CHAPTER 7

"ANYTHING BUT ORDINARY"

-Avril Lavigne

Tamiko and Sasuke made their way to where the Exams were taking place.

"Is your ankle ok?" Tamiko asked as they walked.

"It's fine." Sasuke replied in an angry tone.

"Don't snap at me Sasuke." Tamiko said. "You're not the only one about to see their ex."

She knew he was in a bad mood, due to the fact that he was about to see Kotone again. He had avoided all contact with her as he jealously watched her and Jooji become closer as a couple.

When they arrived at the testing building, it seemed as if everyone from their team wanted to compete; even Sakura though she looked very depressed. They climbed to the third floor. Ahead of them was a door, blocked by a crowd of fellow ninja. They all were trying to get through.

"Something seems strange…" Tamiko thought.

All six of them moved to the front of the group where they noticed two other ninja blocking the doorway.

"Hey, we're just trying to get through." People complained. "Why can't you move?"

"You all should just leave now." One of the boys blocking the door said. "You junior ninja will never make it past the first exam!"

"Hey, move it." Sasuke said. "We need to get to the third floor."

The other ninja spoke amongst themselves.

"What? Third floor? Aren't we already there?"

"He's insane…"

"You can let all of these idiots know about the illusion you made on this floor." Sasuke said.

"Oh, so you know?" The second boy said.

"Of course." Sasuke said. "But I probably didn't notice it first, huh Sakura?"

Sakura quickly looked up at Sasuke.

"You understand the art of illusion better than me and Naruto." Sasuke said.

"Yes, I did notice actually." Sakura said. "It's obvious that we are still on the second floor."

The sign over the door labeled 301 suddenly changed to the numbers 201. Sasuke smirked.

"The fact that you can see it still won't help!" one of the boys yelled.

Sasuke saw the boy move to kick him, and he also kicked. In a flash of green, both of their ankles were grabbed by a boy with a weird bowl hair cut and very thick eyebrows. He wore an ugly green jumpsuit. The boy who had attacked Sasuke looked in fright at the kunai that had appeared next to his throat. Tamiko was glaring at the boy, sticking the kunai even closer, almost into the skin.

"Tamiko…" Kotone said. "He's not worth killing."

"Yeah, you're right." Tamiko said. "He just caught me in a bad mood."

"So, these are the famous Uchiha twins, huh?" came a voice from the crowd. Sasuke and Tamiko turned to see a boy with long dark hair and silver eyes.

"Hyuuga…" Sasuke said.

"Neji-kun…" Tamiko mumbled as she stared at him. Her anger seemed to fade away as she blushed. He looked at her for a moment before turning to the boy with the bowl cut.

"Lee, what happened?" Neji asked.

The boy, Lee, began to explain the situation. When he finished, Neji turned towards the door and walked out of the room, his teammates following. Tamiko watched him leave and turned to her team.

"We should go too."

Sasuke couldn't help but glance at Kotone. She saw him look over at her and directed her attention elsewhere. He sighed and felt a tug on his arm. Sakura pulled him and Naruto towards the examination room. Tamiko, Kotone and Yuuki followed. As they walked, something caught Tamiko's attention. Shestopped walking.

"Hey guys, you go on ahead." Tamiko said. "I'll catch up with you later."

"But, the exams—"

"Don't worry, I won't be late."

Tamiko headed back in the direction from which they came and disappeared around a corner. She turned and faced Neji, embracing him as they began to kiss.

They quickly lost track of time, soon hurrying off to find their teammates before being caught together.

Tamiko rushed back to where her team was. She burst into the room. They all stood together watching as Lee was being punished by a turtle. She walked up to Kotone.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Sasuke got beat up by Lee…" Kotone whispered.

"What?!"

Sakura screamed as a man suddenly appeared atop the turtle's shell. He strongly resempled Lee, with his thick eyebrows, dark bowl cut hair and green jumpsuit. It was quite a sight.

"Gai…" whispered Tamiko.

"Who?" Kotone asked.

"That's the Jounin that leads Lee, Ten-ten and Neji-kun—" Tamiko stopped short, realizing what she had said. Nobody seemed to notice except for Sasuke. He saw Tamiko glance at him but he acted like nothing had happened.

