in the tree and walked over to where their quarry was having his head removed by Sasuke. She was glad he had showed up so quickly. Kabuto should have been dead… at least four times over by her count. The not-a-genin was somebody to make absolutely sure about, and decapitation seemed to be a decent start for that project.

"Sakura-san, Sasuke-san. I screwed up. I underestimated him; my plan was inadequate. I apologize abjectly. Please forgive me."

There was Naruto, kneeling on the ground, bowing deeply. It just wasn't right that their impolite teammate should be doing that.

"Get up, idiot. No plan survives contact with the enemy, remember? So get up before I start to call you 'Dead Last' again." Sasuke was far from disappointed how the evening had turned out. Sakura went over to Naruto and began to put a compression bandage on his wounded face.

They heard a slow and rhythmic clapping and Sensei walked into the little trampled clearing. A cat jumped up into her arms and began to lick its blood covered paws. Sakura gave a screech.

"Bad cat! You don't know how much poison was in his blood when you clawed him. We wash your paws at least three times, with soap, before you can dare lick them!"

The ninja-cat looked abashed and apologized profusely for its mistake.

Anko looked at her genin. She had thought to visit each of them tonight to see if they were feeling nervous, so close to the big day. When Sakura's parents had told her that their daughter was over at Sasuke's place (they had, over the months, gotten very blasé about their daughter visiting the ill-rumored Uchiha compound) Anko had decided to head over and give them a pep talk. She had decided to come in the back way so she would have a chance to scout things out, so she wouldn't interrupt anything important. Instead, she had heard the Quick Needle, and the yowling of cats in mortal combat.

"So, you three were doing some team bonding exercises and went mushroom gathering in the dark? And somebody suddenly attacked you? That somebody being unknown, and you fought him off and he escaped? And then I ran off and complained to ANBU, but tell the real story to the Hokage: that Kabuto must have finally got his orders to eliminate the last Uchiha from Konoha's list of ninja, and you successfully defended yourselves? Have I made any mistakes, here?"

Naruto breathed deeply twice. "Anko-sensei, I love you." The others, cat included, nodded sincerely. Then the genin went back to their project of dismantling Yakushi Kabuto. Just in case.

After the Jonin was on her way to spread lies and safety, the genin gathered up Kabuto's parts and brought them to a secluded nook in one of the backyards of the Uchiha district. There they all practiced the Gravedigger Jutsu. Sasuke, being the most experienced and adept, got to plant the torso in its separate hole. Naruto took care of the separated arms and legs, and Sakura the head. If they had been certain that the parts might not be wanted later they would have already cremated the remains. As it was, they knew where Kabuto was hiding now; he could be given a final disposal whenever it was convenient.

Anko was surprised how well the Hokage took the news. She had no illusion that he completely believed her story; he had seen too many mission reports that were anywhere from half to completely false for him to have fallen for that. But he had accepted Kabuto's termination with considerable serenity. In his best grandfatherly voice he explained that ANBU hadn't been getting much new from their work on Kabuto lately anyway, and with all the foreign genin teams and their Jonin-senseis coming soon to town he was just as glad to be able to re-assign the newly-freed ANBU to increase general security levels. Also, that he had been beginning to wonder if Team Seven had any real spirit and initiative after all, or if their intensive training had broken them too thoroughly.

"How good was he, Anko-san?"

"Well sir, he taken potentially fatal chakra burns, had at least three poisoned needles in him… and Sakura doesn't make bad poisons. He had most of his face shredded, and he had a spear blade tearing open his hand. Until they pinned him down they were still barely staying ahead of him. They weren't happy until the separated his head from his neck, and I wouldn't have been either, in their place. He was at least a Special Jonin."

"Ah, well at least now we'll be able to really get to get to work on unsealing those secret messages of his that we didn't dare to work on before. His teammates, now that they can no longer compete… broken team and all… will have entirely too much time during the exams for mischief. Hmm, Anko…?"

