AN: Sorry for the late update! Just an fyi before you read the chapter: I really wanted to get this up for you guys before I went to Canada for the weekend, so I didn't edit it as extensively as normal. It still feels rough to me, and if you agree please shoot me a message and I'll edit then re-upload later.

Chapter 10

Sai was the only one who ate his entire breakfast the next morning. It was obvious that Naruto was a bundle of nerves, but Sasuke claimed he was used to not eating much. He was lying. After a few more moments watching the blond push his food around his plate, the Uchiha stood up. Naruto almost looked relieved and followed suit.

They made it to the Sand's ninja academy where the test was taking place, only to find it already overrun by genins. From the looks of it, the building was open, but nobody seemed sure of where to go. Sasuke vaguely remembered something similar from the first exam. This is how I first met Lee, he recalled. And if this one was anything like the other, there was bound to be some kind of genjutsu disguising the real exam room.

Apparently Naruto remembered as well, because as soon as they were in front of the "exam room" he turned and looked helplessly at Sasuke. The raven tried not to feel too smug about the fact he was chosen over Sai, glanced up at the sign and shook his head slightly before taking the lead. The blond fell into step behind him, shoving through the huge crowd around them.

They weaved around the building for what seemed like ages, pushing past people at every turn, before finally finding the real room. Sasuke forced open the door and they entered. It was already packed almost to capacity, despite its large size. The three of them managed to find seats nowhere near each other and sat down. Sasuke glanced up at the clock. It was a good thing they left early; there were only a few more minutes before the first portion was supposed to begin.

As soon as he thought that, the door opened and at least five more teams stumbled in breathlessly. A couple of the ninjas were able to find seats, but the remaining thirteen stood in the front of the room looking lost. None of the other participants tried to help them; the more who were eliminated now, the easier it would be in the long run. The clock struck 9, and the door opened one last time.

Several ninjas Sasuke didn't recognize entered the room. He guessed they were the proctors, based on the papers in their hands. One of the taller males spoke, while the rest moved about the room, distributing the tests.

"Welcome to the chunin exam. If you are in this room, it means you already passed the first challenge and made it to the written test. Anyone who is not in either this room or one of the other two down the hall by now, has already been eliminated."

Two other exam rooms? Sasuke looked around. There had to be at least a few hundred people in this room alone. If the other two rooms were anywhere near this size, they would be pushing a thousand participants. A thunk jerked him from his thoughts and he looked down to see the tests had already made it to him. Grabbing one he passed it on.

Holy hell this is huge. This has to be at least twice the size of the last test. Indeed the packet he held in his hands was barely small enough for the staple that went through it. Sasuke was amazed it hadn't fallen apart yet.

"Because of the record breaking number of attendees, this year will be run a bit…differently," the proctor continued. "As I'm sure you've all noticed, the written test is quite a bit longer than it was in the past. In order to get the number of teams reduced before the second portion, a new rule is in place: anyone who does not finish the written exam in 90 minutes will be automatically eliminated. Likewise, all the exams will be graded before the second portion of the exam, and anyone who scores below a 70% will also be disqualified. And just like before, if one team member is failed, the other two are failed by association."

Suddenly, Sasuke was glad Naruto had spent all that time studying on the way here. The raven looked down toward the front. From the side view, it appeared as though the blond wasn't even surprised at the news; he must've figured something like this would happen. The Uchiha found himself wishing he'd joined Naruto in his studies; four years away from the academy had him pretty rusty on test taking.

Remembering there was a third member in their team, Sasuke looked sideways toward where Sai was sitting. He too didn't appear surprised to hear the new, stricter rules. Figures. That dick was probably born taking tests for Danzo. As if hearing his name, the artist turned and glanced at Sasuke. When he saw him looking, he smirked. Sasuke huffed and looked away. Dick.

The proctor spoke again. "Looks like everyone has their tests. Good. There should be pencils and pens in front of you in case you didn't bring your own. No questions. No breaks. You have 90 minutes. Begin."

A rustle of papers indicated the exam had begun. Sasuke grabbed his own and flipped it to the first page. Crammed on it were 10 questions. He flipped through the rest of the test quickly to see what he was in for. Each page had 10 questions. The last 3 pages were short answer essays. In total the test contained 200 multiple choice/fill in the blank questions, 6 short answer questions, and one longer essay. In 90 minutes. Fuck me.

