Took me long enough, huh. Think of it as an early Christmas gift from me to you. The next chapter probably won't be up until after the New Year.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters. The only thing I own is the plot for this story.

"What do you think we have to do?" asked Sakura, walking up the stairs. Looking back to her two other teammates, she noted their silence. Surprisingly, Naruto was silent. Sasuke, even though silence was a usual for him, looked at his feet as he walked.

"Come on now. It can't be that bad…can it?" she said, jokingly. Still noting their silence she stopped talking and looked forward.

"Don't worry Sakura-chan, we can pass it!" said Naruto. There was the blond she remembered. But she couldn't stop worrying. No matter what she did, she couldn't help but think what the Exam entailed. It could be just like the Mist Genin exam, where they had to kill their opponent to pass. She had to worry.

"We'll get past this" added Sasuke, smirking slightly.

"…ah." Smiling again, they continued their journey up the stairs. Coming up to the landing, they heard many murmurs coming from up ahead.

"What's going on" Naruto asked.

"I don't know, but let's find out"

"We're saving you from embarrassing yourselves and the village" a voice said, "We've taken this exam before and it's really hard. You're better off giving up now, while you're still alive."

Two kids, about their age, stood in on front of the doorway. The doorway to where the exam was taking place.

"Sasuke, Naruto, so you see-"

"Oi, bastard, what the hell are you blocking the door for?!" yelled Naruto to the two kids at the door.

"I guess not" sighed Sakura. She heard Sasuke sigh audibly as well.

"Naruto, this isn't even the right floor. Am I right?" Sasuke directed the last part of the question to the two.

"We've got a smart one this year. Seeing through the illusion isn't enough." As he said this, he rushed over and dropped into a spin kick. Seeing the attack coming, Sasuke shifted his foot back and put his arms up to catch and then counter the kick. Said attack did not come.

In between them, where before was empty space, now stood the oddest looking kid whom Naruto had ever seen. The boy himself wore a green body suit with clashing orange leg warmers. That was not the most surprising thing about the boy. He had been able to stop both attacks at the same time. And Naruto knew that attacks from Sasuke could hurt, seeing as he had been on the receiving end of them many times.

"You shouldn't fight until the actual exam" the green suited boy said. Letting go of both Sasuke and his attacker, the green suited boy stepped back.

"I'm Rock Lee! Konoha's Green Beast." The boy, Lee, introduced himself.

"Lee…" Two more people came up from behind team seven. Naruto and Sakura didn't even sense them until one of them spoke.

"I though you didn't want to draw attention to us?" asked the girl. Her other teammate, a Hyuuga if the blank eyes were anything to tell by, stood quietly off to her side.

"I'm sorry Tenten" Lee said "but I couldn't condone fighting in these sacred halls of learning."

"I'm sorry for my teammate's behavior" said the Hyuuga. Though the comment was offhand, Naruto could sense the air of superiority in his words. 'Uptight prick.' Naruto didn't even know him for five minutes, and I could already tell that this guy was just like Sasuke.

"Neji…" Tenten said. Sighing at both her teammates, she turned around to Sasuke. "Excuse us"

And with that she dragged both her teammates up through the, recently unveiled, stairway.

"Well…..that was weird." Naruto's teammates could only nod their heads.

"For him to be able to stop both those attacks that kid in green must be pretty good." said Sakura.

"I wonder who his sensei is." replied Sasuke.

Continuing down the hallway, Naruto could finally see the door to their room. Stopping in front of the door, he turned to his two teammates.

"You guys ready?" he asked.

With a nod and a smile, all three of them walked through the doors.

When Naruto thought of the Chunin exams, the first thing that came to his mind was fighting. Then maybe pain. Not his though. This wasn't anything liked he imagined.

The room was small. It actually reminded him of his school room with Iruka-sensei. The desks were faced towards a smaller desk in front of the room. The people glaring at them as they stepped through the door didn't help his unease.

Apparently, the people lost interest in them, as they went back to talking with their groups.

"Well look who showed up. I thought you would have failed, idiot" Kiba said. He came up right behind team seven, followed by Hinata, Shino, and his puppy, Akamaru.

"Really? That's what I thought about you." He replied. These conversations were never serious. They had known each other throughout the Academy days. Because of both their horrible grades, he and Kiba have been friends.

"H-hello Naruto-kun" came a soft voice from behind Kiba. Kiba turned to allow Hinata through. She was always so shy and withdrawn. Don't get him wrong, Naruto thought Hinata was a sweet enough girl, it was just she was also weird to him.

"Hey Hinata, how are you?" he said, smiling at her.

She replied by blushing madly and an almost inaudible 'fine'

Their third teammate scared Naruto. From what he had seen at the academy, Shino was a decent guy, but being that quiet wasn't natural. It also didn't help that Naruto had seen him talking to nothing a couple of times.

"How troublesome. Look who else is here." Coming towards them was Shikamaru, Chouji, and Ino. Shikamaru and Chouji, likewise, had been his friends through the Academy. Ino was Sakura's old friend, so Naruto figured she couldn't be that bad.

"Sasuke-kun!" Ino squealed, launching and attaching herself to Sasuke's neck. Then again, he could be wrong.

"Ino, leave Sasuke-kun alone." said Sakura, glaring heatedly at Ino.

"Do you mind keeping it down, you're giving the other teams a headache."

All the rookies turned towards a smiling young man. The young man had odd silver hair and glasses. He looked a little older than all the rookies. As if waking up, the rookies felt a tense aura around the room. Looking around, others were indeed glaring at them for the noise they were making.

"uh….sorry" said Ino, un-attaching herself from Sasuke.

"My name's Kabuto" The rookies nodded to him.

