Konoha, Chuunin Exam Registration Building

Team 7 saw a many genin gathered around the door which had the sign that said "301". They also noticed that two ninjas were blocking everyone else off, and there was a couple of ninja they were bullying. Of the ones being bullied, one was wearing a full green spandex body suit, and the other was a girl wearing traditional kung fu style clothing. The two ninja blocking the way were saying something about getting rid of those who would fail anyways.

This is only the second floor though, that sign must be a genjutsu…still, there's nowhere to go, so we have to make them get rid of the genjutsu, which means we'll be forced to show some skill.

As Naruto was thinking about how to reveal as little as possible, Sasuke stepped toward the scene.

"I agree…but you will let me pass, and also remove this surrounding created with genjutsu. I'm going to the third floor," he stated.

"Ah…so you noticed," one of the bullies said.

"Stop stalling and get out of the way," Naruto told them in an annoyed tone as he walked towards them with Sakura, joining Sasuke.

What followed was a curious series of events, in which one of the bullies attacked Sasuke, and was stopped by the earlier spandex wearing ninja in a sudden burst of speed. Afterwards, he tried to ask Sakura out on a date, which was of course refused. Then somebody with almost no visible pupil tried to ask Sasuke for his name, which he also refused by claiming that the other was impolite.

A few moments of walking later, the three genin of Team 7 were alone when they heard a voice from above. It was the earlier genin that stopped Sasuke and the bully's kicks. He jumped down.

"Hey, guy with the dark eyes. Will you, fight me here?"

"A fight right here?" Sasuke asked.

"My name is Rock Lee. When you want to learn a person's name, you should introduce yourself first, right? Uchiha Sasuke…I want to fight you. I want to test my techniques, against an offspring of the genius ninja clan." Rock Lee explained. "Plus…" Then he winked at Sakura. This was met by a response of "Eww! Those eyelashes are ew! Hairstyle is lame, and those thick eyebrows…", which was followed by Lee sending a long-range kiss towards Sakura, which she dodged.

"Challenging the Uchiha name…Frankly, you're a fool. You're about to learn what this name means."

"Please," Lee shot back.

"Wait, Sasuke," Naruto interrupted. "We don't know what the exam is going to be about. We should conserve for strength. You might be able to fight this guy then, during the exams."

"Strategy from you, dead-last? Yeah right…"

"Tch, fine then. Do what you want. But if it gets out of hand…" Naruto warned without specifying what he would do. "Let's stay out of the way then, Sakura." He used his head to motion towards the side. Sakura hesitated, looking at Sasuke, before nodding at Naruto and followed. Underneath his cloak, Naruto formed some handsigns.

"I'll say this…you cannot defeat me…because, right now, I am the strongest Leaf genin," Lee stated boldly.

"Sounds fun…let's do it," Sasuke responded.

Sasuke charged at Lee. Lee moved with astonishing speed. "Leaf Whirlwind!" He tried to hit Sasuke with his arm but was avoided, but his spin continued and his legs came towards Sasuke, who was unable to dodge in time and could only block with his arm. Yet, the instant Sasuke tried to block, Lee's kick disappeared and Sasuke felt something hit his face, causing him to fly backwards.

'What's going on?' he wondered. Both Sakura and Naruto also were surprised. It had looked like Sasuke blocked the attack. To counter this unknown technique, Sasuke decided to use his Sharingan.

Sakura noticed it and thought to herself that Sasuke would be able to read thickbrow's moves with it.

Sasuke charged at Lee again, thinking that his Sharingan would reveal the trick behind Lee's attack. All of a sudden, he was kicked up by the chin into the air. Sasuke was shocked as he couldn't read the attack.

"Yes…my techniques are neither ninjutsu or genjutsu," Lee said before disappearing again and reappearing below Sasuke, his body like a shadow. "Shadow Leaf Dance."

Lee proceeded to explain that his moves were merely taijutsu, and that Sasuke was too slow to respond to them, even if he could read them. He further began a spiel on strong people, that there were geniuses and hardworkers, and that he would prove hard work surpasses genius with his next technique. The bandages on his arms started to unravel.