"Perhaps it would be better if I just kept my eye on them, sir? If you think that we could gain any advantage from keeping the situation ambiguous for a while, perhaps?"

"Yes, a good idea. At least until the second part of the exam is over. Then, unless there is some overriding reason, we can eliminate the problem. You can go now Anko, and make sure your team gets some rest; genin always get so restless the day before the Examination. Oh, and make sure that that anything Yakushi had on him, down to his sandals, is collected and brought to me for examination. Of course, mum's the word!"

The Jonin-sensei left the Hokage's office after a polite bow. How wrongly people estimated the girl, the Hokage mused. When there was no one around to put on a show for, she was such a polite child. In a way her loyalty and dedication was at least a small easement to his pain at poor Orochimaru's fall. That and Minato's death were the two most terrible loses Sarutobi had ever suffered, even worse than his elder son's death. At least then he had still had Asuma. Always a worry and a bother, but sound at heart, and sometimes surprisingly cunning in his work for the Leaf.

Naruto was currently in a spare bedroom of the Uchiha Clan Head Mansion, wearing next to the least possible, and having two attractive girls running back and forth giving him antidotes and putting medicated hot compresses on the scratch on his right leg. When she discovered that Naruto had been grazed by one of Kabuto's needles, and that he was noticing a bit of a pins and needles feeling at the spot, Sakura had gone into overdrive and had the boy prone, stripped, and dosed before he could begin to protest.

Sasuke looked at some of the used compresses. Whatever Sakura had put on them seemed to have drawn something more than just blood out of their teammate. To be honest though, Naruto was complaining a lot more on how the antidotes he was being fed were affecting his stomach than anything about how his leg felt. In fact, Sasuke was certain that except for the stab in his face, the most damage Naruto would have received this evening would probably end up being the result of frequently pressing his nails (hard!) into his palms in order to not lose a certain degree of… control of essential bodily reactions. A wise move, Sasuke decided. If anything… awkward… happened it wasn't certain if Sakura would start beating him up right then, or just hold it over him for the rest of his life. Tamaki, of course, would just take it as a wonderful sign that the boy was recovering well. Two girls, much the same age. Both… interesting. Each so different.

Naruto and Sakura had both agreed that it had been a close thing until Sasuke had gotten there to pin the traitor to the ground. He agreed that he had made a damn fine entrance. He hadn't been in on a lot of the fight, but he certainly had put in an essential blow. He wasn't unhappy about that at all.

As he saw Sakura scurrying around there was a thought kept repeating itself in his brain. He used to think she was useless, a drag on his advancing. He used to think Naruto was an idiot, a burden to carry until he could dump them both. It was Anko-sensei who taught him the Konoha trademark teamwork was a way of multiplying strength. That the Will of Fire mattered, it bound them together. Well, realizing he had been a stupid kid back then was actually better than some of the other things he had been pondering the last few weeks.

Tomorrow, if Sakura allowed, Naruto wanted to get into the shopping district and get himself a new kodachi, one of better quality than the cheap one he had picked up for free down in Wave. Not a bad idea, really. It would be a good idea for each of them to see if they could upgrade their blades.

Ninja-cat Hiroshi was explaining what had gone right and wrong in the fight to the other ninja-cats and the almost-there ones that could understand enough words. Sasuke decided to listen in, and see if he could offer any helpful ideas for the training program that seemed to be developing. Before he did, he went over to Naruto and put a blanket on enough of him to give an enhanced degree of modesty, and discretion. "Thanks," Naruto whispered to him. "Anytime," Sasuke replied.

Sakura knew exactly what Naruto was doing, and approved of his efforts. That didn't stop her or Tamaki from 'carelessly' brushing up against him, or being a little off target as they changed the compresses drawing the poison out of his leg wound. It was just a little humorous revenge for… well, actually it was just humorous to see him try to control his natural reaction to being so close to two hot girls.

