The sun was shining. The birds were singing. The flowers were in bloom. There was a slight breeze, warm and dry. Bright green leaves floated in it. Naruto grabbed one and looked at it, remembering. Six months seemed to have gone, just like that. Every waking moment had been spent training, not a second wasted. And now he would get to see if it would pay off. Today was the day. The Chunin Exams were beginning today. Without looking away from the leaf in his right hand, he said, "What is it, Konohamaru?" He heard a groan of disappointment behind him and smiled. It had been quite an experience, meeting the Sandaime's grandson. It had been quite an inconvenience, meeting the "Honorable Grandson's" private tutor, Ebisu. That week had opened up Naruto's eyes to the population of Konoha. Because of the Village's prejudices, Naruto kept out of sight as much as possible. With the "Honorable Grandson" at his side, however, the Villagers had learned to turn a blind eye to him. Now he got to eat at Ichiraku Ramen any time of day he wanted, instead of having to go at times when he knew no one would see him. It was quite liberating.

"How did you know it was me? How did you even know I was here?" Konohamaru demanded. His superior attitude had dropped, but he was still as loud and boisterous as ever. It reminded Naruto of a certain blond haired ninja he once knew.

"Training, Honorable Grandson, and hard work, got me this far," Naruto said in a good copy of Ebisu's voice and tone. The kid couldn't help but grin at such a perfect imitation of his private tutor. "Seriously, though," Naruto went on, "these last six months have changed me. I have met you, I have been reintroduced to the Village, I have gotten a lot stronger, and finally, I have made and helped a friend. It's been quite hectic."

Konohamaru came and stood next to Naruto, looking out over the calm waters of the river. The bridge they were standing on was the exact spot Team Kakashi met. In the time Naruto had managed to spare from his training, which basically meant when he was too exhausted to even move, Naruto had shared his life with the young student. They had found they had many things in common, among which was their appreciation for good ramen, Ichiraku Ramen, to be precise. Konohamaru was probably the only person who knew Naruto inside out, besides Hinata, but she didn't really count. After all, there were things only guys could talk about. But it hadn't been a completely one sided relationship. Konohamaru, in his own sneaky way, had managed to appropriate dome of the Sandaime's jutsu scrolls. Suffice to say, Naruto now had a jutsu or two up his sleeve to even surprise people who knew him, like Sasuke and Sakura.

"The Chunin Exams," Konohamaru said. "They start today. Grandfather has been very busy lately. It looks like there are a lot of … complications." Konohamaru paused, and Naruto did not interrupt. After a moment, the young student continued. "There have been some minor skirmishes between Konoha and Suna ninja, and so Grandfather has had to work to smooth things over, or else the Exams will turn into an excuse for war. Also, it seems some of the Lesser Villages will be taking part, and they are dangerous, according to Grandfather, because of their hatred of the Main Villages. One of the Villages taking part will be Otogakure, so …"

"He's afraid that his old student might just be up to something bad," finished Naruto, "by using the Lesser Villages' own hatred against us. He thinks a war might break out, doesn't he?"

Konohamaru nodded. "The changes have been subtle at the academy. One thing is that we now have to learn evacuation routes. What are you going to do?" Naruto knew what the kid meant; if the exams were a potential death trap, would it be wise to take them. After all, if war did break out, being a chunin wouldn't exactly help him survive. It was nothing more than a title, a title of recognition, which is exactly what Naruto wanted. Meeting Konohamaru had stoked the fire of passion within Naruto, the fire that kept Naruto's dream of being Hokage burning, the fire that kept Naruto from giving up, and the fire that had been slowly dying. With his renewed faith and a flame burning bright and strong, Naruto was not going to back down from a challenge.

"Me? I'm going to continue with the exam and make sure I'm right in the middle of the action, where I'm of maximum use."

