Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the lovely characters, just my OC's.

Five days in the Forest of Death had most teams tired out but in the end a total of nine teams stood in the tower side by side. The proud jonin teachers stood facing their genin students. The Hokage stood in the center of the room with a serious look on his face. Asahina stood awkwardly between Kakashi and Gai. As if standing next to Kakashi wasn't awkward enough, Gai's gaze was burning in the direction of his rival. She tried hard to focus on her students but Gai's intense glare was too much for most of the people there.

"Hmm! It looks like your kids made it Kakashi! As long as my team is around, their luck has run out. From here on out its all skill! Youth has its sweet times and its bitter ones, wouldn't you say?"

The much more aloof jonin finally turned to glance at his rival, "Did you say something?"

Gai turned and shook his fist at the wall behind him, "Oh my rival, you're cool like that and it gets on my nerves!"

Asahina patted the man's back, "Calm down. Your students are staring at you like you're crazy."

"Ah, Asahina! That's where you're wrong, my dear." He shook his finger at her with a smirk, "Those are their passionate gazes toward the teacher that they missed so much over these past few days."

She rolled her eyes, "How sweet."

"Ah but don't worry! Your students are looking at you the same way." Gai threw an arm over her shoulder, "Just look at them."

"You're making a scene!" She slapped his arm away, "They're not looking at me like that."

At least they weren't until just a few seconds ago. Kai sweat dropped, "What the hell is that lady doing?"

"Kai-san!" Toshizo hissed, elbowing his friend's back, "Language."

"Poor, Kakashi-sensei." Kori shook her head.

"Hey, listen up!" Anko barked, "Hokage-sama will now explain the next part of the exam!"

"Why are there so many parts to this damn exam?" Kai growled.

"Language, Kai-san." Toshizo elbowed the boy again.

"Before that, I want to tell you the true purpose of this exam." The Hokage took a drag of his pipe before continuing, "Yes, it is to promote good relationships between the countries but not in the way you might have been thinking. The Chunin Exams are used in place of war between our allied countries."

"What the hell?!" Naruto screamed, "Isn't this just to decide who gets to be chunin and who stays as a genin?"

"That is a fact." The old man nodded, "But this is also another way to defend your countries' prestige. Each shinobi risks his or her life to defend the honor of their land in these tests. Watching the third exam will be the leaders of many lands who make up the clients of each nation. The stronger the nations' representatives are the stronger the nation seems. The stronger the nations seems, the more clients that nation will get."

"Yeah but why do we have to risk our lives for something like that?!" Kiba and Akamaru barked out.

"The village is the strength of the nation and the strength of the village comes from the shinobi in it. A shinobi's true strength is only born during life-threatening situations." The Hokage explained, "This exam is to test each country's strength."

"Then why did you say it was for the good relationships of the nations?!" Tenten demanded.

"I didn't want to confuse you kids but it seems you have the wrong idea. By losing lives in this exam the nations can maintain a balance. Losing lives in the exam is basically how friendships between our nations are maintained. This is not just a test, this is a life-threatening battle with your dreams and honor on the line."

"I don't care. Just hurry up and get to what the life-threatening part is all about." Gaara was losing patience as he glared at the Hyuga he had attacked a few nights earlier.

"I'd like to explain the third test but…"

"Hokage-sama." Another jonin cut in, "Allow me."

"Very well."

The man was coughing between every word, the dark rings underneath his eyes gave him a very sickly appearance, "Hello everyone. I am Gekko Hayate. Before the third exam I would like to narrow the amount of participants we have through a preliminary exam."

The man paused to cough, giving his words some time to sink in.

It seemed to have punch Sakura in the face, "Preliminaries?! What do you mean?! Why aren't we all allowed to participate in the next exam?!"

"It seems the first two tests were too easy this year, we have too many people remaining." He coughed out, "As Hokage-sama stated, we will have guests watching the third exam. We are limited on time."

Kai's eyebrow twitched in annoyance, "His voice is disgusting."

"Kai-san!" Toshizo scolded.

"Really?" Kori laughed, "I kind of like it. It's really raspy. Kind of manly."

"That's manly?" Kai choked, "That's disgusting."

"Anyways!" Hayate raised his voice, "Anyone who's not feeling well should just quit now. Please come forward because we'll start the preliminaries immediately."