"He's Kakashi-sensei's rival." Tamiko finished. She turned to Sasuke. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine." He muttered, looking at her suspiciously before walking away. "Come on Naruto, Sakura. Let's go."

Finally, team Kakashi made it to room 301, the room in which their first test was being held. As they approached the door, Kakashi appeared in front of them.

"Well, well. I'm surprised to see you all here." Kakashi said. "Especially you Sakura. Now we can take the exams properly."

He saw their looks of confusion.

"The exams must be taken in teams of three." He explained. "If one of you decided not to take it, then none of your team could continue. But since you are all here, good luck!"

The six ninja opened the door and entered the next room. They stopped in their tracks when they saw the room full of foreign ninja staring at them.

"There are so many of them." Sakura thought. "They can't all be taking the exam…can they?"

"These are some creepy looking ninja…" Tamiko said to Kotone.

"No kidding." She replied. A man with blueish hair approached them. He wore a Konoha headband.

"You guys are straight out of the academy aren't you?" he asked. "You'd better watch your backs around here. I'm Kabuto. I know you're all nervous but try not to make a scene. People around here have short tempers, I should know. This is my seventh time taking these exams so I can share a little information with you."

As the members of team Kakashi began to gather around Kabuto, Kotone took a look around the room. Many ninja were from Konoha and Sunagakure, the Hidden Sand Village. As she scanned the many headbands, a group in particular caught her attention. In the center of the crowd were six people. But one individual stood out most. He was tall with dark skin. But his back was to her and the symbol on the group's headbands weren't clearly visible, leaving her unsure of their origins.

"Could that be…?" Kotone thought.

She tried to look harder but was startled by a loud voice.

"I am Uzumaki Naruto and I won't lose to any of you!!"

"Must you be so loud?!" Kotone yelled at him. She turned back to the crowd but the ninja she had been looking at had vanished.

"Wha-?" she thought. "Where'd they go?"

She turned back to her group. Suddenly, Kabuto looked up. Kotone felt a strange presence as well.

"Look out!" She said as one of the ninja she had been watching appeared threw a kunai at Kotone. As she dodged it, she noticed another was attacking Kabuto. He also dodged the attack, but shortly after he dropped to his knees and threw up. Kotone turned around and faced the ninja that had attacked her. She got a good look at the music note engraved into the metal plates of their headbands. She didn't move.

"Kotone-chan, are you ok?" called Jooji as he ran up to her.

"I'm fine…" She said, her attention focused on the Sound ninja. The taller, dark skinned ninja from before approached the other Sound ninja. Kotone's heart began to beat faster as she saw the Sound headband tied around his arm.

"Who do you think you guys are?" Jooji asked.

"Leave them alone Jooji-kun." Kotone said, her eyes on the taller ninja of the group. The others around her, shocked, looked at her.

"But…they just attacked you!" Jooji said. "What—where are you going?!"

Kotone had left his side and was walking towards the group of Sound ninja and stood before them. They all smirked at her.

"If you three think you can be Chuunin, I suggest you work on your stealth." Kotone said. "I detected your attack before you even reached us."

Everyone's eyes widened as Kotone put down the fierce Otonin.

"You talk big." The tallest said. "I'll be looking forward to challenging you during the exams."

"And I, you." Kotone said. "I hope your skills are better than your teammates are."

"I can guarantee that." He said. Kotone smiled mischievously and headed back to her group.

"What were you thinking?!" Jooji asked her. "Bashing on them like that…You're going to get yourself killed!"

"Don't worry about me." Kotone said. "I can take them." She glanced back at the Otonin.

"I wonder what Orochimaru-sama is planning, sending Niru here too…" Kotone thought.

There was a very large cloud of smoke and a group of Konoha's Jounin appeared. One of them, a man with a scarred face spoke up.

"There is to be no fighting without permission!" he yelled at the Otonin. "Now, we will start the exams. Everyone will take a number and sit in their assigned seats. This is a written test."

As the ninja spread out, Sasuke sat in his assigned seat.

"This shouldn't be too hard." He thought.

He looked over at Kotone who sat a few rows in front of him.