The idea about upgrading their short swords was a good one. When she had seen Naruto's break on Kabuto's chakra blades, her heart had gone into her mouth. It was a good thing that Naruto had kept his head and led the traitor into the killing ground they had studied and prepared. Her Quick Needles had been kept in a tight pattern by the boys' gift, just sweeping in front of her teammate without hitting him. Working out the exact amount of spread for the needles from that distance and at that height had been funny though. Mathematics had always been her friend at the Academy, and Naruto's bitterest enemy. Here, in a night battle in the middle of a forest it still gave her the margin of victory. No, the victory had really been all of theirs.

A smooth, warm form slid against her shin. It was Yoko-cat. She was waiting her turn for a little medical attention. Just bred the other day she was anxious to know if everything was going well, and if she had caught. Sakura wondered if Tamaki would ever tell Sasuke that Yoko had delayed the whole breeding program for almost a week by an obsessive determination that it be Sasuke who would be the one to mate with her. It had taken both the girls endless hours to convince her that it wasn't possible, and that ninja-cat Hiroshi would have to do the honors. Still, she was now just another eager expectant mother, wondering how her children would turn out.

Sakura knew she would have to seriously start studying medical techniques. It made such a natural pairing with her love of brewing poisons.

Yamanaka Ino looked up as the little bell above the front door of the shop rang, and a small, hysterical, brown-haired boy ran in and dodged behind the store's counter. "Don't tell them I'm here!" the boy said in a loud whisper.

"Who?" Ino asked. She could almost place a name with the flushed face trying to hide behind the glass fronted counter, with the shelves filled with various special baskets and decorations for various floral displays and presents. Ko…Kono…Konohamaru! Yes, he had been able to dodge his tutor a few times and shown up at their training sessions. Sensei's nephew, and he'd used to go on all the time saying he'd end up as Hokage. Naruto's idiocy was evidently being passed onto the next generation. At least Naruto seemed to have grown out of it. "Who?" she asked again, as the boy started to look around for a possible rear exit.

"Foreigners, evil foreigners. They grab little kids who are doing nothing wrong and it was an accident anyway, and they threaten them with awful stuff, and the catty one with makeup on, he was carrying a dead body on his back. I saw the eyes and everything!"

'Well,' Ino thought, 'this sounds interesting.' She went to the large front windows to check if there was anything worth seeing. Hmmm. There were three peoples' backs receding down the street, and as one of them was wearing a weird suit and a hood with little cat's ears on them and was carrying a mummy-wrapped burden, they might be Konohamaru's child-threateners. According to Sensei the kid actually was a bit of a brat, and since he didn't seem too beat-up Ino was inclined not to bother chasing after anyone. The kid had probably only gotten a fright, and deserved it. In any case, she had been told to watch the flower shop this morning. Chasing down strangers and leaving the shop to the tender mercies of a seven or eight year old didn't seem like the act of a responsible young genin who had been given direct orders by her Clan Head (and father). As she had never seen the weird suit around town, or the way the blond girl next to him wore her hair in four spikes, it was likely that the brat had just had a run-in with some of the out-of-town candidates for the Chunin Examinations. She'd see them tomorrow, at the first test; time enough then to give an apology for whatever offense Konohamaru hadn't done, and was an accident anyways.

A more pleasant sight was coming her way, in any case. Team Seven was headed in her direction, carrying some bundles and talking among themselves. Ino knew who they were, though no one in the group had the faces of Sasuke, Sakura, or Naruto. It was the way they moved; the flickering of their eyes to check for surprises coming their way, and the subtle little hand signals they were giving each other. She turned back in time to stop Konohamaru from hauling a huge vase with dried flowers off of a high shelf (and probably breaking it), ignoring his orders ("as your future Hokage") to let him have it so he could butter up his grandmother and get her to forgive him for some sort of tragedy involving flour, eggs, her favorite mixing bowl, and mothballs.

