Chapter 14

No poem thing this time, I will add it later. For now I just wanted to update. I apologize for the wait, school sucks as usual. Enjoy.

Sasuke and Naruto poked their heads into the room where Kankuro and Gaara were and entered when Kankuro waved them in, following Temari.

"How are you feeling, Gaara?" Naruto asked immediately, moving to the bed where the redhead lay.

Gaara studied the blond silently and then his eyes moved to Sasuke. "Where am I?" He finally asked looking at his brother.

"The Uchiha Compound. Sasuke is letting us use this house. Baki's got clones pretending to be us hiding in the hotel." Kankuro explained, handing a glass of water to his little brother cautiously.

Gaara took it gently. "Shukaku's gone?" He stated questioningly. His hand twitched as if he wanted to press it against his head to ward off the voice that was missing.

"Not really. He just can't talk to you anymore." Naruto smiled at the redhead, proud of Kyuubi. "Kyuubi put a…muzzle on him."

Gaara's face relaxed slightly, almost as if he would smile. But he just nodded in gratitude.

"Well, we will let you rest and talk with your siblings. If you need anything, Anko is down the hall and we are across the street." Sasuke said, noticing Temari's little twitches. He guessed she was anxious to talk with Gaara and see how he'd treat them now that Shukaku's voice was gone. He left followed by Naruto who gave them a friendly wave over his shoulder.

When Sasuke and Naruto left Gaara's room, they found Anko waiting in the hallway outside the door. "Message from the Hokage." She held out a scroll to them.

Sasuke and Naruto looked over the scroll and Sasuke felt tension gather in his shoulders. The exams were finally ready to start in the morning. The last of the participants, those from Orochimaru's Sound village, had finally arrived.

Baki had told the 'Kazekage' that he, and his team, were going to search out weaknesses as his excuse for their early arrival and it had been approved. He'd met up with his 'Kazekage' and 'Gaara', 'Temari' and 'Kankuro' were given their new orders.

"We should get to bed then." Sasuke murmured.

Anko nodded, "Don't forget to wear your weights tomorrow." She smirked at them as she ducked into the room she'd commandeered.

Sasuke rolled his eyes as Naruto leaned back into Gaara's room to inform the siblings of the next day's Exams. Then they headed back over to their own house and to bed.

As Naruto joined Sasuke in bed he looked over with wide blue eyes. "Are we ready?" He asked quietly.

"Of course we are." Sasuke scoffed snuggling down under the covers, enjoying his warm bed. Tomorrow was going to come way too soon and then they'd be sleeping outside for a few days.

"I hope you're right." Naruto murmured starting to drift off.

"I usually am." Sasuke replied, smirking softly. He watched as Naruto drifted off to sleep and for a few minutes, took the time to think of what was coming. The Third had told them about the traitors that had been 'discovered' and the names of those who had plotted against them. The Rookie 9, Team Gai, and Gaara's Team had been the only ones informed. Sasuke knew that there was at least one other team from Leaf, Kabuto's fake team, but he didn't remember there being any others. He knew that everyone was as informed as they could be using the theory that Baki had betrayed Orochimaru for tricking them. He closed his eyes as he let sleep claim him as well, ready for whatever may come. His last thought before he fell into the arms of Morpheus was that he hoped Itachi would arrive soon.

The next morning, Sasuke and Naruto left a few minutes after the Sand Siblings to meet up with Sakura at the bridge that had become a routine meeting spot and head to the place that would house their first exam.

"How was training with Kakashi?" Naruto asked Sakura giving her a wide grin, his hands adjusting the weights on his arms.

Sakura glared at him slightly before shaking off her anger. "It was fine." She replied shortly.

Sasuke and Naruto glanced at each other. Apparently Sakura was still upset she hadn't been allowed to train with them. Maybe they should ask Anko to train her later…privately. Sasuke bit back a smirk at the thought of giving Sakura to Anko. Sakura wouldn't survive intact that was for sure. "We should get going." He told them quietly, retreating back into the stoic façade he was known for.

Sakura and Naruto nodded, following Sasuke as he led them towards the building. When they entered te building they saw a number of genins standing outside a room with the label for the test room guarded by two leaf nin who refused to let the others in. Sasuke jerked his head towards the stairs when Sakura and Naruto paused in confusion. The first time Sasuke had made a big showing of calling out the two disguised ninja and revealing the genjutsu, causing others to be able to acknowledge that the classroom was indeed, wrong, but this time he kept right past, followed closely by Naruto and Sakura who snickered at those they left behind. He wasn't going to help them anymore than he had to this time.