Those bandages, he's going to bind Sasuke to him! Which means…

"Shit!" Naruto exclaimed. Then another Naruto appeared below Lee and pulled on his long bandage, along with Lee, downwards and threw him.

"…!"

Lee was preparing to respond when suddenly there was a puff of smoke on the ground and a turtle appeared. "Lee!" At the same time, Lee's bandage was suddenly pinned to the wall by a shuriken. He flipped over and landed on the ground, while the Naruto-clone caught the falling Sasuke before poofing away. Sasuke was notably shaken up.

"Lee! That technique is forbidden!" the turtle yelled.

A turtle summons? Who does it belong to?

"But, I wasn't planning on using the other one…"

What happened next involved a rather unpleasant scene that Naruto did not want to see or remember, in which a man who looked like an older version of Lee appeared, starting talking about youth, and told Lee off before hugging him. Apparently the man was his sensei, and was Kakashi's rival, and the score between the two jounin was 50-49 in this "Gai-sensei"'s favor.

Konoha, Room 301

"Sasuke-kun! I haven't seen you in a while so I've been waiting in excitement," Ino Yamanaka said while latching onto Sasuke's neck. Sakura was furious and told her to get off.

"You guys are taking this stupid test too? Don't die…" Shikamaru said as he approached, along with Chouji.

"Hey, Shika, Chouji. Same goes for you," Naruto said, walking towards them.

Shikamaru noticed his new outfit. "So…you're serious about this exam, huh? The new outfit suits you."

"Well, well. Everyone is assembled." The genin turned to see Kiba Inuzuka, Hinata Hyuuga, and Shino Aburame walking towards them. Kiba proceeded to taunt Sasuke by saying they did a lot of training and wouldn't lose.

"So did we. Not only will we not lose to you, we won't lose to anybody here," Naruto responded.

"Eh?" Kiba started walking around Naruto, eyeing his new cloak. "So you got a new outfit, huh? You think that'll be enough to win? And what's with that symbol on your back? With the way you're wearing it, people would think it's a clan symbol," Kiba said mockingly.

"That's because…it is a clan symbol, of the Uzumaki clan," Naruto responded, his expression unchanging from the moment he stepped into the room.

"Uzumaki clan? Then why haven't I heard of it before? Aren't you supposed to be a no-name orphan? Don't make stuff up, trying to act cool and different from before," Kiba rolled his eyes.

Naruto's eyes narrowed. "You haven't heard of it…because they're all dead. I'm the only one left."

"…!"

Sasuke stared at Naruto intensely. "…dead?" The atmosphere was suddenly tense, and the rookies paid close attention.

"That's right…they were all killed, every last one of them," Naruto said as he stared back at Sasuke with equal intensity.

"What are you talking about? If this is some joke…"

"It's not. The Uzumaki clan was once a powerful and feared clan who ruled the Village Hidden in the Whirling Tides, in Whirlpool country. They were masters at sealing Jutsu, but eventually they were all killed, and the village destroyed. Before they were destroyed, they were allies of the hidden Leaf. This same symbol appears on the shoulders of the standard Konoha ninja uniform, to signal our long lasting alliance and relationship," Naruto elaborated.

Sasuke was quiet for a moment. "And you? According to what you're saying, you should be a part of the Whirling Tides! So why are you here?"

"I don't know. Everything happened before I was born. I don't even know who my parents were. All I know…is that the Uzumaki's sealing techniques were so powerful that the fear of them led to the village's destruction."

"…Why haven't I heard of any of this before?" Sasuke questioned, seemingly angered. It was an odd feeling. He knew before that Naruto had suffered from being alone, just like he did…but now, it seemed that they had even more in common.

"You, out of everybody here, should be the one that knows of this, or at least have heard of the Uzumaki clan," Naruto claimed.

"What?"

"It's a part of your own clan history, after all," Naruto further outrageously stated.

