[A/N: Sorry about the slow update, I had lots of schoolwork; I still do, actually, I'm sitting here typing and doing math problems whenever I hit a rough spot.]

Chapter 10: Friends

Ino's team did not follow them, and Sakura paused a few minutes later. "Ken-kun, you did need the Heaven scroll, right?" Sasuke nodded. "Great," Sakura said, "We're all set, then. All we need to do now is find our way to the tower; that genjutsu really threw me off course but I think I can get us there from here. Is everybody else all right?'

"I'm fine, Sakura-chan!" Naruto said.

"A bit low on chakra but I'm okay," Shikamaru reported.

"How about you, Ken-kun?"

"I'll be fine, but I don't have enough chakra left to heal anything serious," Sasuke answered, tossing his head a little to shift his sweat-soaked bangs out of his eyes.

"With any luck you won't have to. All we need to do is keep out of everyone's way and get to the tower as quickly as possible. Follow me!"

Sakura set a brisk pace, and soon no-one had breath left for conversation. As far as Sasuke could tell, they were headed east, and they had been somewhat to the north-east of the tower that morning when they first struck out for it. They had been racing through the trees for almost an hour when Sakura stopped suddenly. Naruto nearly crashed into her, and she glared at him.

"What is it?" Sasuke asked, landing on the branch with them. Shikamaru followed close behind.

"The tower," Sakura said, pointing.

The tower had, until now, been hidden by the trees, but they were near enough to see it now. It was a tall, fortress-like building, with tiled roofs and heavily reinforced doors. Unfortunately, Sasuke and Team 7 were not the only ones arriving there.

"Neji's team," Shikamaru stated.

"But they got their second scroll almost right away!" Sasuke said. "What are they doing still here?"

"Trying to pare down the competition, probably," Sakura said. "Let's work our way around behind, maybe they won't see us."

Dropping back a little, Sakura led them in a half-circle around the tower. This side appeared deserted, and they dropped to the cleared ground in front of the doors. As she approached the doors, the others followed, but she waved them back and moved forward cautiously. She hesitated for several seconds, then pushed the latch and jumped back as a barrage of shuriken and senbon struck where she had been standing. Several exploding tags also went off, hiding her from view in a cloud of smoke.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted.

Sakura emerged from the smoke, coughing and waving it away from her face. "Tenten sure does know her stuff," she remarked. "Come on, let's get inside before they come to investigate whether we were caught or not."

The smoke cleared slowly, and Sasuke had to step carefully in order to not impale himself on any of the scattered weapons as he made his way through it. He took the opportunity to pick some of them up—he had been running short since the fight with the snakes and couldn't possibly afford to buy more.

He and Shikamaru reached Sakura first. Naruto stumbled over a few seconds later; apparently he had not been so careful, as he was limping a little bit.

"Okay, everybody's here, and we've got all the scrolls," Sakura said. "Shikamaru, help me with the door."

The doors were just as heavy as they looked, and Sakura and Shikamaru had to use their full strength to push them open. Naruto and Sasuke followed before the doors slammed shut behind them.

"That was kind of ominous, you know," Naruto remarked. "What if there's something else we have to do to pass? We can't get out of here."

"And here I thought you were the eternal optimist," Sakura retorted. "Come on, let's open the scrolls."

Tossing the Heaven scroll to Naruto, Sakura took the Earth scroll herself. Hesitantly, they cracked the wax seals holding them shut, then unrolled the scrolls fully. Sasuke followed their lead, although he had to open his one at a time. Heavy white smoke began to billow from a sealing array inscribed in both scrolls, and he quickly dropped them and jumped back behind a pillar. Looking over to the others, he could see that the same thing was happening to them, so he assumed it was safe and approached the scrolls again.

The smoke dissipated slowly. "Finally!" Anko said, waving the smoke out of her face as she stepped forward. "Now, what have we—wait a second." She looked around in bewilderment. "Both scrolls...the tower...you passed?" Sasuke took a step back as she shouted. "You weren't supposed to pass!" Anko continued. "This is your fault!" she growled, stalking over to the chuunin who had appeared out of Team 7's scrolls (Iruka, Sasuke remembered).

"How is it my fault?" Iruka asked.

"He joined up with Team 7, didn't he?"

"There wasn't anything in the rules against it," Iruka pointed out, "And you did write the rules for this test."

"But...he...okay, fine! He passes!" Anko quickly formed a few seals and vanished in a puff of smoke. Everyone stared in bewilderment as the cloudy column slowly dissolved into the air.

"Well, that was interesting," Sakura said finally. "You ran into her before, I take it."

Sasuke nodded.

"Since Anko-san seems to have...left us," Iruka said, "I'll explain things to all of you. This stage of the Chuunin Exams was designed to test teamwork and quick thinking in the field. Satoshi-kun, you clearly understand the importance of teamwork as you joined Team 7. Sakura-chan, Naruto-kun, Shikamaru-kun, I originally thought you weren't ready for this, but now I believe you are. Good luck."

After this heartfelt speech, the four genin couldn't think of anything to say, and just stood around awkwardly until Naruto jumped on Iruka in an enthusiastic hug. "Yay! We passed! Will you treat me to ramen now, huh?"