"You should be more careful. The people participating in the exam tend to go after the one's who piss them off. I've taken this exam before, so I can tell you a lot about them" he laughed nervously.

"Something's off…"

"All right scum, pick a number and take your seats. The Exams about to begin"

'A writing exam?! What the hell, I thought this was supposed to be a ninja exam!'

In the back of his mind Naruto could swear he heard laughing.

'shit. Shit. SHIT. I don't know any of this crap. Why do I need to know about kunai trajectory? I just aim and throw.'

The rules were pretty straight forward. Answer the questions and your team passes to the next part of the exam. Don't answer, you get kicked out. A lot of people were getting thrown out before hand, but Naruto didn't even bother paying attention to them.

'Hey fox, help out a friend?' he said sheepishly.

"How do you expect me to know this?" he replied.

'You're a demon. You're supposed to be all knowing or something!' he yelled.

"Heh, sorry. My method of attack against humans is to step on them….or eat them."

'What help are you.'

Time was almost up. Looking down at his paper, Naruto realized he had only one hope. The Tenth Question. If he got that right, then maybe they could advance to the next round.

"Pen's down" said the proctor.

'This guy is seriously creepy. What's with the trench coat?'

Morino Ibiki surveyed the group before him. More than half had already been eliminated. It was this question that would finally decide who was really worthy to go forward.

"Before I ask the second question, I need to know if any of you don't want to take it." He said

Some people scoffed. Why would they pass a chance to get a higher grade?

Smirking to himself, Ibiki said "You should understand. If you get this question wrong, you will never be promoted to Chunin."

"But sensei! You can't do that. There are people here who have taken the test before-"

"You are just unlucky enough to have me proctor. Tell me now if you don't want to take the test. You can always take it next year if you give up now." he said.

'I don't want Naruto to give up his dream for this. We can try next year' though Sakura. Just as she was about to raise her hand, she felt as though someone was staring at her. Looking around, bother Sasuke and Naruto were looking at her. Naruto shook his head in a silent plead not to do it. Smiling at his courage, she lowered her hand onto the table.

Time went by, and more and more teams were disqualified.

"Is there anyone else? No? Good. Congratulations, you pass."

The silence was audible. But it was the quiet before the storm, as yells came from the participants.

"The reason you passed was because you were brave enough to take the risk. Those others weren't willing to put their positions on the line and were kicked out because of it. When you're a ninja, you need to be able to take risks to complete the mission."

Continuing his explanation was not to be. The crashing of the windows and the flying of kunai was enough to see through that.

"I'm Mitarashi Anko, the Second examiner! If you'll follow me we'll--- What?! What's this Ibiki, there's still 18 teams here. That's 54 people!" she said, looking over to Ibiki.

"It's an interesting group this year." He answered.

Sighing loudly she said "Whatever, everyone get up off your asses and follow me to the second testing site."

There was a reason that this forest was called the Forest of Death. Naruto could have sworn he saw something big slither to one of the western gates. He hoped to God that he didn't end up there.

"Each team will get either a scroll of heaven or a scroll of earth. The object of this game is to get the other scroll and get to the tower before five days pass. Oh! And killing is allowed." From the way Anko talked about the second test, it was like talking about a game of Shogi or the weather.

'How is this a game?' Naruto thought.

"I'll go get us a scroll" said Sasuke. As he walked away towards the stand, Sakura excused herself to go and talk to Ino. Even though they fought for Sasuke's attention, they still talked like they used to.

'I'll never understand girls and their weird friendships' he thought to himself.

"Do you have to go into there, big brother?"

"Yea, Though it looks pretty creepy, right Ni-" he stopped and looked down. Nina stood there smiling up at him.

"Why are you here?!" he whispered fiercely, picking her up and running behind a near by tree.

"I got really bored and I wanted to come see you" she said.

"Nina, this isn't a place for you to play. You could get hurt if you go in there." He said seriously.

"Don't worry about me. If anything happens, I can turn to water and run away." She said proudly. " 'sides, if big brother need's help, then I'll be there."

Laughing weakly at her, Naruto kneeled down.

"Nina, you can't go in there….um, there are giant monsters that like to eat little girls like you." He said waving his hands around.

"You're just saying that 'cause you don't want me going" she said, puffing out her cheeks.

"Yea…" he sighed. "Really Nina, you can't come in with me. I don't want you getting hurt."

She looked down at he feet, staying silent. But that was fine. With Nina, Naruto knew that silence meant she understood. Giving her a quick pat on the head, Naruto stood up and made his way over towards his team, who seemed to be looking for him.

"Ready to go?" he asked happily.

"Naruto! Where were you? We're about to start." Said Sakura.

"Just making sure I have everything." He said.

As Sasuke and Sakura turned and began walking towards their gate, Naruto patted down his pockets, making sure he had his special cloth with him. He probably wouldn't need it, but you never knew. It was better safe then sorry.

Still behind the tree, Nina pulled herself to her feet.

'I never said I wouldn't go. I'll just have to male sure big brother doesn't see me.' She thought, smiling. Practically melting down into the ground, she slid towards the starting gate.

But Nina wasn't the only one planning on following. With the starting whistle going off, all the teams sped into the forest.

A lone figure stood against the rock, not facing the proctors.

"Interesting indeed." And that form too, disappeared.

Gee, I'm so original. /sarcasm.

Rest assured, after this chapter, the story will begin to diverge from original canon, earning its title and an AU fic.

Reviews and constructive criticism would be nice. They actually remind me that I'm still working on this story and that I should "Hurry up already!"

So yea… I'm also going to continue uploading onto my live journal writing account. I kinda forgot about it…oops?

I hope you enjoyed the chapter.