"Wh-what the hell!" Sasuke's sharingan eyes unconsciously appeared.

"It's also a part of the story of how Konoha was founded…" Naruto continued. "Originally, there were two founding clans, the Senju and the Uchiha. That you should know at least. After Hashirama Senju became the first Hokage, for whatever reason, the leader of the Uchiha clan, Madara Uchiha left the village and came back to attack it. At the valley of the end…the First Hokage fought with Madara. During this battle, Madara Uchiha summoned the Nine-Tailed Fox."

"The Nine-tails?" Shikamaru asked with a shocked expression.

"That's right…but the First still managed to win the battle, in the end. He had help."

"…"

Naruto, seeing that he had the rookies' full attention, lowered his voice. "He had the help of his wife, Mito Uzumaki, who sealed the Nine-Tails into herself."

"This…this isn't in the history books…" Sakura said after a moment of silence. The rest of the rookies were too surprised at the information to say anything.

"You…you're telling the truth," Sasuke said quietly. He could feel it. "So you're clan's dead like mine, huh?"

Naruto didn't answer. After a long silence, Kiba spoke very loudly, "Hey guys, why are we talking about this anyway? This is the chuunin exams! We can talk about that stuff later!"

…You're the one that started this conversation by asking me about the symbol…

"Hey you guys, you should be more quiet." A older leaf genin with glasses approached. "You guys are rookies, right? So loud…geez. This isn't a picnic."

"Who do you think you are?" Ino demanded.

"I'm Kabuto. But instead of that, look behind you." The rookies turned around to see many other genins looking at them dangerously, and a particular group glaring hard at them. "Those guys are from the Hidden Rain, they have short tempers. Everyone is nervous, so calm down before you make a scene. Well…I can't blame you, you're rookies, like how I used to be."

"Kabuto-san…so this is you're second time?" Sakura asked.

"Nope, this is my seventh time."

"Wow, so you know a lot about this exam," Sakura noted.

"That's right. Then…I'll share some info with you cute rookies." He took out a deck of cards. "…with these nin-info cards."

"Nin-info cards?" Sakura asked.

"I have four years' worth of information here, and over 200 cards. They look blank, but only when I use my chakra…" A graph appeared. "This is the number of those taking the exam and the breakdown of where they're from."

"Do you have cards with info on individuals?" Sasuke asked.

"Of course…it's not perfect for this year's participants, but I do have it, even of you guys. Say something about these guys and I'll have a look."

"Gaara of the hidden Sand and Rock Lee from Leaf," Sasuke responded without missing a beat.

"Oh, you already know their names, should be easy then. Rock Lee…is a year older than you guys. Mission history: 20 D-rank completed, 12 C-rank. His sensei is Gai. His taijutsu have improved greatly in this year. The rest is nothing impressive. Last year he gained attention as a talented new genin but did not participate in the exam. Like you guys, this is his first time. On his team are Neji Hyuuga and Tenten." He held up another card. "Next is Gaara of the Desert. Mission history: 8 C-rank, 1 B-rank. Wow…a B-rank as a genin. Since he's a newcomer from a foreign country, I don't have much info but…It seems he returned from all of his missions without even a scratch."

What detailed information…this guy must be amazing at reconnaissance.

Kabuto began putting the cards away.

"Hold on," Naruto stopped him. "Neji Hyuuga…that's the guy on Rock Lee's team, right? What info do you have on him?" Before they left after the battle earlier, Rock Lee had told them that he had lied about being the strongest leaf genin, and that the strongest was actually somebody else on his team. When you also considered Rock Lee's strange passion of trying to prove that hard work was superior to genius, it was easy to put together two and two; Neji Hyuuga must have been a genius, and one to keep an eye on. Plus, Naruto was curious as to how powerful the Byakugan was, because he remembered that the Byakugan user in his class, Hinata Hyuuga, and also one of the rookies, wasn't particularly strong.

"…!" Hinata made an "eep" noise before whispering, "…nii-san?"

