*Now re-edited*


It had been two weeks since the finale of the battle on the bridge. Though they were offered to stay Zabuza and Haku left Wave as soon as their wounds were healed. Naruto had asked them where they would go and they said they weren't sure but they had heard humours of a resistance starting up in Mist. The two missing-nin decided it was best to seek them out even though Kakashi had invited them to go back to Konoha with them; Haku's blood line would be loved there.

It was a few days after their departure that left Team Seven standing at the exit of the now finished bridge. Everyone turned out to say farewell to the new heroes, with Tazuna and his family at the front of the crowd. "Thanks to you we've completed the bridge but this is super sad..." Tazuna said as he patted Inari's head. The boy looked on the verge of tears.

"Thank you for everything." Kakashi thanked.

"Do not worry. We will come back to visit someday soon." Naruto assured, mostly to Inari.

"You better..."

"Take care of your mother and grandfather, you hear." She ordered. Inari nodded as the tears pooled over turning his face into a snotty mess. The Konoha team turned and started on there way home.

Tazuna waited until they were almost out of sight before he said anything. "That girl changed Inari's heart, and Inari changed the people's heart's... She gave us a bridge to 'Hope' called 'Courage.'"

"We still need to name the bridge." Tazuna's friend stated.

"Oh yeah..." Tazuna thought while scratching his head. "I think I have the perfect one."

"Oh? Well, what is it?"

"How about... The Great Naruto Bridge?" Everyone screamed their agreements.

"That's a good name." Tsunami said. His friend was the only one a little unsure.

"You sure about that name?" Tazuna laughed.

"This name is in hope that this bridge will never crumble and will one day become a super famous bridge who's name is known throughout the world..."


*Konoha, a week later*

"Good morning." Naruto called with a soft voice. The greeting was returned by both team-mates. With nothing to do until Kakashi showed up they leaned against the street's fence. To anyone walking by it would be a funny sight. All three stood the exact same way against the fence. Leaning with Sasuke in the middle and a girl on each side with arms crossed and one leg turned to form a '4' shape. They even sighed in time, and then after two and a half hours they reached into their kunai pouches and began to spin a kunai around their pinkie. The whole thing scared a passer-by who didn't think it was possible for three people to be that in time without talking.

"Hey guys! I got lost!" Kakashi lied smoothly when he arrived. Still in time the three genin kicked off the fence turned to their sensei and glared with an eye twitch. It was unnerving for the jounin. The sound of a bird overhead stole the silver cyclops' attention from his glaring students. "We were going to go ahead and do some missions but I just remembered I need to go hand in a late report so I'll give you all a day off." He eye smiled at them and disappeared via shunshin.

"Did he just make us wait for three hours then give us a day off?" Sasuke asked. Their unity in movement now broken.

"You mean to say I could have slept in?" Naruto asked as they all turned to start on their way back home. *Taptaptap* "Huh?" *Taptaptap* Naruto looked around trying to find the source of the annoying noise. She found it behind her team-mates. A square box painted to look like a rock with two eye holes were following the genin team. 'Konohamaru?'

"Ouch you stepped on my foot!" A muffled voice cried from inside the box. If they hadn't been staring before they were now.

"Konohamaru, what are you doing?" The masked girl asked.

"She saw through my disguise again. That's what I expect from my rival!" Two boys and a girl climb out from under the box. She had met Konohamaru before but the two behind him were new. The boy had round glasses, brown hair, and what looked to be snot hanging from his nose. Next to him a girl wore her orange hair in these gravity defying twin tails.

"Who are they?" Sakura asked.

"I'm Konohamaru!" said boy jumped back and struck a pose.

"I'm Udon..." Snot-boy jumped back and did the same. His voice was quiet, he was probably shy.

"I'm Moegi!" The girl called happily. She did the same as the boy did previously.

"Are these your friends from the academy you told me about?" The older girl asked. Konohamaru nodded.

"Yup! Naruto-neechan. We came to see if you were free to play ninja with us again!"

Two thirds of Team Seven were confused, 'again?' "Why would a ninja "play" ninja?" Sakura asked. Naruto rubbed the back of her neck laughing nervously. It seemed that the three academy students hadn't noticed her team-mates.

"Who are they?" Three voices asked.

"Oh? This is Sakura" She motioned to the rosette on her left, "and this is Sasuke." She motioned to the board boy to her right. "They are my team-mates."

"Ah... so big forehead girl and chicken butt head...?" Konohamaru stated/asked. Naruto nodded her head before she realized what he had said. When she did it was to late to take it back though. Sakura stormed away after her fist meet both Naruto's and Konohamaru's heads. Sasuke hadn't moved from his spot silently fuming. "Damn... Is she really a girl? Ugly huge forehead..." Everyone turned to look at Sakura who had clearly heard. Her foot was halfway off the ground.

"Run." Sasuke said. Two Genin and three academy students ran from the quickly approaching angered teen.

The chase stopped when Konohamaru had hit something "Ouch..." but what Konohamaru had bumped into wasn't something, but someone. Standing over the seven year old was a boy in an all black cat suit with war paint on his face and a Suna headband on his forehead. Behind him a girl with blond hair in four pigtails wearing a lilac dress and fishnets wore the same forehead protector around her neck.

The boy in black picked up the younger boy by the scarf around his neck leaving his feet to dangle. "That hurt you little piece of shit." His companion gave him an annoyed look.

"Don't, we'll get yelled at later." she said.

"Let's play a little before the boss comes." Konohamaru began to shake.

"Leave him alone." Naruto's voice was cold and sharp. It most definitely got the older boy's attention.