"Do you think we should have told them?" Sakura asked after they found the correct classroom and reached the door.

"A part of being a ninja is to 'look beneath the beneath' or whatever it is Kakashi says all the time. If they can't tell that the room is mislabeled, then they need more training." Sasuke told her bluntly opening the door. "Especially if they can't recognize they only went up one flight of stairs rather than two."

"Ah! The beauteous Sakura!" A jovial voice cried out as Lee bounded over to greet them. Tenten and Neji followed at a more sedate pace than the hyper green menace. "I see you have arrived at the correct room as we ourselves did! How youthful of you!" He struck his nice-guy pose and Sasuke and Naruto began to edge away as Sakura's eyebrow ticked in annoyance. She didn't get to start in on him however as someone joined them.

"You guys sure are young to be here." A gray-haired leaf ninja chuckled coming up to them as Team Seven and Team Gai greeted each other. "I'm Kabuto."

Sasuke gave an imperceptible nod to Neji and Naruto who both glanced at him at the introduction. The Third had said that Sasuke knew what Kabuto looked like though omitted how he knew. This was Orochimaru's spy. He said nothing, however, as Sakura drew the man into conversation.

"Is this your second time taking the test?" Sakura asked looking up nervously at him as she saw the hostile gazes from the other older ninja's in the room. It was obvious that they felt it was insulting for them to be there.

"My seventh." Kabuto told her almost condescendingly. "The exams are held twice a year, so this is my fourth year trying." His eyes turned to Sasuke but Sasuke wasn't looking at him. He was pretending to study the others and keep an eye out for the other Rookie 9 teams.

"So you must know a lot about these exams huh?" Sakura asked looking hopefully up at him.

Sasuke held in a smirk at the innocent look on her face and strode over to the closest window to watch the clouds, pretending he was too good to listen to someone who had failed so much. Sakura was digging for information. She was always good with remembering the details and as the 'shy' one, it was expected she'd ask questions. He wasn't surprised that Naruto followed along with him, but it was a little surprising that Neji joined them as well. They pretended to ignore the other ninjas but they were poised to interfere if it turned ugly. Kabuto knelt on the floor and spread out cards full of information and began explaining, still in that grating condescending tone, what he could do with them and what information they could tell.

"Leaf, Sand, Rain, Grass, Waterfall, and Sound…many outstanding genins from the various Hidden Villages are here to take the Exam. Well…the Hidden Sound Village is a small village just created last year so there isn't much info but…the rest of the Hidden Villages are filled with talented youngsters." Kabuto explained as Sasuke held in the urge to roll his eyes at the way he was talking to Sakura and Ino who had joined her.

Sasuke and the others were quickly joined by Shikamau, Choji, Hinata, and Shino. Kiba joined his teammate, Ino, and Sakura, Lee, and Tenten as they listened to Kabuto telling stats on the others. He was describing Lee at the moment, Tenten and Lee curious as to what the man would say about him.

"Troublesome." Shikamaru muttered as one of the sound ninja lunched at Kabuto.

"His information is too detailed for simple observation." Neji murmured to the others. "Out-dated, yes, but not information you should share about your fellow ninja." His eyes narrowed as Kabuto's glasses shattered but noticed there was very little damage otherwise. "He's a spy."

"So the Third tells us." Sasuke replied quietly, trying to hide the hatred he felt toward the traitor. If he had his way, Kabuto would die during the Second Task.

"Let's kill him during the Second Task." Naruto muttered, unknowingly mirroring Sasuke's thoughts, his lashes lowered to hide the flash of red in his eyes. Foxes suffered no traitors and Naruto would kill anyone trying to harm his friend.

Hinata gasped softly at Naruto's easy declaration of killing someone but said nothing as the other male members of their group nodded. Sasuke saw her force down the squeamishness and nod after them, a true ninja always killed their traitors to protect their village and family.

"Be right back." Naruto murmured and wandered over to Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari. Those who knew of Gaara's homicidal tendencies flinched as Naruto approached and watched in shock as he 'introduced' himself and settled into a quiet one-sided conversation with them. None of those watching could tell what exactly he was saying, but they saw how Gaara looked away as if uninterested.