Naruto turned toward the noise, as he had heard it. "Hinata, is he your brother?"

"Eh? N-no…he's my c-cousin," she stammered with a blush on her cheeks while pointing her forefingers together as Naruto looked at her.

Man, shouldn't somebody with a bloodline limit be all haughty and stuff, not shy? I never understood what was wrong with her…

"Oh, ok. So, Kabuto-san, what info can you give us?" Naruto asked again.

"Alright…well, his mission history is the same as Lee's, since they're on the same team. Apparently, he graduated the top of his class from the Academy, and is known as the prodigy of the Hyuuga clan, already a master of the Gentle Fist style of taijutsu."

As I thought…If he's even stronger than that Rock Lee guy, he'll be a serious threat.

'Naruto…he's really taking this seriously, I never would've thought the old Naruto would even ask something like this…' Sakura thought.

'So he wasn't bluffing, that Rock Lee. His teammate must be pretty strong…there are so many strong guys here…how fun,' Sasuke thought.

"Is that all?" Kabuto asked. Seeing no response, he put away his cards. "Leaf, Sand, Grass, Waterfall, Sound, Rain…many outstanding genins from the various villages are here to take the exam. Well, the hidden Sound is just a small village created last year, so there isn't much info but…the rest of the hidden villages are filled with talented youngsters."

"M-makes you lose your confidence…" Hinata commented in a small voice.

"So basically, all the people here are…" Sakura began.

"Yup! Like Lee and Gaara and Neji, they are the top elite genins from the various countries," Kabuto finished.

Just then, a genin jumped up from the crowd and threw two kunai at Kabuto. He dodged them by sliding back. Another one came forth and punched at Kabuto, who avoided it by moving his head back.

'Good speed,' Sasuke thought of Kabuto's dodge.

But then, Kabuto's glasses cracked.

Sasuke looked confused at what happened. "What's going on? He dodged it, so why did his glasses…"

Behind him, Shikamaru answered, "It probably glanced by his nose, that's what you get for acting like a big shot."

Then Kabuto retched on the ground.

"Kabuto-san!" Sakura exclaimed. Naruto was also visibly shocked, as it should have been a complete dodge.

Naruto recognized the attackers as the Sound genin he had met before. "You guys…" he started.

"You know them?" Sakura asked.

"They were spying on us when we met the guys from Sand," Naruto explained.

'What? I didn't notice them…' Sasuke thought back to the encounter.

"Kabuto-san, are you alright?" Sakura asked as she ran forward to support him.

"Write this down on your cards: The three hidden Sound ninja, definite future chuunins," One of them told Kabuto.

Just then, there was a giant puff of smoke at the front of the room, and a group of Konoha ninja appeared. The one at the head of the group introduced himself as Ibiki Morino and threatened to fail the Sound genin if they continued fighting. He further said that no fighting would be allowed without permission and that killing would not be tolerated even if permission to fight is given. Afterwards, he instructed the genin to pick up a number from the front and sit at the assigned seat.

"…we will then hand out the exams."

A paper test? This should be easy for me and Sakura then…

'…this would be the worst possible test for the old idiot Naruto…but he looks as if this is the easiest thing in the world,' Sakura mused.

"Naruto-kun…" a voice came from beside Naruto. "Let's… do our best…" He turned around to see Hinata smile with a faint blush. He returned the smile and nodded.

Ibiki proceeded to explain the rules as soon as everyone was seated. Apparently, everyone would start with 10 points and get one deducted for each question wrong, and it was also a team test, so whoever passes would be determined by the combined total of the team. When Sakura heard the second rule, she felt concerned and thought about Naruto, before calming down again after remembering that he was supposedly actually quite capable, according to him.

The third rule was that 2 points would be deducted per time somebody was caught cheating.

"Realize that the pathetic ones that get caught cheating will be destroying themselves. As shinobis trying to achieve the level of chuunin, be proud ninjas," Ibiki elaborated.

Then he explained the final rule, that whoever loses all their points during the test and those who answer nothing correctly would be failed along with their teammates.