"I wonder what gave her the crazy idea to insult those Sound ninja like that…She's been acting really strange—"

Somebody sat in the seat next to him. It was Jooji. Sasuke swore under his breath.

"Listen up!" the scar faced Jounin said. "There are of course, rules to this first exam. Pay attention and don't ask any questions. Rule number one. There are ten points total, each question worth one. Get one wrong and you lose a point. Rule number two. This is a team test. So your final scores are determined by the total number points your three man teams accumulate. Rule number three. Anyone who gets caught cheating will lose two points for every time they are caught."

"We're watching you." Said another Jounin. "Rule number four. Anyone who loses all tem points will fail the exam, along with their teammates. You have one hour. Begin!"

The entire room was silent. Only the sound of pen against paper could be heard. Tamiko looked over the questions on her test.

"There's no way I can answer these questions! I was never good at these kinds of tests. I've always cheated off of Kotone's papers in class…"

She looked over Kotone who was on the other side of the room.

"Why does she have to be all the way over there…? We'll never pass! Yuuki is worse than I am!"

Across the room, Kotone read over her test.

"Why would they give us these questions? No one can answer these; they're way beyond our level."

She looked around the room. Many other people were panicking.

"We'd almost have to cheat to pass this test."

She looked over at the examiners.

"But there are so many watching us…Besides, cheating is wrong. Unless…only those who get caught cheating will fail…They want us to cheat! I get it now. It's testing out ability to gather information…This shouldn't be so hard. I only hope the others have figured it out."

She glanced around the room to see who was actually able to answer the questions and focused on them. She closed her eyes and focused her chakra into her ears, amplifying the sounds around her. She listened carefully to the movement of their pencils. Once she had the answer, she looked for another target. As she searched, she noticed one of the Sound ninja from before was using a similar technique.

"Looks like I'm not the only one to figure it out. Too bad I can't see how Tamiko and Yuuki are doing."

As time passed, almost every person had begun cheating. But, one by one, people were getting caught, eliminating their teams from the exam. Finally, Kotone reached the tenth and final question. But nothing was there. All that was written was:

Question 10 will appear after 45 minutes.

Kotone wondered what it was.

More time passed and more teams failed. Finally, the scarred man spoke up.

"It is now time for question ten." There was tension in the air. "But first, here are a few more rules. First, it's up to you whether or not you want to answer it. If you decide not to, you will fail along with your teammates."

Everyone became confused.

"Of course we're going to take it then." One of the ninja said. "It'd be crazy not to."

"But…" The man continued. "If you answer the question wrong, you will never be allowed to take the Chuunin exams again. Ever. If you don't think you can handle it, you can leave now and try again next year."

Tamiko looked down at her test.

"What a waste of time. Either way I can fail. But I could be stuck a Genin for life if I get this wrong…I wonder that the others are going to do…"

Slowly, people began to leave, feeling the pressure was way too much. Kotone looked back at her team.

"Good, neither of them are raising their hands and chickening out. Looks like we're safe for now—"

Suddenly a familiar hand went up. A rush of shock went through the room as Naruto held his hand high.

"Naruto…" Tamiko thought. "Of all people to quit…He may be dumb, but he never gives up!"

Everyone stared in silence at the boy who dreamed of being the Village leader. He slammed his hand against the desk.

"I'll answer your question." He said confidently. "Even if I do end up staying a Genin…Because one day, I'll be Hokage and I'm not giving up here!"

A sense of hope filled the air. No one else left the room.

"Well then…" The scar faced man said. "All of you still here…have passed the first exam."

"What?" Tamiko said. "What was the point of that?"

"Information gathering us very important." The man said. "It can be the most important think on a mission and people will die for it." He removed his headband to reveal many burns and scars. "We wanted to see how well you could handle it. But the last question was the true test. A question of devotion, to see if you had what it takes to be a Chuunin. Those who walked away don't deserve that title. Now that the first test is complete, good luck to you."

There was a sudden rush as a female ninja appeared in front of them.

"My name is Anko and I will be leading the second test!" she said looking around. "There are so many of you left…No matter. I can eliminate half of you with the next exam. Follow me."