A/N: The Chuunin Exams are here! And will anyone do the challenge on my profile? Pretty please with a Hiraishin kunai on top?
And what do you call an Original Country?
And what special jutsu did Anjin teach Naruto?
A wave of memories washed over Naruto as he came in sight of the massive gates of Konoha, causing him to stumble for a second, thinking of his old home.
Kill the demon!
Get the demon out of here!
STOP TRYING TO GET A DATE WITH ME NARUTO!
But Naruto is not the demon! He's the Hidden Leaf's Uzumaki Naruto!
"Snap out of it, whiskers. Reminisce later." whispered the other blonde on his team. "Don't want you marked down as off on the first day." Naruto turned to Temari and smiled thankfully. "Got it. No going crazy until we reach the hotel room." She scoffed with a smile on her face, shaking her head. "Naruto, Naruto, Naruto. What am I to do with you?"
Then Temari began seriously thinking over the possibilities and she had to wipe a small trail of blood from her nose just as they reached the gate.
"Reason for entering Konoha?" asked the half-asleep chuunin with a bandage stretched across his nose for some odd reason.
"Chuunin Exams." stated Gaara in that awesomely deep voice.
The man snapped up and came to attention, accidentally knocking over a bottle of syrup that was on the desk for some odd reason. "Passes?" asked his partner, emerging from the little gatehouse. They displayed their passes, were checked, and then waved inside, just hearing the man ask the next group.
...
...
...
"Does anyone know where the hotel is?"
Uchiha Sasuke and his teammate, Haruno Sakura, were treated to an unusual sight in the streets of Konohagakure. Konohamaru, the grandson of Sarutobi Hiruzen the Sandaime Hokage, was being held off of the ground by a boy in a black catsuit who neither had ever seen in Konoha. A quick glance to their headbands revealed them to be from Sunagakure no Sato, although the red-haired man in what looked like a dark blue flak jacket had a strange happiru-style hitai-ate with only a swirl on it. The hell did that stand for?
Sakura was about to ask the Suna genin, obviously here for the Chuunin Exams Kakashi-sensei had told them about, to drop Konohamaru when another Suna genin punched the one with the face paint, catching the young Sarutobi as he fell. Sasuke took a moment to analyze the newcomer. He wore his Suna hitai-ate slanted over his left eye and a black mask covered his lower face, startlingly similar to Kakashi-sensei's get-up. His hair was as blond and spiky as the Yondaime Hokage's, and he wore another dark blue jacket with a white swirl on it. Protege of the other one in the jacket? Possibly.
Speed impressive. Then instead of a crash or thud as the genin in black landed, there was a curious muffled thump. He looked over to see a red-haired boy with dark circles around his eyes and a large gourd on his back holding out his hand and a massive bed of sand catching the other in his fall. Sand manipulation? Nowhere in even the Uchiha library was there mention of sand techniques. Bloodline perhaps? A worthy opponent to test his skill.
"You there, with the gourd, what's your name?"
"They call me Gaara of the Sand Waterfall."
"What about blondie?"
The blonde boy straightened and looked Sasuke square in the eye as an unreadable expression flickered across his face at the sight of the pair. He watched the dark-haired boy unflinchingly despite the Sharingan now staring back at him. Sasuke stifled a gasp. Now that he could see chakra networks, although less well than the Hyuuga, he could see Konohamaru as a small dim blob, more developed than your average civilian even at his young age. The other two Sand genin, admittedly older than Team 7, had slightly above average reserves. But the two he had called out shone like stars, almost hurting his eyes with the amount of chakra running through their coils. He deactivated his Sharingan under the light, instinctively shielding his eyes.
The blond boy still stared calmly at the Uchiha, unimpressed by the doujutsu being showcased. Quietly he stated "I'm Uzushio." giving the name of his home village a generation removed, his calm expression giving no hint of the turmoil of feelings brought up by seeing his teammates once again. And apparently the bastard survived! Yay!
Inner Sakura held a small scale, with a chibi-Sasuke on one side and a chibi-blondie on the other, comparing the hot newcomer with the teammate she had devoted herself to for years.
Sasuke gave Sakura a hope-filled glance, to which she responded with a almost imperceptible shake of the head. Heck, she only knew everything about some people, not every genin from every country.
She was broken out of her thoughts by Sasuke's declaration of wishing to fight the two in the Chuunin Exams. They nodded quietly before disappearing in the poof no jutsu. Three with a swirl of sand, the other disappeared in a spiral of water. A water type? In a desert? That's... rather... unfortunate. Then his ninjutsu would probably be pretty sucky as a result. Tell Sasuke-kun! advised Inner Sakura. We can help him beat up that Suna kid who's trying to be as cool as Sasuke-kun! Cha!
Sasuke realized he had never seen the red-haired man he thought was their sensei leave.
Naruto sighed as they shunshined away from the former Team Seven. Kankuro noticed first and asked what was the problem.
"Those were my teammates." explained Naruto.