He unconsciously glanced up at his blond teammate. Naruto was already hard at work, scribbling at practically lightning speed on his paper. His eyes slid sideways to Sai who was somehow calmly writing just as fast as Naruto was. He looked back down at his own paper, his stomach clenching painfully. It occurred to him that he could be the weak link in this. He hadn't studied or prepared either way; he was completely relying on Sai's ink jutsu.

As if on cue, a tiny fly splatted down on his paper, turning immediately into words.

"Stop daydreaming, Uchiha, and get to work. If you fail this test I will kill you."

A second fly landed.

"The first answer is B, to get you started."

Sasuke resisted the childish urge to glare at Sai and instead read the question. Sure enough the answer was B. Somehow he was angry about it. He was about to begin the second question when a third fly landed on his paper. This one was clearly meant for Naruto as well.

"Remember if you have a reply to sweep the ink onto your pencil and write with it. There is enough ink to send two messages. You have a little over 2 minutes a question. Don't waste time. Good luck."

And so Sasuke began working. Unlike the first exam, he wasn't overwhelmed with the feeling that he knew nothing. For once in his life, he was happy he'd run away and trained with Orochimaru all those years; if he hadn't he wouldn't have gotten half the questions right.

By the second page, he'd used the fist ink Sai had sent him to tell them the answers to three of the questions. Well, he mostly sent it for Naruto. Who knew what the former Root member had been forced to learn?

He was halfway through the 200 "quicker" questions by the 40 minute mark; ahead of schedule, but still concerned about the essay at the end.

Sasuke was feeling pretty good about himself when he hit the true false section: questions 170-200. He breezed through the first four, snorting at number 175 for being so easy. A quick glance at the clock revealed he had about 25 minutes to finish up the exam; more time than he'd expected. He smirked at the expressions of some of the people around the room; there were considerably less than they started with – several rookies were caught obviously cheating and their teams were immediately dismissed – and of the remaining, only a select few teams looked confident. The rest were sweating in their seats.

A plop alerted Sasuke to a new message from Sai. They'd been going back and forth, revealing answers to random questions. Naruto hadn't said anything so far, and the raven began to wonder if the blond was doing okay. He shook himself and read the message below.

"175: true." He snorted. Obviously.

A few seconds later a second plop distracted him from reading question 178.

"You're wrong. It's false."

The scribbly handwriting could only belong to Naruto. Before Sasuke had time to respond, another fly exploded into ink.

"Reason?"

Splat.

"Shadow Clones share their knowledge with you the second they disappear."

"The question didn't ask about Shadow Clones, just normal ones."

"No. It said clones never specified a type."

Sasuke reread the question. He had to hand it to Naruto; the guy had a point. It took Sai another moment to respond.

"I would normally agree with you on this one, but the likelihood the person who wrote the exam knows about Shadow Clones is minimal."

Also true.

"I disagree with you there. I use Shadow Clones all the time, especially during the ninja war which everyone was at. If they don't know about it by now, then they are dumber than I am."

Naruto: 2, Sai: 1. Sasuke was giving the win to the blond. He crossed out his answer and circled false, listing the Shadow Clones as his reason below it. The conversation had taken up some precious time and he was now 1 minute behind finishing the test within the limit. He continued on, ignoring the small splat sounds which indicated Naruto and Sai were still arguing about the question.

Finally, halfway through the short answers, Sasuke got fed up. He scooped up the latest ink and scribbled furiously before it turned into two flies and delivered his message.

"We have less than 12 minutes left in this exam. Shut up and finish before we get disqualified."

There were no more messages after that.

"Time," called the proctor, and Naruto set his pencil down, having just completed the final essay question. A scuffle behind him announced a ninja's failure to stop writing; he and his team were escorted out. The blond glanced behind him toward his two teammates. Sai flashed him a thumbs up. Sasuke just smirked.

Figures. They probably finished ages ahead of me.

After a few more teams were kicked out for not finishing in the time limit, the proctors dismissed them. Naruto stood and stretched. He was feeling pretty decent about it. Back in the academy he'd been known for having the worst test scores, but that was because he never studied. He always believed in proving value based on actions, not words. Sakura's stories about her second chunnin exam changed his mind.

Sure, he'd remembered the point of the written portion was to cheat, but he wasn't good at stealth. So he decided to do the next best thing: study and learn the material. Lucky for him, half the stuff on the test was covered in Sakura's notes he'd studied. Everything else he'd learned from experience or guessed and hoped he was right. 70% was a high goal; they must really need people to fail out before the next part.

The blond walked out the door, then stood and waited for his teammates to come through. It didn't take them long.

"I wonder how long we'll have to wait before the results," he mused, falling into step with Sai.