'! Wha-?' Sasuke almost panicked as he thought of Naruto. Meanwhile, Sakura bit her lip and hoped that Naruto would be okay.

"The exam will last one hour. Begin!"

Naruto looked at his test paper. He quickly looked over all the questions. There seemed to be a question 10, which would apparently not be given until 45 minutes into the test. He looked back at the rest of the questions.

These…are all unreasonably difficult. I can answer them…and probably so could Sakura…but I doubt anybody else could possibly answer these…

His eyes darted around the room, and noticed that almost nobody was writing.

Looks like I was right…What a ridiculous exam.

But it didn't matter to him, as he could answer them anyways. Though…there was a chance that Sasuke wouldn't be able to answer any. That would be a problem. But he couldn't of anything to do for the moment, so he started on the first question.

From far behind him, Sasuke noticed that Naruto was writing furiously. He raised an eyebrow. 'I thought Naruto would be freaking out by now…'

From a few seats behind Naruto, Sakura also noticed Naruto writing furiously. 'Wow, I shouldn't have worried…' She looked at her own test paper and began to do the questions.

A few moments later, Sasuke had an epiphany. 'Heh…I see…' It was quite obvious to him, really. 'I…can't answer a single one of these…' He thought while beginning to sweat. 'What a joke. The dead-last is getting this and I'm not…calm down…I can't fail this…I'm an Uchiha…think!

Meanwhile, Sakura was answering the questions well and her thoughts wandered to the nature of the exam. 'There are 51 teams here…if only 10 of them pass…then we have to get a lot of points…this is a system that encourages cheating. Hopefully Naruto and Sasuke-kun won't be foolish enough to cheat.' She glanced again at Naruto. 'Well, doesn't look like Naruto will need to…'

'What's with this…it's like they want us to cheat…' Sasuke's thoughts raced. 'But all those guys watching…they are making checks on their sheets.' He noticed one of them writing on his sheet. He thought back to Ibiki's words. 'I see, so that's it! Damn it, this isn't just a test to measure our intelligence. This is also a test…to see how well we gather information with our skills…' Everything suddenly made sense to him. He activated his sharingan and began copying the movements of somebody in front of him who was writing quickly.

It was just about the 30 minute mark. Naruto finished his test and flipped it over. His thoughts began racing. Both Sakura and Sasuke were sitting behind him, so he couldn't tell how they were doing. He had realized over the course of writing that the goal of the test was probably to cheat effectively. For him, it didn't matter because he could answer it.

But what about the reason that the test was team-based?

They must want us to coordinate our efforts...

His mind began to think up a plan.

He grinned.

"If you need it, copy from this…but don't handle it too roughly…or it'll go poof…" Both Sakura and Sasuke heard a tiny whisper beside each their ears. They both turned, but saw nothing. Then, they noticed a piece of paper appearing on their desks from thin air.

It was…a copy of the test. With completed answers, and Naruto's name on it.

They both looked at Naruto's seat. He was holding his head back reclining, as if relaxing. They couldn't see whether he had his test paper or not.

"Don't worry…my original is secure…this is just a Shadow Clone copy," the voice whispered again. "Later."

'What the heck was that?' Sakura wondered. Oh well, she didn't need it anyways. Then, suddenly she slumped forward in her desk, caught by Ino's mind-body switch technique. The paper that just appeared did just poof as she hit the table. When Ino forced her body upright again, she began memorizing the answers from Sakura's answer sheet.

'How did you manage this, dead-last?' Sasuke wondered. He was about to move it and copy from it because it would help him conserve chakra as opposed to using the Sharingan. But then he realized that if he moved it, the watchers would easily see him cheating. 'So that's what he meant by it'll go poof. I'm supposed to memorize this first before making it disappear by handling it roughly…to avoid getting caught…this is pretty smart…'

Naruto simply relaxed as his clones dispelled themselves without any trace of smoke, in the manner he'd perfected long ago. The combination of Transparent Escape Jutsu and Shadow Clone, along with his cloak to hide hand signs, was incredible. When you further combine that with excellent stealth capabilities he'd gained from his early years escaping the Konoha ANBU doing pranks, as well as the Silent Killing technique, it was practically undetectable.

