As It Is Now

Chapter 9

I don't own much, and what I do own, well, last I checked, Naruto wasn't part of what I own 

!!

Naruto had no time to question the white haired jounin regarding the tracker as the chuunin exam had begun. Two days earlier foreign ninja had been arriving and walking around, checking out Konoha and its way of life. Due to peace times, hostilities between genin teams were low as expected. Not to mention any fighting outside the exam was strictly prohibited and resulted in automatic disqualification.

Rules for the exam changed slightly every year and were decided by the Kage of the village hosting it. This year Naruto and several other select shinobi had decided to host something similar to Naruto's first chuunin exam with various modifications. The exam was moderate, nothing too extreme for peace seemed to create less geniuses than war did.

The first part of the exam was fairly standard; the knowledge test always knocked out the majority of the competing teams. Naruto was not present for that test though, nor did he want to be. Going through that the first time had been nerve-wracking as hell. The second time hadn't been any better when he took it in Rock country.

At the moment the blond Hokage was currently conversing with the Kazekage and Tsuchikage. Rarely were there ever two or more kages located in one area but today was an exception. The Tsuchikage was only there for formalities and he would be leaving within the hour. Since the hostilities with Sound had come to an end, Naruto had built upon the previous fragile relationship that Fire had created with Rock after the Great Ninja War.

The Tsuchikage was a reserved individual who was very interested in maintaining good relations with the Hokage. While he didn't have much in common with the older man, Naruto found that he actually liked the man. He was quite intelligent and he brought up really good points. The blond found himself always learning something from the man.

Gaara on the other hand was still quiet but that didn't deter the blond from talking to him. With Gaara, they usually talked about serious things but every now and then Naruto would be able to talk him into doing something new. But despite his lack of speech, Naruto always went to the red head first when he had a problem that Kakashi wouldn't be able to answer.

"It was a pleasure to be in your companies. I apologize once more for having to leave. We must do this again another time," the Tsuchikage said as he stood up. Naruto and Gaara stood up as well, saying their farewells as the man left the room with his escorts.

Once the door closed, Naruto turned to the eyebrow-less man and grinned, "You wanna go and see the candidates?" His excitement was clearly visible and the red head inclined his head in agreement, a slight smile showing his eagerness as well. With the consent the blond led the way to another room that housed dozens of security screens that showed the Forest of Death's various entrances and other places inside the forest.

The genin had already been briefed on the rules for the second part of the exam. The second part was the part that had changed the most, simply because it was where more rules could be modified and still fulfill the purpose of having a second part to the exam.

All the teams were separated into two groups, one group was given orders to find and retrieve an enemy nin's body and locate the scroll that had been stolen. The other one was given a cryptic message as to where their comrade had hidden the scroll. Teams were to use their abilities to find the hidden scrolls. The catch was that there were only five scrolls.



There was no cooperation of comrades; if a team came upon another genin team, they were to treat the other as the enemy. The entire team needed to make it to the tower with the scroll in the same allotted amount of time, five days.

Naruto watched as the genin were separated by Yuma, a jounin a few years older than him. Anko had decided to go into ANBU again, thus leaving the role of proctor to the younger woman. Before long the whistle was heard and the exam began. The Kages watched the various screens as the genin set off into the forest.

One of the promising teams of Leaf was Hinata's team of two years consisting of a female Inuzuka, and two other boys with no special lineage. Put together specifically for recon missions, this team was particularly skilled at stealth and tracking. Naruto watched as the group passed by one of the first cameras located near the edge of the forest. Already he could see that they appeared to have an idea of where one of the scrolls was hidden and they were forming a plan. He was looking forward to that team making it to the tower. The only problem for them would be if they encountered another team with a higher offense.

Naruto glanced at Gaara who was keeping track of one of the teams that came from the Sand village. Of the two teams that came with Gaara, one team stood out to Naruto. Not surprisingly, there was another puppet master in the making on that team; it seemed that all puppet users wore strange black clothing that covered their entire body as this boy did. There wasn't a girl on this team and the other two members were rather inconspicuous next to the puppet user, at least to Naruto. He hadn't seen the other two in action yet but he assumed one if not both of them used offensive wind based justus.

Speaking of offense, Naruto hadn't seen the other Leaf team yet that he had wanted to watch. Put together for their high offense, this team was under the guidance of Neji. When Naruto had asked the stoic Hyuuga if he wanted to lead a genin team for this purpose, he had reluctantly taken leave of ANBU and agreed. In less than a year, he had recommended his team for the chuunin exam.

Like all of Konoha's genin teams, there was the usual girl and two boys. One of the boys, Takaede, was the son of Anko. She never said who the father was and no one pressed as the boy looked just like her, purple haired and temperament to match. Neither did anyone else ask her how she could have had a twelve year old kid.

But that was beside the point; Naruto shook his head mentally as he continued to scan the screens for the team. His eyes darted from one end to the other. Every few screens he would see foreign genin, some attempting to hide and others out in the open. It wasn't long before one team found another and combat ensued.

The blond turned away from that particular screen with a grimace as one team clearly outmatched the other. He had never liked to watch fights where he couldn't do anything about it. That thought brought upon another memory, making him recall the fight that Sasuke...

Again he snapped back to the present with a frown. What was wrong with him lately? He hadn't been able to keep a straight thought for the past week. And lately his brain always returned to that raven haired man. Maybe it was time to see him again, but he couldn't leave the chuunin exams. Sasuke would have to wait for another month at the most unless he could leave during the grace period, which he seriously doubted.

With that settled, he returned his attention to scanning the screens. Just as he was about to give up and suggest to Gaara that they go onto the next thing, he caught sight of Yoshiro Ryobi, Takaede's female teammate, glancing out at a clearing from behind the cover of a tree. She came from a normal family with no ninja heritage, but her genius didn't come from bloodlines; she had an affinity for genjutsu much like Kurenai although there were no blood ties between the two females.

The girl was watching a specific part of the woods opposite of her. Moments later an older man came through warily followed closely by another man of his age. Naruto saw Ryobi's hands form seals 

for the genjutsu, smiling as he recognized the sequence of the seals. It was a simple one that changed the environment to what suited the caster. Apparently, it seemed the older genin had detected something as they stopped advancing into the clearing and stood defensively.

Just as the blond wondered where the third genin was he came crashing through the brushes from the left followed by Takaede's volley of shuriken. The two genin from before glanced in their direction blindly, they were not able to see what was going on, only hearing the commotion. One thing about the girl's genjutsus was that they were simple, affecting only sight or hearing, but they were strong and difficult to dispel.

Naruto continued to watch as Takaede took down the lone genin while the last Leaf genin showed himself and quickly took down the two blind opponents.

His name was…Naruto's mind scrambled a bit to recall the youth's name. He never seemed to remember that boy's name. To be honest, the boy was pretty plain, nothing about the boy stood out physically which was a good thing for a shinobi. So that was probably why he never remembered the kid's name. Oh well, he knew what the kid was good at and that was thinking on his feet. He was proficient in jutsus and taijutsu but he was the leader of that three-man team; while being nowhere near Shikamaru, he understood and employed strategy better than any of the younger generations. He bet that the kid had been the one to plan their attack.

"Let's go," Gaara said to the blond, having watched him for the past few minutes. It was obvious that Naruto had found the ones that he was looking for, not to mention he wanted to get outside for a little fresh air. The blond turned to the red head and he nodded, "Yeah, let's go." He motioned for Gaara to head out first.

A/N

Well, what do you think of the Chuunin exams? There's gonna be more about the exam and while that may get kind of slow, please be patient as it will quicken up right away after this. I do have a plot…I swear.