"He's the only one who doesn't look well." Kai snorted.

"Umm…" The only genin with his hand up drew plenty of attention, "I think I'll quit now."

"Kabuto?!" Naruto screamed, "But why?"

"From now on this is an individual battle so if you want to quit, you don't have to worry about your team." Hayate coughed, crossing Kabuto's name off the list, "Is there anyone else?"

Kori twitched, she could feel Gaara's murderous glare burning into the side of her face but the scarier look was coming from her brother. Neji's white eyes were shooting daggers at her. She made the effort to ignore him by glaring straight back at Gaara, the lesser of the two. At first she thought Gaara was the lesser one but she instantly changed her mind as soon as the killing intent reached her. Kori forced her neck to turn and look straight ahead and spotted the Hokage's calming gaze focused on her as if telling her not to make a scene. She gulped down her fears and turned to glare at Neji who seemed to be persistently telling her to quit here.

Hayate coughed again, "So are there any more quitters?"

"Sasuke-kun. You should quit too." Sakura exclaimed, "That mark is still hurting you right. You should quit. Please… Please just give up."

Kori rolled her eyes as soon as she spotted the tears rolling down the pink haired girl's cheeks, "You're making a big show out of something but it's Sasuke choice don't you think?"

"You don't know what you're talking about!" She snapped, "Sasuke-kun if you don't quit I'm going to raise my hand and tell sensei about the mark!"

"Ohhh…." Kori almost laughed, "She's going to raise her hand, Sasuke."

He glared at the Hyuga, "I can't tell whose side you're on."

"I'm selfish. I'm on my side." She joked.

"Kori!" Sakura snapped, "This is no time to be making jokes!"

Kai was instantly at the girl's side, "Don't talk to her like that."

"I'm going to tell." She began lifting her hand but Sasuke's hand slapped hers down.

"Be quiet!" He hissed, "Mind your own business."

"Why do you have to be so stubborn?!" Sakura sobbed, "Please just quit! I don't want to see you suffering anymore."

"This has nothing to do with you." He growled, "Stay out of my business. I told you already, I'm an avenger. I don't care about being a chunin, I care about testing my strength against the stronger guys. There are plenty of them here. I won't forgive you if you take that away from me."

"Stop trying to act so cool!" Naruto hissed, "She's just worried about you."

"Naruto. I want to fight you too." Sasuke admitted, earning the reaction he wanted.

"Alright. So now Naruto is above me?" Kai grunted.

Kori laughed, "You can fight me."

"I don't fight girls." His face flushed lightly.

Sakura was sobbing and shaking in her spot, "This isn't a joke."

"No one said it was." Kori snorted, "Saizo's got stitches on his back from the shoulders down to his butt. You don't see him complaining."

"I'm not the only one." Kai growled, slapping the girl's back in a rather annoyed manner, "Frankenstein back."

"Kai-san!" Toshizo elbowed him in the back equally aggressively, "Karma will get you back."

"Is your name Karma?" Kai hissed, rubbing his back awkwardly.

"Wouldn't Karma be a girl's name?" Kori asked.

"This isn't funny!" Sakura reached out and slapped the girl across the face.

The Hyuga reared back as soon as the older girl made contact with her face, "I didn't say it was."

"Break it up you idiots!" Anko barked from the front of the room, "I should just disqualify all of you!"

Hayate broke out into another fit of coughs before calming the woman, "We'll just start the preliminaries now. There are twenty-six of you here so we'll hold as many matches as we need to cut you guys down to around twelve or so. The winners will advance to the third test. There aren't really any rules except you fight until one of you dies or is knocked out. If there appears to be a clear winner, I'll jump in and stop you guys. We don't need any unnecessary corpses around. If you don't want to die, forfeit quickly. The electric score board behind me will determine who fights who. I know this is sudden but let's reveal the first two fighters."

Kai smirked, "Let it be me and that Hyuga guy."

"You've got a death wish." Kori snorted.

"Then who do you want to fight?" He shot a glare back at her.

"Tenten." She admitted, "Or maybe Sakura. I can get revenge for earlier. Or maybe even Sasuke."

The board lit up to reveal the first two names and the proctor barely managed to cough it out, "Uchiha Sasuke vs. Akado Yoroi. The two participants should come to the front; the rest of you can head upstairs to watch from the stands. Are you ready?"