Konohamaru nodded. He finally turned to face Naruto. He stretched out his right arm, his hand clenched into a fist. "Stay safe," he said. Naruto finally turned and looked at Konohamaru, smiling. He tapped the fist with his own, and then ruffled the kid's hair slightly.

"Who would have thought that under such an annoying, not to mention loud and hyper, attitude like that, you were really a smart ninja, and an okay person? Not me, that's for sure. We'll go and celebrate my promotion to chunin next time we meet."

Konohamaru took Naruto's hand off his head with an annoyed grunt. He always hated it when Naruto ruffled his hair. But then he looked at the genin and smiled. "I'd love that," he said, and walked off, a smile plastered on his face.

XXX

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura laid eyes on each other for the first time in six months. For a moment, all was silence, and then it was as if they had only been separated for a day. Sakura immediately slumped down next to Sasuke, who was sat down on a step.

"What a six months it has been," she sighed, he shoulders drooping. "I never thought I would get through it."

"What happened?" Naruto asked casually, although he already knew. It had been part of his deal with Kurenai-san, after all.

"Well, after Hinata was suspended by Kurenai-sensei, she got the idea to come and train me. I temporarily joined Team 8, but since Kiba and Shino have their own clan training methods, I spent most of my time alone with Kurenai-sensei." She stopped to rub her forearms, which Naruto noticed had lost any baby fat and were now the hard, corded arms of a kunoichi. He had made the right decision in paying all his money. Now Team 7 was definitely much stronger. "She knows some mean taijutsu, Kurenai-sensei, and some wicked genjutsu. I was only able to master a handful of her genjutsu and ninjutsu, but I definitely made up for it in taijutsu." Sakura scowled. "She made sure of that, the slave driver. The way she trained me, it was as if someone forced her at knife point!" At this comment, Sasuke's eyes briefly flickered to Naruto's, and both boys nearly smiled. Poor Sakura didn't know just how right she way. One condition had been that if Sakura did not show significant improvement, then Naruto would get all his money back, with interest. No one had that kind of money to give out. "But I'm now definitely stronger, so watch out world! Team 8 did get to go to some cool missions though. We even got to guard the heiress to one of the Fire Country's wandering ninja clans! She was so pretty, kind, and very skilled too. Honestly, I don't know why we were hired. She had such a handsome and overprotective brother as well." Sakura giggled a little, and Naruto had to suppress a sigh. It seemed not all of Sakura's little habits had been stomped out. "How was your time with Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked with a small smile. Yep, definitely not.

"We trained," Sasuke said. Naruto blinked. Seven months, and that's all he could say. Smiling inwardly, he realized that's pretty much all he had done as well. Sakura looked a little downhearted by this lack of response, but did not give up.

"Did you do any interesting mission?" she asked. However, before Sasuke could reply, there was a loud poof of smoke, and Kakashi appeared in his customary crouching position.

"Yo," he said with his usual eye-smile. How he could do that, Naruto always wondered. But then again, when no one could see your face, you had to find a way to show some kind of facial expression.

"How have you been, Sakura, Naruto?" Kakashi asked.

"Fine," Naruto said, before Sakura could launch into another rendition of her six months. Kakashi smiled inwardly. They hadn't changed. Sakura scowled at him, which he ignored.

"Alright then, today is the day," Kakashi said. Suddenly, all three genin tensed. "The day you three have been training for. Now, I know Sasuke and Sakura have gone on missions, which adds to what they bring to the team. They bring experience with them. I don't know how you have been doing, Naruto …"

"I have gone on a mission or two," Naruto said nonchalantly.

He must have a lot of confidence in his abilities if he's that laid back, thought Kakashi. But Kakashi could tell Naruto was stronger. Already the boy knew how to hide his chakra level very well, which required a lot of concentration and skill. I cannot wait to see how you have changed, Naruto, Kakashi said to himself.

"Alright then," Kakashi said, taking out three slips from his vest. "Sign these and show up at the academy in an hour, and you can commence your journey." He almost added "your journey of youthful experience", but he checked himself before he went that far. Gai, he thought, what have you done to me? I should have hanged out with Kurenai and Asuma more.