"I have work to do, I'm afraid," Iruka said, detaching Naruto's hold and setting him on the ground. "We're still expecting some more teams to complete the test, so you can go home for a while before the next stage starts."

"You mean we have to fight our way out again?" Sakura protested.

"No, there's a subterranean passage leading from the tower. I'll show you out, I was leaving anyway."

...

Iruka escorted them down several flights of stairs and through a long, dimly-lit tunnel to a heavy door fitted with a keypad in the lock. "To keep anyone from using it to cheat," Iruka explained, quickly entering a ten-digit code. The door grated open slowly.

"Sun!" Sakura cheered, shoving Naruto out of the way as she dashed out of the passage.

"She was just in the sun for two days, you know," Naruto said as the others followed her out.

Shikamaru shrugged.

"So, now what?" Sakura said after they had all gathered in the road. Iruka had left them to go do shinobi work.

"I'm going to go home before my mother comes looking for me," Shikamaru said, walking off.

"And now he's probably going to forget he meant to do that and end up looking at the clouds until the sun sets. Where are you staying, Ken-kun?" Sakura asked.

"I...don't really have anywhere to stay," Sasuke admitted.

"Oh. Well, I'd ask you to come to my house, but my mother works at the telephone switchboard all day and she doesn't like it when I bring visitors and she's not there."

"He can come to my apartment!" Naruto announced.

"I shouldn't," Sasuke protested, "I—"

"Oh, come on, we're friends, right?" Naruto interrupted, grabbing Sasuke by the arm and dragging him down the street. "Sakura, you can come too!" he called back at her.

"Sorry, I have to go home!" Sakura shouted, waving at them. "I'll see you tomorrow, though!"

Naruto's apartment building was surprisingly close to the dingy alley where Sasuke had spent his first night in Konoha. It was rather old and a bit decrepit, but neatly painted and well-kept. While Sasuke wasn't quite sure what he expected to see when Naruto opened the front door, he certainly wasn't expecting a couch built out of ramen cups.

"Is that...safe?" he asked.

"Huh?" Naruto looked bewildered until he saw what Sasuke was looking at. "Oh, the couch. Sure it is! What kind do you want, there's miso, pork, shrimp...chicken, but I'd have to take apart the whole armrest to get at that..." he pulled a cup of miso ramen off the back of the couch. The construction was really quite ingenious; the cups were fastened together with putty, holding them securely but allowing easy removal.

"I don't eat ramen," Sasuke said.

"Well then you're missing out! What kind do you—"

"Naruto, I don't eat ramen because I don't like ramen," Sasuke clarified.

For a moment, Sasuke was sure Naruto would pass out, but he finally recovered himself. "You don't like ramen," he said musingly. "You don't likeramen. Uh...that's really all I have to eat here, you know, except for the armchair, and I don't think you'd want pocky for dinner."

"That's okay," Sasuke said. "I'll—"

Whatever Sasuke was going to say he would do—and he wasn't exactly sure himself—went unsaid as someone knocked on the door. Sasuke stepped discreetly out of the sight-line of the door as Naruto went to open it. He had long since learned from Itachi that there was no such thing as being overly cautious.

"Hello, everybody!" Sakura said cheerfully. "I brought dinner!"

Naruto looked at her in bewilderment. "I thought you said..."

"Well, then it wouldn't have been a surprise party, would it? Here, take this," she said, shoving a large covered bowl into Naruto's arms, "and Shikamaru's got some fruit his mother sent and I'll cook us some rice." Dragging Shikamaru behind her, she brushed past Naruto into the kitchen. "Naruto, please don't tell me you don't have a rice cooker."

"Well...okay, I won't."

Sakura sighed. "I'll just do it on the stove, then. Oh!" She started as Sasuke entered the kitchen. "Ken-kun. I didn't see you when I came in. Dinner's going to be ready really soon if you want to help clear up or something."

...

Sakura was as good a cook as she was a ninja, and the four hungry children quickly disposed of all the food she brought, and then most of Naruto's armchair for dessert.

"I'd better be getting home," Sakura said finally. "The final part of the exam is probably going to start tomorrow. Come on, Shikamaru. Don't forget your mother's fruit bowl."

"Troublesome," Shikamaru grumbled as he followed her out.

"Just us now, then," Naruto said. "Sakura left us all the dirty dishes, you know? But they'll keep till morning. Um...is the couch okay? To sleep on, I mean."

"It's a considerable improvement over a corner in an alley," Sasuke replied.

"Okay, good. I'll go get you a blanket."

Ramen bedding or no, Sasuke slept surprisingly well that night.

...

[A/N: Of course I couldn't pass up a chance to have Anko turn up again. Hopefully we'll see Itachi again in a couple chapters, depending on how long it takes me to write the plot points inbetween. This is mostly an interlude/setup chapter. If any of you read Baby Blues, you might remember Naruto's ramen-and-pocky-box furniture being mentioned there; I thought it made a good conversation piece. By the way, if you like Turning Points, you might want to check out my new story, Timelines, which is my other serious project.]