A few genin groaned as they began to move to the second floor with their teachers. Asahina smiled, "You kids decided to stay."

"Of course." Kai snorted, "Who do you think we are?"

"Do you think Sasuke-san is going to win?" Toshizo completely ignored the boy's arrogant comment.

"Who cares?" Kai snickered, "I hope he gets his ass kicked fast."

"Alright, Number Two." Asahina scolded him, "You shouldn't talk crap about your friends."

"He's not my friend." He snapped, "And don't call me that you old bat!"

Asahina's eyebrow twitched as she wrapped the boy in a full on headlock, "What did you call me?"

"An old bat!" He snarled, "Let go!"

Kori leaned against the railing of the balcony-like second floor, "I've never seen the other guy before the test. Who is he?"

"He's from our village." Toshizo noticed, "But I've never seen him before either."

"You should be more worried about who's going to kick your butt." Kai gasped when his teacher tightened her hold on him at the sound of his nasty comment.

Kori scanned the rest of the teams that were standing on the second floor. She was familiar with the other four Konoha teams, which were not far from her own, and vaguely aware that fighting the Sunagakure trio, who were standing across from them, would be impossible. The Sound squad looked like they were in bad shape. The Grass ninja were none other than Rina, Moritaka, and Ken. Much to her pleasure, the chance of fighting someone she didn't know was low. She wanted to fight with someone from her own village just for the heck of it but if she had to fight a foreign ninja, she wanted to fight the guy in black from the Sand, Kankuro. Her attention wandered back to the fight as Sasuke finally managed to knock his opponent off and in a burst of speed and skill, slam him straight into the ground with a bone crushing kick. It was over.

Gekko held his hand up, "This match is over! Uchiha Sasuke is the winner!"

Asahina smiled, "Gai? Wasn't that your move?"

The bushy-browed jonin shrugged, "I didn't teach it to him. The springtime of youth probably lead him to it!"

She was sorry she asked, "I get it. Turn that fire down. We're not doing any fighting."

"Kakashi-sensei is taking Sasuke away." Kori pointed down at the two rather childishly.

"Pay attention to the screen instead, Kori." Asahina warned the girl, "You might be next."

"Will the next pair please come down?" Hayate coughed, "Aburame Shino vs. Zaku Abumi."

"Oh god." Kori bit her lip, "Thank god. I thought he was going to say my name. I never want to fight Shino… Ever!"

Almost as if on cue, the battle was at its climax. Zaku's arms lay useless on the floor after Shino's bugs made quick work out of whatever they were doing.

Kai flinched, "He's a psycho."

"And you said they were just bugs." Kori snorted, as Shino finished his match.

"Can the next two come on down?" Gekko sounded like he was about to hack up a lung, "Tsukara Toshizo vs. Mori Rina."

"Oh gods." Kori and Kai looked at each other as if the world had just ended, "She's the only one I didn't want to fight alone! Good luck."

Toshizo's face expression fell into the pits of hell, "No way. She's that summoning girl."

"Hey… I took all her scrolls so you'll be okay." Kori laughed nervously, "But the look on her teacher's face says you're screwed."

"You can always surrender if you think you're going to die." Kai nodded solemnly as if he was talking to someone who was already dying.

"Finally we get to see your student in action!" Gai howled, "We'll see if you did a good job or not, Asahina!"

"Oh great." She scooted further away from the passionate man, "Good luck, Toshizo. I'm counting on you."

He sighed, dragging himself down to the center of the room.

Asahina shook her head before admitting, "Gai. I didn't do a good job."

He looked at her like she had hit him over the head with a brick, "What?!"

She figured if she admitted it herself, he wouldn't make fun of her too much afterwards, "Yeah… He's might not last too long…"

"Start." Hayate spat as he moved out of their way.

"You'll pay for earlier." Rina giggled, weaving her most familiar signs, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

"Oh boy." He gasped, "I didn't do anything to you!"

And boy was that true. He had spent all his time running away from her crazy black cat and yet again, here was another dangerous-looking animal staring him down. The bear appeared in a fury of roars and snarls.

Kori checked her pockets for the scrolls and surely they were still there, "I didn't give them back to her."