XXX

As Team 7 made their way to the Academy, Naruto made sure they caught up. The Chunin Exams could only be taken in a three man team, which meant that working together played a big part in whatever the examiners had lined up. So to work sufficiently well together, they needed to be aware of each other's abilities. Suffice to say, by the time they had reached the Academy gates, each member of Team 7 had something to think about. From what Naruto could gather, Sakura now had almost every Konoha genin level genjutsu pegged, plus a surprising number of chunin genjutsu. This would be very helpful, seeing as genjutsu did not require much chakra in general, instead relying on the caster's mental skills and chakra control. This would be perfect, seeing as Sakura had not fully developed her physical strength, and therefore lacked the full amount of chakra she could have had she stuck to her training. But there was no use crying over wasted chakra, so Naruto kept his thoughts to himself.

Sasuke was more of a surprise. In the six months he had been training with Kakashi, he had almost mastered his Sharingan. It did not matter that his Sharingan had not fully matured. He now knew how to use the eyes to their full potential, using what powers only his two tomoe granted him. Also, his list of ninjutsu had increased dramatically, seeing as the Sharingan allowed him to copy most jutsu. Naruto's face darkened for a second when he learned this, while Sakura simply beamed. When was fate going to smile on him? The next instant he banished the thought. He would just have to get stronger without a Kekkei Genkai to help him. Besides, where was the fun in being able to copy any jutsu? Learning was much more fun. Sasuke had also increased his chakra control, having mastered the water walking exercise. Naruto smiled for a fraction here. While Sasuke and Sakura had only done the basic water walking exercise, he had done the far more advanced one, courtesy of Iruka-sensei.

"Alright then," Naruto sighed as they came to the doors that led into the main building of the Academy, where they were expected to show up, and where the first exam would take place. He looked back at the team. "We are going to do this as a Team, got it?" he said, looking at Sasuke, who scowled, "and we are going to behave like proper shinobi, right?" he added, looking at Sakura, who also scowled. Just as the two were about to barge past him, Naruto held out both his hands to stop them.

"There's one more thing," he said, in a tone of voice that brooked no argument. He quickly filled them in on what Konohamaru had told him. When he was finished, he turned his back on the two and opened the doors, looking away from their slightly shocked expressions. "So we potentially have ninja here whose mission is not to pass the Exams, but to take out all Konoha ninja so as to weaken Konoha itself. Don't let our Team be the one that gets dispatched. There might be genin in there who are chunin or even jonin level, in disguise or have just been held back specifically for this objective. We must work as a team!" this time, Sasuke and Sakura did not react adversely to Naruto's statement, but merely nodded. "And we have got to spread the word to any other genin team from Konoha. Don't tell them everything, just enough to make them wary of foul play." With that, Naruto led Team 7 into the Academy and the Chunin Exams.

