Double digits, booya!
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"Sakura? What brings you here?" Sasuke asked as he moved away from the door, letting his ex-teammate enter. Tears silently flowed down her face. "Sakura? What's wrong?" Sasuke asked when he saw her crying. "Naruto... Naruto is going to the chuunin exam and he thinks that..." Sakura paused as she sniffed a number of times "He thinks that Akatsuki might try to catch him during the exam..." "That idiot, he's still putting everyone before him." Sasuke muttered. "What do you mean?" "If they would attack during the exam, they would do it during the forest of death, which would mean that the most mumber of people to get involved is Naruto's team..." Sasuke explain when he had lead Sakura into a chair. "Please Sasuke! I'm afraid he might be killed! I'm not strong enough to stand by his side... But you are. Please go with him!" She begged him, fresh tears flowing over her face. Sasuke sighed, something told him Itachi was going to be there, so he might get his chance to take revenge. Sasuke slowly nodded his head. Sakura wiped her tears away "Thank you, Sasuke."
Naruto was working on the house the next morning. Due to the extreme heat, Naruto and his clones had discarded their shirts, leaving their naked upper bodies to see for everyone passing the construction site. This of course attracted a lot of female attention to the blonde. When two arms wrapped around his chest he had enough of it. He swung around and felt a pair of lips touch his. He focused his eyes and found that the person kissing him was Sakura. "And where did you run off to yesterday?" "Euhm well I went to the hospital..." Sakura said nervously. Naruto sniffed the air around her a number of times. "Sure smells like it." Naruto teased her as he went back to work. "So when is OUR house going to be ready?" Sakura said. All the clones stopped work for a moment before all taking out a copy of the blueprint. "Euhm, well you see... I didn't think you would move into the house with me." Sakura blinked a couple of times. "Why not?" "Your parents, mainly your father... He would try to kill me again if he knew." "Nobody is going to stop me from moving in with you." Sakura said as she snatched one of the blueprints. "I'll just sleep in one of your guest rooms. Now, when is it gonna be done?" Sakura asked, jumping up and down like a kid in a candy store. Naruto discussed with his clones for a minute. "We could have it done by the end of the day, but then we still need to furnish it." Naruto said. Sakura got an evil smile on her face as she rolled the blueprint up. "Leave that to me." She said as she snatched Naruto's wallet and walked towards the nearest furnisture store.
Naruto looked satisfied. His house was finished! He had planted some cherry blossoms in the front yard, and his clones were working on a fence that goes around the property, having a single gate at the front. He had also sent some clones to pick up the furniture that Sakura had most likely bought. He walked into the hall, seeing that his clones were busy painting the room. He walked through the house, awaiting the return of Sakura and his clones.
Sasuke stood in front of Kakashi, in his battle equipment. "Are you sure you want to go? I thought you quit being a ninja?" Kakashi asked. "And let one of the few chances to kill Itachi slip away? Keep dreaming." Sasuke said. "Fine, fine. The jounin that will be acting as your sensei is Sarutobi Asuma. You will leave in two days." Kakashi stated firmly. Sasuke nodded and left.
Naruto awoke in his new bedroom, it was bigger then the one in his apartment. It had a bookshelf in the far corner, next to it was a writing table with an open book. He opened his curtains and saw the southeast part of Root, also known as the slums. The smell of the dozens of flowers in his room made his nose ache. He walked into the corridor and admired one of the many paintings that adored the walls. 'How many did these cost?' Naruto thought as he examined the signature. 'Da Vinci? Probably some small town artist, cheap painting then.' He mused as he walked down the stairs. A delicous smell lured him into the kitchen, while a nosebleed threw him back out. Standing there, cooking breakfast for two in white undergarments was Sakura! Now, that on itself wasn't the problem, but the fact that she had been sweating made the undergarments transparant. Naruto had to put both his hands on his nose to stop the bleeding. Sakura cocked an eyebrow "Naruto, what are you doing?" Naruto could only hysterically point at Sakura's undergarments. Sakura looked down and started blushing as she ran out of the room to change. Naruto quickly served breakfast while Kyuubi could only comment Naruto on his luck with Sakura.
The day of the exam had came fast, to fast for some. Naruto was sitting against the gate leading out of town, with Sakura leaning against his shoulder, her eyes red and puffy. Kirbie was doing sit ups at the other side of the gate. "Ready to go, you two?" A voice asked from above them. They all looked up to see Sasuke standing on top of the gate, staring into the forest. "Sasuke? What are you doing here?" Naruto asked when he recovered from his initial shock. "Kakashi thought it would be better to send me then a rookie. So two genins with the strength of jounins and an undercover ANBU going to war against the Akatsuki? This should be fun." Sasuke said as he jumped from the gate.
"So the jounins and chuunin examinators know what to do with us?" Sasuke asked. Naruto nodded. "Ibiki told us that, when given the chance, we have to leave his class. Anko has made it so that we will get one of each scroll and after the forest of death, everything will go fair." Naruto explained. "Even though a lot has changed in Konoha, they still have the same proctors for the chuunin exam, huh?" Sasuke pondered.
They met Asuma at the front gate and soon they found themselves split across a classroom with Ibiki in front of the class. Naruto looked around to see if he could distinguish somebody as Akatsuki, but they all looked fairly normal. "Begin!" Ibiki yelled. Naruto, Kirbie and Sasuke had no problem answering the questions, as they are things most jounins would know. "Now, it is time for the final question. If you decide to take it, and you fail, then your teammates will forever be stuck as genins." Ibiki said making people gasp. Naruto, Sasuke and Kirbie raised their hand at the same time. Ibiki nodded at all those that raised their hand and pointed at a door to his left. While walking through the hallway presumably leading to the forest of death, Naruto noted that about 17 teams were left, including his team. After Anko's rehearsed speech and the distribution they found themself in the forest of death. "Now what do we do?" Kirbie asked as he looked around. "We hunt the other participants, and when we find our targets, we kill." Naruto said as he jumped to a tree.
Another gate opened, opening for twenty ANBU and Asuma. "Don't attack until your sure they're our targets, split up and stay hidden!" Asuma yelled. The ANBU raced into the forest as the gate closed behind them. In a corner of the forest, two teams were standing across eachother. "Well, I never expected Orochimaru to send his lackeys to recover his ring." Kisame said as he pointed Samehada at Kabuto and his two allies. Deidera laughed "Let's just kill them and find the jinchuuriki already!" "Sloppy as always, Deidera." Itachi snorted. "Perhaps we should cover his body with explosion tags..." Kisame said as he put Samehada against Kabuto's neck. 'Crap, we can't take on the Akatsuki, we need a miracle.' Kabuto thought. As sent by the gods themselves two figures appeared and slit the throats of Kabuto's allies. The two figures appeared behind Deidera and Itachi, but were easily overpowered by the two Akatsuki members. Kabuto wasn't going to let this pass fly by and hit Deidera on his heart. Deidera's ribs pierced his heart, and he died almost instantly. Kabuto tried the same thing with Itachi, but his hand was caught in mid air. "Well, that might've worked on Deidera, but he was careless." Itachi said as he caught Kabuto's other arm and put a foot against his chest. He ripped both of Kabuto's arms off and threw them away. Kabuto screamed in pain but was cut silent when Samehada pierced through his head. "Let's see Orochimaru bring you back now." Kisame said as he cut Kabuto into pieces. Itachi ripped the Akatsuki ring from Deidera's dead finger and wore it. "Now, I believe we have a meeting with a Jinchuuriki?" Itachi asked as they took to the trees.
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Next chapter : Meeting with Akatsuki! Sharingan VS Sharingan!