Team Seven actually entered the Yamanaka Florist as Ino was carefully explaining to Konohamaru (while suspending him by his collar a foot off the ground) that as a ninja and Clan Heir she didn't have to put up with this kind of grief from anyone, especially someone not yet the Hokage.

After she had carried the child out the door, and told him to figure out another way to ease his grandma's wrath, she greeted her new customers. "Hello, Team Anko; and who are we buying something for today?" She enjoyed their startled looks, followed by the dropping their disguises. Oddly enough, Naruto had a bandage on his face. Whatever injury he had had must have been pretty bad; she knew how quickly he healed.

"How'd you know?" Sakura asked, while the boys tried to pretend that they weren't overwhelmed by so much blooming foliage.

"Body language, Forehead. Anyone who knows you can spot the way you move, check things out, that kind of stuff."

Team Seven turned to each other, some unspoken message was passed; they nodded simultaneously, and went back to whatever they had been doing before. Ino thought it seriously odd, but didn't have time to ponder the possibilities of ESP or advanced jutsus, as what Sakura had been doing before the little silent conference had been getting ready for an insult trade. Before she could get properly started Sasuke broke in.

"We're looking for something for expectant mothers. Something with a lot of blue in it."

Oh no! Sasuke-kun had been seduced, and the gold-digger up at his house had gotten her claws into him! She automatically put on her commercial smile to cover her shock, and went to a cabinet and took out an arrangement. The boys made appreciative noises, while Sakura put a puzzled frown on her face. "No, won't do," she said.

Ino's professional pride was stung; she had made the arrangement herself.

"And why not, if I may enquire?" Her father's mantra kept going through her mind: 'Don't insult the customers, don't insult the customers.' Maybe just this one time, it was only Sakura after all?

"Nepeta," Sakura said. The boys and Ino looked at her quizzically. "Catnip," she replied.

When the boys gave thoughtful nods, Ino had to ask if the recipient didn't like the smell or something.

"Yoko, Ai, and Megumi would love it; that's the problem," Sasuke explained.

Gods and Demons, Sasuke had knocked up three girls, and hadn't even tried to kiss her on their date! What had she done wrong? What was wrong with her?

Naruto finally had mercy on his fellow blond. "Tamaki just found out some of her cats were going to have kittens, so we thought we'd, you know, do something nice for them. But if women shouldn't have alcohol and stuff, I guess Sakura thinks cats shouldn't have catnip when they're in a family way."

Ah, cats. Tamaki-chan's cats. Sasuke's purity was still safe. Good.

From there on the conversation in Yamanaka's took on a more natural (for ninja) tone, and the shoppers showed their fellow the assorted instruments of sharp, pointy death they had purchased earlier in the day. Ino's mouth was watering. Daddy wasn't letting her touch her newly-bulging bank account to upgrade her equipment, it just wasn't fair! And Team Seven was flush with all sorts of neat Tags: Exploding, Smoke, Flame, and Flash! Ino had been trying to nag Asuma-sensei into teaching one of her team how to make them. Sometimes (i.e. now) she envied Team Seven on having Anko as their sensei; they never had to worry about running out of the ability to blow things up with Naruto providing them with his creations.

As she left Sakura turned, and made a promise to Ino.

"All kidding aside, in the Exams I'll do my level best to avoid poisoning any Konoha ninja. Even you, Ino-pig."

It was an oddly reassuring comment.

An undisguised Team Seven looked at the clot of genin teams, foreign and domestic, cluttering up the hallway and staircase of the Konoha Ninja Academy. They had thought of going disguised as each other just for the hell of it, but on second thought they realized that if they had to sign anything at the Test Site they might not be able to forge each other's calligraphy well enough to pass muster. No sense in breezing through the Exam, and getting in trouble for a little technical malfeasance.