XXX

Kabuto watched as he came in, Sasuke Uchiha. He smiled. Finally, Orochimaru-sama's goal was within reach, and it lay within that boy. Kabuto frowned as he saw that Sasuke-kun looked a bit bruised, like he'd been in a fight, but he ignored that. He saw a pink haired kunoichi enter behind Sasuke-kun, a teammate perhaps, and then got the shock of his life when he saw the blond haired ninja that came in after Sasuke and pinky. The Nine Tails brat was on the same team as Sasuke-kun! Well, well, this would make for an interesting Chunin Exam. He quickly and discretely got out his deck of cards and checked Sasuke-kun's Team information. He was in a team with Sakura Haruno, the pink haired kunoichi, and Naruto Uzumaki. The number of missions weren't very encouraging, with the team having only completed one mission together. Sasuke-kun had however completed a total of twenty missions, Sakura-chan fifteen, and Naruto-kun twenty. However, the lack of enough missions was more than made up for by the quality of missions. Sakura-chan had completed five D-rank missions, nine C-rank missions and one B rank mission. He frowned. Again, Sasuke-kun and the Nine Tails brat were on a draw. Both had completed two D-rank missions, eleven C-rank missions and seven B-rank missions. It was very interesting, that both boys had faced many elite chunin and a few jonin in battle and lived, without any lasting harm. On top of that, all three had quite the list of skills. Sakura-chan had elite chunin level chakra control and an extensive list of genjutsu. Her taijutsu was good, but nothing impressive. Again, he was surprised to find the Nine Tails brat on par with Sasuke. While Sasuke had a more extensive list of known ninjutsu mastered, Naruto-kun was a highly skilled taijutsu user. As Kabuto knew, taijutsu was one of the Sharingan's few weaknesses. Having a unique taijutsu (that Kabuto hadn't been able to find any specific information about, other than that it was called The Dragon's Hidden Claws), Naruto could wreak a lot of damage. Interesting. It took him a few moments to finally admit it, but he now knew the two genin shared the same relationship as Orochimaru-sama and Jiraiya once did. They were close friends and bitter rivals. He saw them go to their fellow Leaf genin teams. He would let them socialize before he approached Sasuke-kun's team. With a smile of anticipation for the coming challenges, he put down the card he had been viewing all this information on. The jutsu that helped Kabuto contain his vast array of information in his card deck had been quite the find. It had been in one of Orochimaru-sama's scrolls, the one from when the Sannin had been a Konoha ninja. Such a long time ago that way, and still Orochimaru-sama looked like he was in his late twenties. And Sasuke Uchiha would help to keep it that way.

XXX

"Alright, listen up" Ibiki Morino said. "This written exam will only last for half an hour, in which you are expected to answer nine questions. After that, there is a tenth and final question I will ask you verbally. You have to answer every question on the Test Paper or you will be disqualified. If one you fails, the entire team fails. If I or one of the helping proctors catches you cheating, you will be disqualified. Is that understood?"

Everyone nodded. He smiled, the scar on his face stretching, making him look even more intimidating. "One last thing before you begin: to pass the written exam, you have to get 90, or you be disqualified." Immediately there was an uproar, which he quelled just as quick. "Silence! My word is law, so get used to it. If you don't like it, you can walk out now." No one did. "Good, you may begin."

XXX

Naruto calmly looked at his blank Paper. Only two minutes were left. He had guessed that this test was about information gathering, and he had just the technique to help, and he could have used it on Sakura, who was a genius at stuff like this, but he hadn't. He risked failing and his team being disqualified, and why? Because he had a hunch. He had seen that look in Ibiki's eyes, and it reminded him of his days with Taita-sensei. He knew that look. That look said: what you're doing is completely useless, no matter how hard it is, but I will enjoy watching you suffer all the same. Something was up. He knew that whatever the tenth question was, it would be the crucial one. He wasn't disappointed.

"Alright now, before I ask you the tenth question, there is something you need to know. If you answer the question wrong, your entire team fails and you will never be allowed to take the Chunin Exams ever again. However, if you quit now, you will be allowed to take part in the next Chunin Exams. The choice is yours. You have one minute to think about it." Ibiki already saw that five teams would be dropping out, based on the emotions he saw playing across some genin's faces, and smirked. His job was to weed out as many as he could, and he would. By the time the minute was up, ten teams had dropped out. That was when he saw him. The smirking kid. The Nine Tails brat.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

"You," the kid said evenly, the smirk still on his face. "I'm just wondering whether this is just a job for you, or if you actually get a kick out of scaring little kids."

"What did you say to me?" Ibiki shouted, a vein pulsing on his temple.

"You heard me. That look in your eyes, you'd think Golden Week had come early! Well, let me tell you something, Ibiki-san, I don't care if I have to be a genin my entire life. There's nothing that's going to stop me from becoming the Hokage." Despite all the insults dealt to him, Ibiki couldn't help but smile. The kid had spunk, he had to give him that. Also, the kid had one innate gift that Ibiki had rarely seen; hope. Already the three teams he had pegged down as goners were regaining their confidence. They would be staying, no doubt about it, and there was no psychological attack he could use that would change their minds.