"You had the Last Uchiha as your teammate? Why the hell did you suck so much when you arrive?" The fame of the Uchiha clan had spread far and wide, famed across the continent for their techniques and their Sharingan eyes.
"..."
"Okay, okay, you still beat Gaara after a tailed beast took over his body, but still..."
"Who was your sensei?"
"Kakashi-sensei? I dunno, some lazy jounin?"
"... Hatake Kakashi? The legendary Copy Ninja Hatake Kakashi of the Sharingan Eye was your sensei and you never told anyone? Geez Naruto, you're more full of surprises every day. Next thing we know, you'll have some sort of super doujutsu that was thought to have died out generations ago and allows you to learn all ninjutsu in the world."
"Eheheh... about that..." grinned the blonde, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.
Kankuro stared for a second, before a cry of "ARE YOU F—KING SERIOUS!?" rang through the building.
Later, Sasuke asked Kakashi the question that had been on his mind since the Konohamaru Incident: "Kakashi, any idea why there's a Sand genin running around who looks like you and the Yondaime's bastard love child?"
And as Naruto woke up the morning of the Chuunin Exams, he realized his left arm was inned and wouldn't move, and he felt very warm, warmer than he should have. He looked over and saw a head of long sandy blonde hair right next to his own. He grinned at this; Temari had apparently during the night sneaked out of her bed and into his own. Aww... He poked her.
"Temari-chan, wake up."
Poke. Poke.
"Temari-chaaaannn, I can't move my arm..."
Poke. Pokes somewhere else.
She latches onto him tighter, drawing him even closer, if that was possible, in her sleep. Naruto suddenly became aware of how tightly their chests were pressed together and how their legs were entwined, and smiled into her hair. Admittedly, this is nice, but I need to get up soon.
Poke. Poke.
"Temari-chaaaaannn..."
Chuunin Exam building; this time around, it's the academy building. Ahhh, memories... Temari, Gaara, Kankuro, and "Uzushio" traveled up two flights of stairs to find a crowd of genin in front of a door barred by two older genin. Even through the headband, Naruto's Rinnegan could pick out the use of chakra on their forms, making them non-genin under a henge. We got a genjutsu here, guys. Who's got a doujutsu here? Neji's team, bushy-brows and pointy objects girl, must have seen it. So why were they going up to the front? Was Neji so arrogant as to not even activate the weird white eye thingy? Geez, dude. Come on.
Then he saw Rock Lee being punched and knew it was a fake. Bushy-brows was insanely strong and fast, although jumpsuits were not cool when they weren't orange. As the two Suna teams quietly watched, the Uchiha loudly called out the genjutsu for everyone, removing the chance of some teams getting weeded out extremely early. They all reached the door and proceeded in, content to watch the byplay. On the inside, however, Naruto was putting names to faces, remembering friends and classmates from another lifetime six months ago, and grinning widely to see them all right and healthy.
He did wince slightly when Ino jumped the bastard, she seriously needed to snap out of that.
Then a genin named Kabuto approached the Leaf genin, claiming to have taken the exam seven times and to have compiled information on all the participants, asking if they would like to know about some others.
"Rock Lee of Konoha and Gaara of Suna."
"You already know their names? That makes it easy. Let's see..." He removed a card and channeled chakra into it. "Rock Lee, of Konoha. Sensei Maito Gai. Strong in Taijutsu, with almost nonexistent Ninjutsu and Genjutsu. Teammates are Hyuuga Neji and a girl known only as Tenten."
"Now, Sabaku Gaara of Suna. Sensei Baki. High Ninjutsu, unknown Tai- and Gen- jutsu. Has completed several C-Rank missions and even a B-Rank and has returned from all of them without receiving a scratch." Several jaws hit the floor. "Teammates are his siblings Temari and Kankuro, and... a blank face? I've never seen one of those before." That was, before a sudden force ripped it from his hand and sent it spinning into the hand of the male blond Suna genin. What the hell was that? thought the Rookie Nine, as the doujutsu users activated their bloodlines and Shikamaru suddenly gained an alert expression on his lazy face, although his thoughts ran more along the lines of That technique would make getting things so much less troublesome!
The boy eye-smiled, again reminiscent of Kakashi, and wagged a finger.
"Two statements, Kabuto-san. One," and here he paused for dramatic effect, "this is information on competitors who've never taken the exams before, rendering your 'experience' useless."
Several others in the room gained thoughtful expressions at this point. "Two," he was crouched on the desk, level with Kabuto's face, "this is classified information that shouldn't spread beyond its own village." Damn that's fast.
"Oh, and by the way I'm the blank face. Hello everyone!" Cheerful again, he eye-smiled and waved to the rest of the class, as Temari facepalmed. Loudly.
"Showoff." she muttered.
Suddenly, with a bang and a poof, a man in a bandana and trenchcoat appeared and shouted, "Alright maggots, shut up and sit down! I'm Morino Ibiki, the proctor to the first exam!"