Sakura shook her head. Sasuke called up his Sharingan. Naruto counted on his fingers. They looked at each other (a habit they found hard to break) and Naruto offered a back way into the building that would avoid the traffic jam. He had found it useful often enough in sneaking into school a bit late, or leaving a trifle early, back when he had been a student there. Neither Sakura, nor Sasuke, had been that sort of kid then. Now, evading the line was the most obvious thing in the world for the formerly obedient students. Ninja discipline was mostly internal; it was results that counted.

So up a wall (the actual back doors had alarms on them) and onto the roof, followed by picking the lock on the access stairs, and right down to the third floor gymnasium their instructions had told them was where the first part of the test would be given. There were only a few other teams in the hall outside, gossiping in low tones. A few moments after they arrived Team Kurenai showed up, evidently having followed them up the back way.

Kurenai-sensei didn't have the Byakugan, of course. But she was a master of genjutsu, and that had oddly enough made her a very useful teacher for Hyuga Hinata. Genjutsu was, after all, the art of making the mind believe a false image or scene. You had to know what were the essential points the subject/victim's mind was looking for to anchor their perception. It was an insanely fast interplay between the mind of the user perceiving what the subject was looking for, and providing it with a contrived sensory image. So finding the essential point, datum, quickly was the key. Which included ignoring the less significant details that would distract and delay the imposition of the definitive illusion.

One of the greatest difficulties of the Byakugan was that in even for a modestly talented user (and Hinata considered herself as such) there was so much you saw while using the family gift. Most of those able to awaken their talent had limited enough ability and skill that they only really saw the most intense charka within a radius of a dozen meters or so. The powerhouses and prodigies like Father and Cousin Neji had the ability to see, and filter out, the obscuring things of both high and low chakra for a hundred meters or more. Hinata had been stuck with a lot more perception than she had filtering capacity. It was Sensei who, using her own genjutsu training techniques, had been able to train Hinata in setting up mental sieves that allowed her to prioritize what she was able to see; first with regular vision, then the Byakugan.

With her raw Byakugan skills her classmate Uzumaki Naruto was as blinding as the noon sun. Learning how to control her response to him had been one of the things she had spent her time learning when she was politely pretending to be paying attention to the third-rate lectures on the womanly arts that made up the Academy's Kunoichi courses. But it was only with Sensei's training that she had become able to prepare herself to actually see Naruto's 361 chakra-heavy tenketsu points, and train her unaided eyes to spot him in a crowd, or off in the distance.

So today, as her team tried to push their way through the blocked up throng trying to get into the Examination Room on the Third Floor she had seen with her unaided eyes a glimpse of yellow, then next to it the distinctive pink of Sakura-san from school. Hinata's stalking (she didn't try to hide that from herself) let her know that that combination would be Team Anko, here for the test. As Sakura-san was one of the Uchiha's stalkers Hinata had no trouble thinking friendly thoughts about her.

When Team Anko quickly abandoned going in by the front hallway, and left, Hinata had switched to her family's blessing and curse, and saw them go around to the back of the building. Then up a wall, all of them walking horizontally as if it was a flat piece of ground. From the roof to the floor above where the current body blockage was, to a room with a small number of chakra signatures, but all of them at a high average level. It was then that she realized, even from her team's position near the back of the applicant crowd, what was going on. Shino's attention had been easy to get, the increasingly angry Kiba required both of them, but from then on it was merely a short walk (around, up and then down two flights of stairs) to the real Examination Room, where Team Anko was taking their ease talking to Team Asuma over by the windows.

Cousin Neji's team came up the stairs, Cousin Neji and his female teammate holding onto a grumbling and reluctant Rock Lee. After they were out of earshot of the stairwell Tamura Tenten told Lee to knock it off, and the green-clad boy suddenly relaxed and sauntered with the others into the huge room.