"Well then, Uzumaki Naruto, let me be the first to congratulate you on passing the first stage of the Chunin Exams," he said.

"What?" asked a Leaf genin in shock. "What about the tenth question?"

"There was no tenth question," Ibiki replied. "A Chunin has to have the courage to stick to his mission and carry it out, no matter what danger he faces, known and unknown. By choosing to stay and face he unknown tenth question that could have ended in disaster, you have all shown that you posses the right mindset to become chunin. Congratulations." It took a moment for this to sink in, but once it did, almost everyone started cheering. They had passed!

"Now make your way to Area 44 for the next part of your exam," Ibiki said gruffly, but not unkindly. The genin didn't have to be told twice. They immediately rushed out of the room in a stampede, anxious to get on with things. As the Nine Tails kid came down the aisle, he was holding his exam paper. He handed it to Ibiki, a small smile on his lips.

"Looks like your word isn't law after all," he said, and left, his two teammates behind him.

"Cut it a little close there, you idiot," he heard the last Uchiha say as the three walked down the corridor. He looked down at the paper, and for the first time in years, Ibiki froze from shock, his entire body paralyzed.

The paper is blank, he thought stupidly. In all his time as a proctor, this was the first time a genin had passed with a blank paper. It was absolutely smooth, no marks on it, apart from the kid's name in flowing handwriting. After a second, he smiled, and looked toward the direction of the Forest of Death.

You are a very interesting character, Naruto Uzumaki. I can't wait to see how you fare in the rest of the exam.

XXX

All the genin assembled at a pair of large, old, rusted gates. Beyond was a forest that gave everyone a chill. Boy, were they glad there was a huge fence between them and whatever creatures dwelt in that forest.

"Alright, everyone!" came a shout from the roof of a booth. "Welcome to the second part of the Chunin Exams." They looked up to see a young kunoichi, wearing the vest of a Tokubetsu Jonin. She had a fishnet vest over her shirt, which Naruto instantly recognised to be made of a very fine, but strong wire mesh.

"The second part will be held inside Area 44, otherwise known as the Forest of Death!" She got the reaction she was hoping for. Half the genin looked ready to wet themselves. Sweet. She suddenly three a kunai with her left hand at some Grass Village genin who hadn't been paying 100 attention. As she did so, she jumped down and continued briefing the genin on how the second part would be carried out.

"Understood?" she asked loudly when she had finished. All of them nodded. "Good, now get–" She suddenly stopped and took out another kunai. She held it in her left hand, the point at an angle, facing backwards.

"You dropped your kunai," she heard one of the Grass Village genin say from behind her. He held her kunai with his tongue, waving it slightly in front of her face.

"Thank you," she replied with a smirk. She took it from him and said, "You should watch out. That lovely tongue of yours might end up impaled, or worse, as someone's dinner."

"Thank you, I'll keep that in mind," the genin said, and then used a Body Transfer Jutsu to get back to his team. Why does he seem so familiar, Anko wondered. His chakra seems familiar, but the kid's good at hiding it. I wonder …

"Right then!" Anko Mitarashi shouted. "Get going you maggots!"

XXX

I know this is all so familiar, but I need to get the right setting. Also, I'm going to add a new, but short, arc right after the Invasion of Konoha and before the Search for Tsunade arc. I know some of you will be downhearted, but I think I'm not gonna write the Sasuke Retrieval arc. I'm just gonna write the beginning, a few key points like Naruto fighting Kimimaro and Rock Lee butting in, and then I'm gonna skip to when Naruto's in hospital when he failed. We've all watched it and read the story a dozen times, so we all know what's gonna happen. Anyways, enjoy! Longest chapter yet.