Kai snorted, "She didn't use that one before. She must have more scrolls."

"You took a girl's summoning scrolls?" Asahina lifted an eyebrow at her students.

"She did it." Kai was fast to give his friend away so as to avoid another strangling headlock.

She laughed nervously, "Yeah…"

"That's my girl." Asahina ruffled the girl's hair, "Let's have a look."

"Okay…" She unrolled both scrolls for her teacher to see.

"Oh… You destroyed all the previous signatures." The jonin pointed down suspiciously at the only one left, "Don't tell me that one's yours."

"Okay, I won't." The girl nodded.

"You know how to summon?"

"I do now." She laughed.

"You didn't sign the other scroll?"

"No… I only needed one."

"Pay attention, Asahina!" Gai threw his arm over her shoulders, "That's your student!"

Toshizo was already on the run as the two hundred pound bear chased him around the room. Kai sighed, "He's done."

"There is no sighing!" Gai shouted at the top of his lungs, "Asahina! Teach them about the springtime of youth."

Asahina sweat dropped, "Our springtime of youth already passed."

"Nonsense!" He slammed his hand over the railing, "We're just getting started, Asahina! Don't be so negative!"

Kakashi peeled the two apart, "Okay, Gai. She understands. Now stop screaming so loud."

"Kakashi! My eternal rival! Teach these kids something about our youth!"

"Our youth? Hmm… You can read about it in the history books, that's how long ago our youth was." He chuckled.

Kori laughed, "You're not that old, Kakashi-sensei."

He grinned, "Maybe not."

Asahina's eyebrow twitched, "Since when were you guys so close."

"We're not." The two answered at the same time and began to laugh quietly to themselves.

"Did I miss something?" Gai's jaw was slack, "Kakashi, you demon! You said our youth was long ago and here you are, getting young girls to fall for you! I could do that too! Our youth is not over yet!"

Kakashi barely turned his way, "Did you say something?"

Gai immediately dropped to his knees sulking, "He ignored me twice in one day. My oh-so-detached rival."

Asahina patted the man's back, "You were the one who said to pay attention to the match, Gai."

He was instantly back in action, "That's right!"

"He's got a crazy character." Kori laughed, "Interesting."

"Interesting is the nice way of putting it." Kakashi commented.

"Let's go, Toshizo!" She called down when her teammate hit the floor, pinned underneath the claws of the bear.

In a moment of bravery at the sound of his friend's voice, Toshizo slammed his kunai into the bear's open mouth, "Get off!"

The bear roared and stumbled back before disappearing into a puff of smoke. Rina didn't even seem to be paying attention to their match as she haphazardly summoned another bear, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu."

"There's no end to them…" Toshizo sucked in another much needed breath of air before letting loose a flurry of shuriken that the bear just swatted down.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

"Another one." He hissed and spun around but it was already over.

Neji had instantly moved to slap his hands over his sister's eyes as the sword went straight through her teammate's back and stomach.

Hayate stopped the match there, "It's over! The winner is Rina!"

She removed her sword without much care, "Tch. Boring now that there's only one of you."

The medics were on him in a second, throwing him onto a stretcher for immediate movement and care. Kori screamed and swung at her brother, finally managing to get out of his grasp. She didn't think twice before jumping down to talk to her friend, "Toshizo! Are you okay? Talk to me!"

Asahina pulled her student back, "He'll be okay. Just give them some time."

"We'll start the next match. Hyuga Kori vs. Happaki Kenshin."

The blue haired genin glared at the grass ninja as he joined them on the first floor, "I'll kill you!"

So... Before people think I really have no life, I guess I should explain the reason for my update today! XP

I have a decent amount of people who have followed my story and favorited it and what not. I wanted to do something to show my appreciation and today my boyfriend's sister jokingly told me "It's July! 7! 7! 7!" and she broke out into a rant about how I've known her for seven years now and this is the seventh month of the year and there are only seven days left of the month. By the end of her rant my face was like this: O_O?
So she basically ordered me to upload a chapter everyday for these last seven days of July by saying, 'You should show your appreciation! Your english isn't even that good.' and so here it is. I guess I should at least try.

Special thanks to my mysterious 'Guest' reviewer and Kukasabe Swift for their loyal reviews! I appreciate your reviews!