"I overheard them saying a day or two," the artist responded.

"Really? Seems pretty impossible to me."

"Hn."

His irritation with his former best friend hit him full force. "If you have something to say then say it, Uchiha. People these days use words, you know." Naruto snapped.

Sasuke sighed behind him. "Idiot, did you see how many people there were here?"

"Hence the impossible part."

"I meant the people hosting the exam."

He refused to respond.

"All they have to do is check the tests until someone misses 60 questions, then they can fail that entire team and move on."

Asshole had a point. So many teams would be eliminated that way.

Naruto's blood ran cold. Oh gods what if I only got a 69%? What if I failed the entire team because I missed one question too many?! What if Sai was right about the clone question?

In silence, the team walked the rest of the way to their rooms.

As much as he would've loved to hang out with Gaara, Naruto was a bundle of nerves the next day. He could barely sleep the night before, and now he could barely choke down his ramen. The blond knew his team should be training under the assumption they made it onto the next round, but Naruto didn't feel much like training with his dick obsessed friend and the cold hearted bastard. So he spent his day wandering around the Sand, not paying attention to anything around him and tripping over his feet until he gave up and returned to his room.

He was surprised to see Sasuke alone when he got there.

"Where's Sai?"

The raven shrugged. Naruto felt the same wave of irritation that seemed to envelop him every time he came in contact with the Uchiha lately.

"You know it wouldn't kill you to use real words sometimes, Uchiha." He slumped down on his bed, not expected Sasuke to respond.

"Why do you still call me that?"

Naruto glanced over at Sasuke in shock. The raven's voice had been so low, he wasn't sure the other had even spoken at all. Even now he didn't know; Sasuke wasn't looking at him.

"What?"

"Nothing."

The blond debated not answering. He really did. He sighed.

"Uchiha is your name. Why? You preferred "teme"? Or "Asshole"?" He smirked a little. Sasuke seemed to ignore him for a moment, presumably going through the same internal struggle Naruto just had.

"You used to call me Sasuke. Just Sasuke."

"We used to be friends."

Silence.

Ouch. Ok that was harsher than I meant. Naruto sat up.

"What I meant was we used to be on a team together and be rivals and…stuff," he finished lamely.

"I know what you meant."

Oh, well whoop-dee-doo then .

They were silent again for a moment.

"Does it really bother you?"

"Hm?"

"That I still call you 'Uchiha'."

Sasuke didn't answer. Of course it doesn't bother him. He's just an arrogant asshole.

But the way the raven was sitting jarred something in Naruto. Sasuke still had a passive expression on his face, but his shoulders were slumped over slightly, and the blond could swear he saw something shiny in his eye. It took him a moment to realize he felt bad for the Uchiha. He'd never thought anything about this whole ordeal would be difficult for him. It was a shocking realization.

"Since we're teamed up together for now, I suppose I could call you…Sasuke again." Naruto scratched the back of his head awkwardly. He grinned slightly at the bemused expression on the other's face. "Just for the exam though," he assured the raven.

A smirk settled on Sasuke's face. "Good. I wouldn't want you getting too attached afterwards."

The blond opened his mouth to retort but just then the door flew open.

"Naruto-kun!" A body slammed into his, forcing his body to fall back onto the mattress.

"Ouch! Sai! I told you to stop –"

The artist ignored him. "We passed!"

"What?" I passed?

"All of us?" Sasuke cut in.

Jerk.

"Even you, Sasuke-kun."

"BURN!" Naruto shoved Sai off him and sat back up, the raven rolling his eyes and ignoring their comments.

"So what now?" The blond inquired, turning back toward Sai.

"Tomorrow morning we report to the same location where the Kazekage-sama first greeted us."

YES! I PASSED!

"Awesome!" Naruto all but screamed. "Wake me up then!" And with that, he flipped over into his bed and fell into a much needed slumber.

AN: See? It's totally a NaruSasu fic! This actually took so long, because I half considered writing some of the questions (especially the one Naruto was right about) for you guys, but then I decided against it because I didn't really want to. The second portion of the exam is already partly written, and it should take a few chapters (I think. But I also wanted to start it in this chapter and that clearly did not happen, so who knows?). If they pass they'll move onto the third part. Will they pass? Who knows! Keep reading to find out. Also, reviews do encourage me (even if you don't believe that right now) and I hope to have the next chapter out in a week or so. One last thing: I haven't killed anyone yet, but I can't guarentee any character's safety in this fic. Just to keep you on your toes. :)