Slowly other teams trickled in from various paths, including the exterior windows of the room itself. Some Konoha Chunin were also milling around, mostly near a row of chairs against one of the walls. Naruto took all this in, conversed a little with his teammates, and left the room for a moment. Hinata with her Byakugan active watched him amble, not so casual as to be suspicious, to a vacant office and once on the inside, multiply. She had seen him do this any number of times, and still had no idea exactly what was happening, but it was exciting. Today though the reason for this reproduction escaped her. He wasn't going to be using them errands around town while the exam went on, was he?

Finally the last bell rang, with a goodly number of teams still down on the mislabeled floor below. The undeceived genin in the real examination room drew their seating assignments from a bucket. There was absolutely nothing left to chance when Hyuga Hinata activated her blood-line talent and picked the chit for a seat next to Uzumaki Naruto.

The opening intimidation from Morino Ibiki added up, when you looked at it realistically, as an invitation to cheat on the test. Still, Naruto took a decent shot at answering the questions on the test without using anyone else's work. Looking at his answer sheet fifteen minutes later he thought he had a good chance at having three of the problems answered correctly enough for credit. Considering that he wouldn't have managed even one when he graduated the Academy, he felt a measure of pride. As he was pretty sure that Sasuke would be able to do seven or eight, and Sakura-chan eight or nine right answers, he was feeling secure about the team having a passing average. Except the missing tenth question… that indicated that a massive joker was going to pop up and moon the entire bunch of dutiful little ninja test nerds. Of course, there was no way he could face himself in the morning if he passed this completely honestly.

In any case, Chunin Exam Monitor 3 (in Naruto's personal labeling) was escorting a weak bladdered genin to the rest rooms, which meant that in a minute or so Clone-appearing-to-be-Chunin-Exam-Monitor-3 would be coming into the room, inspecting a few of the most likely knowledgeable test takers, and then quickly leaving the room and dispelling itself. As that would immediately pass the memories of everything it had seen to Naruto, he really wouldn't have any choice about having someone else's test results at his fingertips. As he waited for that to happen he looked around the room, and wondered how the others were involved in gathering vital answers.

Well, Hyuga Hinata was sitting right next to him, and looking down at the worktable they shared. She had a bloodline talent, didn't she? So she probably was either smart enough to do the questions herself, or had done one of those funky eye things Hyuga did to get the information. Why she was staring at the table and blushing was a bit unclear. He flashed her a brief, friendly smile that she caught out of the corner of her eye. At her slight head movement he could see that he had been correct; she was doing that Byakugan thing. She tried to shove her face-up answer sheet to him, but he gave a whispered "no" in response. It wasn't any challenge to do things that way, and if there were any errors on her sheet it would be too easy to chart the path of information flow. And it was at that moment that Clone-appearing-to-be-Chunin-Exam-Monitor-3 dispersed, and Naruto had to make a minor correction in one of his answers, and add two more to his sheet.

While he waited for the results of the now-active reconnaissance of Clone-appearing-to-be-Chunin-Exam-Monitor-1 to come to him, he went back to speculations. Ino would just check out peoples' brains, Shikamaru might be bright enough to just do the test straight (less effort that way), or else he'd figure out some weird mind game. Choji was pretty much a straight stand up guy; he'd have to probably sweat it through by himself. Kiba had the puppy that everyone thought was only a dog. Were the Monitors (all Konoha ninja) ignoring the fact that the pup was up on top of Kiba's head, and could see any papers within at least 10 meters? And also that Kiba was Inuzuka Kiba, of the can-talk-to-dogs Inuzuka? Of course they were! Like at all totally fair and unbiased ninja competitions, the Home Field Advantage for this test would be a killer.