"What of it? You leaf genin are weak." He smirked and raised his fist. "Basically I hate midgets... Especially younger ones that are rude; makes me want to kill them."

Behind him the girl sighed and muttered "Oh well... I'm not involved."

"Well, after this one I'll take care of you three." He raised his fist higher and threw a punch aimed for Konohamaru's face. In a moment he stood with his fist behind his back. The red head behind him, her visible eye glaring.

"I told you to leave him alone." A rock hit the hand holding the boy, releasing him. They all looked at Sasuke who was bouncing a rock in his hand.

"Way to go Sasuke-kun!" A bit of Sakura's fangirlness leaking through. "You too Naruto!" She gave the girl a good guy pose.

"What are you doing in our village?" He demanded. Sakura and Moegi were going full fangirl on him now.

"Another guy who pisses me off..." The boy rubbed his wounded hand. Well he attempted too. Naruto was yet to release his other arm. "Will you let go?" Her glare intensified before her gaze went to the tree behind them. She let his arm go and backed over to her friends, subconsciously blocking the academy students from the direction of the tree.

The figure hidden in the tree was impressed. The girl had noticed him while no other had.

"You aren't going to use Karasu, are you?" The older shinobi had taken off a mass of bandaging from his back, ready to fight.

The figure in the tree revealed his presence and spoke. "Kankuro, stop it. You are an embarrassment to our village." Those in the street spun to look at the boy hanging from the underside of a branch by his feet. He had shaggy red hair, pale green eyes surrounded by deep black. He lacked eyebrows but had a tattoo of the kanji 'Ai' on his forehead. On his back he wore a large gourd.

"Ga-gaara..." The smug boy stammered.

"Losing control of yourself in a fight, how pathetic. Why do you think we came to the Leaf Village?" 'Gaara' scolded.

"Listen Gaara, they started it..." He sounded really nervous.

"Shut up or I'll kill you..." Both of the other Suna nin looked terrified. Meaning he wasn't bluffing. They both tried apologizing as many times as they could.

"Kit, that boy... he's..." Naruto's eyes widen at what Kurama had just told her. Then she took a closer look at the boy. There was a highly damaged seal originating from the red haired boy. "Ichibi..." Kurama whispered.

"I am sorry to you guys." He disappeared in a whirl of sand only to reappear between his companions. "It looks like we got here too early but we didn't come here to play around. Let's go." He turned to leave before a normally soft voice called loudly. Looks of shock were on her team-mates faces.

"Wait. You with the gourd..." Her voice returned to normal. "You should see someone about your seal. It is dangerous to leave it in the state it is in." Then she added darkly "You would not want him to escape." The Suna nin stared at the younger genin with disbelief, even the stoic red head.

"H-how could you know about that?" The blond stuttered. A small red fox gently sat down on the youngest Suna shinobi. She didn't stay there for long. though. Sand roared from the ground to chase her as she hopped around the street.

"Wow... He really doesn't like me any more." the kitsune said, a fox grin etched onto her face.

"Kurama." Naruto spoke. With a sigh the fox returned to her cage. "I apologize about her. She was just excited to find one of the other bijuu." She smiled at them. "If you do not mind me asking why are you in our village?"

"You look like genin from Suna and though Suna is allied with Konoha it is forbidden for shinobi of other villages to enter another village without permission." Sakura switched into her smart mode.

"We have permission." The Suna kunoichi flipped out her pass as proof. "We are genins from the Hidden Sand. We have come to you village to take the Chunin Selection Exam."

"Oh?" Naruto seemed to be the only one to know what the exams were. "I did not realize they were so close by." Then muttered "Kakashi-sensei better recommend us for it..."

The Suna team turned and began to walk away again.

"What is your name?" Sasuke demanded of the red head boy.

"Gaara of the Desert. I'm also interested in your names." He looked back and forth between Naruto and Sasuke.

"It's Uchiha Sasuke."

"Uzumaki Naruto." They both introduced themselves and Gaara's team left. "Let us go, too. We are being watched." Her team nodded and they all disappeared in a flash so as to lose the three in the trees if they tried to follow.

The next morning Kakashi sent the members of Team Seven a message saying to be at the bridge at seven for an important announcement. When seven rolled around all three members were at the bridge but there was no sign of their Sensei.

"How can this be allowed? Why does that person ask us to meet and then make us wait? I overslept and didn't have time to blow dry my hair!" Sakura ranted. The opposite was true for the other female. She had woken up early and seeing as she had time decided to try blow drying her hair. Never again. Her red spikes stuck up twice the amount they normally do. There was this one spike that one could swear was gelled to be pointing upwards. No matter how many times she patted it down it would spring back up. It was amusing to one Uchiha.

"That is it!" She took off her weapons holster and coat and jumped into the river below them ignoring the confused looks she got.

"What on earth are you doing Naruto?" Kakashi had arrived in time to see his student jump over the side of the bridge. She came up on shore and shook her head to get some water off her.

"Damn spike would not stay down. Now it will." The others sweat-dropped at her antics. Her plan had worked though. With her hair wet she now had no spikes; she resembled her mother much more with her hair wet Kakashi noted.

"Okay... Well now to business. This is sudden but I've nominated you guys for the Chunin Selection Exam. Here are your applications." He handed each genin a slip of paper. Sasuke took Naruto's since she was still soaked and would ruin it. "Though this is just a nomination whether to take the exam is up to each of you. Those who wish to take it should sign those papers and turn them in at room 301 by four pm tomorrow. That is all." and the silver jounin was gone. The three genin smirked at each other and went home to prepare for the upcoming exam.


Next up is the start of the Chunin Exams!

-Lil