Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto and never will :'(

Updates may be slower as writers block is a bitch.

10. The start of the exams

"Soon are sure it is the Kazekage's son?" He nodded firmly,

"Positive, I heard the Hokage talking about it to the council. I heard Hokage-sama give a description similar to what you said including colouring and the tattoo on his forehead and then I heard the council talking about another 'Demon', but this one worse." Naruto frowned. He did truly hate the civilian council of Konoha they thought they the power to order ninja about and most of the shinobi disliked them as well. Only a few like Sakura and Sasuke liked the fact they were there. Sakura because her mum was on the council and she liked feeling powerful and Sasuke because they favoured him and gave him everything he wanted.

"I don't know why but I feel as though I can trust him and yet I've never met the guy in my life, do you have any ideas Iruka?" Much as he liked to deny it, Naruto was not the best at bookwork, oh, he could make do if he had to; but it would never be a first option.

"I don't know to tell the truth. I think I read somewhere about an alliance between demons but the knowledge is old and shaky. There is not much on demons in Konoha because of all the prejudice so I doubt you will find what you need here." Iruka shrugged. Naruto's frowned deepened,

"I still think that they are stupid prejudice people who don't know right from wrong and the saying 'Know Thy Enemy'." He and Iruka had both complained about the lack of resources to the Hokage. The library was mainly made up of Konoha and their jutsus, there wasn't much at all about other villages or threats. This was mainly the council's fault as both Iruka and Naruto know that the Hokage had tried to get more variety, but the council complained about corrupting the children. They were going to go out for Ramen when they were interrupted by an ANBU with a cat mask on, Iruka recognized the nin as one of the Hokage's personal messengers.

"Umino Iruka, Uzumaki Naruto you are to report to the Hokage for personal business," Personal Business was the term used when the messenger did not know what his message was for, after the ANBU left Naruto groaned and flopped onto a chair.

"I thought he gave us the rest of the chunin exams as a break," Iruka shook his head; Naruto could be so lazy sometimes.

"Come on move your ass, he wants to see us." When Naruto refused to move, Iruka grabbed by the collar and shushined them to the Hokage tower.

"Hey let me go, lemme go." Iruka smirked at him, still holding Naruto up by the collar.

"Gladly," the blond was not happy when his arse landed on the hardwood floor of the waiting room and was about to tell Iruka off when the Hokage himself popped his head around the door and motioned to the two of them. When they sat down he grabbed some files from one of the cabinets.

"Do you two remember the bloodline scroll incident? Where you found that girl? Hana I believe?" Iruka nodded, how could he forget that poor girl. Sarutobi sighed, "Well some of the other missions a few of the other ANBU teams have been on since then have produced some alarming results. Five other female bodies with similar descriptions; around 14 or 15, civilians, said to be quite pretty, orphaned have been recovered from various operations that Orochimaru is head of or hired missing nins for. Most of them had been experimented on; the exception was the first girl, your girl. I believe that they were going to take to Orochimaru for experimentation but that nin-Nubi, I think his name was- must have gotten impatient." He stared down at the two undercover-ANBU, "This is an unusual case as Orochimaru is not known for his taste in the female gender, when I taught him and through rumors now, it is clear his sexual appetite lies with young males. I would like you two to keep an eye out for anyone from Sound taking an unusual interest in young teenage girls, especially orphans. Sound has not sent many applications for the chunin exams, only one team I believe, but I want you Naruto to observe them and anything suspicious report to me. Iruka I am sending you as a substitute in the civilian school for a 'fitness course', I will have someone take over your classes; dismissed," he ended, Naruto and Iruka nodded sharply. They shushined out and back to Iruka's home and Naruto collapsed back onto his previous chair.

"What the hell is Orochimaru doing now?" he groaned, the snake sannin was well known throughout the shinobi world, at least to those chunin and above. Genin rarely got much contact with those that were from different villages until they went into their first chunin exams. Iruka smiled sympathetically,

"Come on Kit, it will be over soon and you won't have to hold back any more,"

"Yeh, yeh."

The next week passed rather quickly and the chunin exams came up. Naruto was not the only one excited; he had it on good authority that the rest of the rookie nine was competing in the exams as well. "God, I wonder if Orochimaru will try anything now." He met his team at the building and was pleased to see both Sasuke and Sakura had turned up. They did not speak but just walked into the building together; to present a united front. However they soon stopped on the second floor when they saw a crowd of people and two genins blocking the way, Naruto could that a genjutsu had been placed on the sign for 201 so that it now read 301.

"He-"Naruto yanked the back of Sasuke's shirt back just as he was about to talk. He pulled Sasuke down to his level and hissed at him.

"Look you idiot, this will stop the weakest teams from getting through. Don't comment just to make yourself seem bigger," Sasuke just glared at him and Naruto was afraid he would blow it and they would have more teams then wanted, but luckily the blue haired boy just pushed past everybody and led his team mates past that floor and onto the real third floor.

"Sensei what are you doing here?" Kakashi turned to face his three confused students and his eye curved,

"Well, I happy to see that you are all here; as you would not have been able to compete without your full team anyway." Sakura growled at him and Naruto and Sasuke were secretly surprised she did not attack him, with the look on her face. "Not to self: Do not piss Sakura off when she is PMSing, it is a scaring sight to behold." "Well anyway in you go," Kakashi stated nervously as he looked at Sakura's pissed off face.

The two males grabbed their team mate's arms and pushed the door open, leading Sakura inside. Naruto stared around at all the competitors and this got his blood pumping. The Chunin exams had begun.