Only a few of the genin hopefuls were weeded out by the Monitors catching them cheating too often or too blatantly. It was only after the last minute allowed for answering the nine questions on the test sheet had expired that Naruto got a chance to look at a true work of art. Morino-sensei, without any knowledge of how to do Convincing Jutsu at all, was able to rattle all the survivors' cages with a truly awesome display of intimidation about how any one genin answering the last question wrong would flunk their entire team (unless they just chickened out and walked out for this exam), and condemn the whole team to eternal genin status. For a second even Naruto was confused; then Sensei's advice to look at the whole picture (like he would have to do when he was Hokage) came back to him, and his common sense took over.

Not only would the kids of the Suna Kage be at risk, but four teams from Konoha's smaller client villages were still in the room. There was no way the Old Man would let Morino risk permanently insulting so many politically important connections. This was evidently some enormous mind-screwing, and Naruto was feeling honored to be allowed to see it unfold. He noticed the Hyuga girl look briefly over her shoulder to her teammate, Kiba. Not the most academically orientated of ninjas at the best of times, and almost certain to do something impulsive when under pressure. Naruto saw her usually faintly tentative expression change; she was going to ask to leave the test, and save her teammates from being permanently kept in the lower ranks due to some blunder on Kiba's part. Taking the blame for keeping them from a chance of promotion for at least six months was kind of noble, even though Naruto was certain it was unnecessary.

After all, though Kiba's family was being effectively run by his mother, it was officially him who was the heir of the Clan. The Aburame Clan's heir was also on the team, and Hyuga Hinata was her Clan's heir, unless the rumors Anko-sensei had commented on were actually understatements of the politicking in the Hyuga compound. So, there was no way Question 10 was going to be allowed to do so much damage to the pride of some of the most important clans in the village. As her hand began to rise Naruto grabbed it, and when her face turned to him he gave a little headshake 'no.'

She started blushing pretty heavily then, and he wondered if he was going to catch a slap across the chops (which would really hurt his still-healing wound) for having touched one of Konoha's aristocrats. But she evidently forgave him (or was storing up her anger for a later occasion) enough not to make a scene.

Naruto held her hand, for just a moment of skin to skin contact, and shook his head to stop her from pulling her team out of this deceitful Exam. The next Exam would be outside of Morino's control and cruel restrictions, safer for direct thinking types like Kiba. From Father's occasional talks (in tone more like lectures from a general to a particularly stupid recruit on how to walk in step than a father speaking to his child) she knew Morino was head of the Torture team for the village, and liked his job and its cruelty entirely too much.

She wanted to protect her teammates, but Naruto had held her hand and motioned not to do it. He certainly didn't have a reputation for being the most thoughtful of ninjas, but he was her ideal and obsession. Perhaps he was right about this; she hoped so. If not… Kiba and Shino would never talk to her again, Kurenai-sensei would abandon her, and Father would just give her that look again that said everything about how she wasn't… and would never be… of any value. She looked down at the table again, and activated her Byakugan.

Her vision pierced through the thick dead wood, through anything that wasn't touched by chakra to at least some extent. She saw Naruto's glorious chakra nodes, the flowing power that connected them, the packet of explosive tags that must be in the thigh pocket of his jumpsuit (probably enough to level the building, she thought), and the silver lines of the central seal that rode above this navel. And there, in the background, she saw the dull red-black of the foreign chakra that flowed into his seal, and was washed clean there. To her he was like a wire figure of a person, with his tenketsu points brighter connecting junctions for the wires. The living layer of his skin was just visible, if she squinted, as a grey sheath for all his vital energies.

As team after team had one or another of its members decide to avoid the final challenge of the first Test, she bit her lips and steeled herself to hold firm. When the final falterers left, and the twenty teams that were willing to dare all sat ready… Morino revealed that the final problem had been to find out who could stand the pressure of a crucial decision, and who wasn't ready yet to handle the stress of being a Chunin. Naruto, her Naruto, had guided her again into staying through the fear. The smile of victory he flashed in her direction when the final explanation of what the whole test had been about was given vindicated her trust. His answers might not always be academically correct (she was no fool about some of his shortcomings), but they had never led her wrong in what really mattered.