He continued smiling as he thought of his genius plan. Thanks to the effect of Shadow Clones that he had discovered before, he was able to clone his test paper. It was possible in the same way that cloning seals was possible, but not like with unread books, because he'd had the complete knowledge of what he was cloning in this case.

Thus, he waited until it was 45 minutes into the test, for the 10th question.

Ibiki had noticed two interesting genin thus far. He didn't know their names of course, but they were Gaara and Naruto respectively. He noticed that both of them had stayed completely calm throughout the exam, and one of them looked like he was taking a nap.

"Ok…we will now begin the 10th question!"

Finally…just one more…

"Before we begin, I'd like to go over the added rules for this question."

What? More rules?

Suddenly, the door opened and Kankuro stepped into, having returned from his trip to the washroom.

"First, for this tenth question, you must decide whether to take it or not."

"Choose? What happens if we choose not to?" Temari demanded.

"You fail, along with your two teammates," came the prompt reply.

Some random genins shouted that of course they would take it then.

"And the other rule…if you choose to take it and answer incorrectly, that person will lose the right to ever take the chuunin selection exam again."

"…!" Everybody in the room was shocked. Some of them, like Gaara and Naruto, didn't show their shock on their faces.

"What kind of stupid rule is that? There are guys in here who've taken the exam before!" Kiba yelled out.

Ibiki chuckled darkly. "You guys were unlucky…this year it's my rules. But I am giving you a way out. Those that aren't confident can choose not to take it, and try again next year."

After a moment of emotional turmoil amongst almost all the genin, one stood and declared that he gave up. This began a round of quitting.

Wait, he didn't say that we would fail if we answer incorrectly…so if we pass, it doesn't matter even if we do answer incorrectly, because if we pass and become chuunin, we wouldn't need to take the exam again anyway…heh…this is pretty tricky. But with my perfect answers, there's no way we'll fail this.

Sakura glanced at Naruto again. She remembered his speech about his dream, to become Hokage. She wondered if it was worth it to risk that chance on this question. But then she realized that there was no way Naruto could answer incorrectly…not only did he easily answer the questions from before, he even managed to give Sakura his answers without anybody noticing. 'That reminds me, what the heck happened to that sheet? I feel like I blanked out for a few minutes and then it was just gone…'

The round of mass quitting stopped after a while. Ibiki counted the remaining genin. There were 66 left, which meant 22 teams. It was a little more than he'd expected; he'd thought that his skills would be enough to remove 2/3 of the teams, but it seemed that this year was particularly strong.

"Good decisions, everyone. Now…for the tenth question…" He began. "Congratulations! You've all passed the first section of the chuunin exams!"

Surprised and outraged looks were on many faces.

Konoha, Forest of Death/Practice Arena 44

At the forest of death, the genins gathered, along with Anko Mitarashi, who had led them there after crashing through the windows in Ibiki's exam room.

'This is creepy…' Sakura thought as she looked at the ominous forest.

"You'll find out soon, why it's called the Forest of Death." She paused as she looked at the group of genins. "Now before we continue, there's something I have to pass out." She held up a stack of papers. "You must sign these agreement forms. There will be deaths in this one…and if you don't sign these forms, it'll all be my responsibility. I'm going to explain the test, then you can sign it afterwards. And each team will check in that booth behind me."

So then she explained the test. Basically, the Forest of Death was also Practice Arena 44, and it had 44 locked gates around it. There was a forest and a river in it, and a tower in the centre. She showed a map when she said this. The distance between the gates to the tower was 10km. Every team was to participate in a battle for scrolls from other teams without any rules. Each team would have either a Heaven or an Earth scroll, and had to collect the other one by battling. There would be no quitting in the middle. The exam would last for 120 hours, or 5 days. To pass, a team must arrive at the tower with both scrolls, without any teammates dead, and without looking inside the scroll until reaching the tower. If one opened the scroll, there would be a "surprise".

Thus, each team signed the forms and went to their assigned gate.

Five days…Good thing I renewed my Shadow Clone's chakra yesterday…It'll last for three weeks unless it's forced to use Jutsu.

"Yahoo! Survival is our specialty! Hinata, don't go soft on us!" Kiba said to his teammates.

"Risking our lives…this sucks, but we'll have to do it…" Shikamaru said. 'We should probably stay away from Naruto's team…I haven't seen him for a month before the exams began…but I heard his team finished an A-rank mission…plus, he's almost as smart as I am, and isn't lazy…' he thought.

'Hehe…it's finally here…the chance to fulfill our mission…' The bandaged Sound genin thought.

'Of course there's the other teams…but I'm also afraid of being with him for five days…' Kankuro thought while looking at Gaara.

As they moved to their assigned gates, everybody was told that the exam would begin in 30 minutes.

"We have some time, let's come up with a strategy. Who'll carry the scroll?" Naruto asked his teammates, while holding up the scroll he got from the registration stall.

"I will," Sasuke stated. He snatched the scroll from Naruto and put it away.

As I thought…well whatever, it doesn't matter anyway…hehe…

"…I guess you're not going to explain why?" Naruto asked.

"I'm the strongest, so I'm carrying it," Sasuke replied.

"Fine, be that way. Next, if we get separated, how will we determine if each other is real?" Naruto questioned.

"We'll use a codeword then, listen up—" Sasuke replied.

…That's going to be a problem…if Sasuke thinks I'm not capable of memorizing it…

"No wait, I have a better idea," Naruto interrupted. "For Sasuke, you can just show us your sharingan. For me, I'll make a Shadow Clone and transform it into my old outfit." He made a Shadow Clone that wore his old clothes. "And as for Sakura…hit us with the Genjutsu from 'Illusory Gifts'. We'll do these signals once we ask each other this phrase, 'What is your true form?'"

"…Fine. But what Genjutsu are you talking about?" Sasuke asked.

"Show him, Sakura. The one with the cherry blossoms," Naruto told her. Thus, she showed him the Genjutsu.

Afterwards, Sasuke commented, "What's with you Naruto? You've been acting completely different since the exams began. If I didn't know better, I would think you're actually smart."

"Don't worry about it Sasuke, I'll explain later. All you need to know is that from now on, I'm no longer the old stupid Naruto. That was just an act."

Sasuke looked at him suspiciously. "Whatever. Just don't die while we're in there, dead-last."

Naruto ignored him. He continued the strategizing. "It's like that examiner said, the longer we stay in there, the more difficult the exam will become, as there will be less teams left. But at the same time, those who finish early are likely to be the better ones, so the weaker ones will be the ones who finish late. Therefore, I say we head to the tower as soon as possible and wait. That way, we'll also be able to take advantage of teams that are weakened. If they've gotten to the tower, that probably means they have both scrolls, as well. So we won't have to waste time fighting teams that have the same scroll as we do. What do you think?"

"That sounds like a good plan," Sakura said.

Sasuke grunted his approval.

The 30 minutes was up.

"The second part of the chuunin exams will now BEGIN!" Anko's voice blasted to every gate.

A/N: To clarify what Naruto's cloak really looks like, I will say that the word "cape" also describes it quite well. The different between it and a cape though, is that this cloak covers the entire body (surrounds it, but is clipped together at the front. So, if Naruto wants to fight with Taijutsu, there isn't any problem). As I said before, this cloak is similar to the one Naruto wore (and also the rest of the team) during the Sasuke-cashing mission where they met Madara under the disguise of Tobi, and where Sasuke kills Itachi. Remember the scene when Itachi gives Naruto a gift of some sort? This is what I mean by the cloak not having any sleeves; there aren't any sleeve-holes either. It's possible to perform hand seals without it being seen, as a result, but of course he has to be careful or else the "cloak" will open up.