"What's he doing?" Choji asked munching slowly on a chip, his eyes looking around and counting the amount of ninja's and where they were from.

"Making sure Kankuo, Temari, and Gaara know who to kill." Neji murmured before Sasuke could reply. His tone held a touch of amazement at Naruto's forethought.

Sasuke had to hide a smile as he felt the proctors approaching the room. Take that Hyuga! Naruto's not as dumb as you think huh? He felt Kyuubi laugh in his mind in appreciation. Everyone always underestimated Naruto.

An explosion at the front of the room had everyone turning to look at the group of people who were suddenly standing there. The first test was about to begin.

"Thanks for waiting. I am Morino Ibiki, the examiner for the Chuunin Selection Exam's First Test." The scarred man in front introduced himself, causing a number of the ninja's to shudder. Everyone knew Ibiki was the lead torturer of the Leaf Village and that he was good at his job. He pointed to the Sound Ninja who had attacked Kabuto. "Hidden Sound guys, stop doing as you please before the exam. Do you want to fail already?" One of them, a slouching man with his face mostly covered began to apologize but Ibiki cut him off in disgust. "There will be no fighting without the permission of the examiner. Even if permission is granted, killing your opponent will not be tolerated." He said almost negligently. Then his face hardened and he glared at those in front of him. "Those pigs that disobey me will be failed immediately. Do I make myself clear?"

A shudder slid through all of those in front of him except the Leaf ninja, Sasuke noted with interest. They knew to be afraid of him if they were on his bad side, but they also knew that he was one of theirs and they did not need to fear another Leaf. Sasuke and his companions kept their eyes on everyone, even as Ibiki described the first test to them. Naruto twitched slightly at the thought of a paper test but didn't explode as he had the first time he'd taken it. He'd been warned this time, though he still was nervous about it. As they all separated to their chosen seats Sasuke gave Sakura and Naruto an encouraging nod. He knew they could do this.

"There are many important rules to this First Test. I'll write them on the board while I explain. But questions will not be allowed so listen carefully." Ibiki started turning his back on the hundred genin ready to take their test.

Sasuke zoned out as Ibiki went over the rules but he saw Sakura twitch at the announcement that if one team member got zero points, his two teammates would fail and saw the glare she directed at Naruto's back. 'Kyuubi…tell Naruto I have faith in him.' He whispered to the fox, seeing the tension building in Naruto's back. He hated written tests and almost always failed them. But Sasuke knew Naruto could do this, they'd gone over everything that could be on this test and assured Naruto that asking Kyuubi wasn't cheating, even though the point of the test was to see how well you gathered information.

Sakura was apparently still angry and Sasuke needed to figure out what to do about that. She had improved and seemed to have started backsliding since she learned that Anko was living with Sasuke. Why did she see Anko and Naruto as threats to their 'relationship' when he had no relationship with her beyond a close teammate? He sighed as Ibiki signaled for them to begin and decided that it could be dealt with when they were all stuck together in the Forest of Death.

Sasuke hunkered down and began to answer the questions on the test, only occasionally asking Kyuubi questions that he wasn't sure he was familiar with even if it wouldn't matter in the end. By the time Ibiki called their attention to the front for the tenth question, only a few dozen teams were left in the running.

"You must now choose if you want to take the tenth question. If you decide not to, you and your team fail." He waited for the noise to die down as people shouted that of course they would take it and crossed his arms in annoyance. "If you decide to take it and fail, you will never be able to take the Chuunin Exams again."

Silence met his words and Sasuke saw many eyes widen in fear. One by one, various teams quit and left, over a dozen staying though you could see the nerves floating off them in dark clouds. Sasuke met Sakura's gaze across the room and shook his head as her hand twitched. He felt relief pass through him as she nodded back and her hand curled into a fist. Gaara's team, all of the Rookie 9, and Gai's team were all still in the running with a few teams left from Grass, Sound, Rain, and Rock, plus Kabuto's 'Leaf' team.

Unlike the last exam, Naruto did not make his encouraging speech, he sat quietly, staring straight back at Ibiki, as the man watched him for some kind of reaction. When it was obvious no one else was leaving, Ibiki nodded.

"Congratulations! The fifty-one of you remaining have passed the First Test!" Ibiki said smirking at the astonished faces that stared at him. As he explained the reasons behind the test Sasuke felt Kyuubi stirring in the back of his mind.

'Naruto was extremely worried. Did you know he was more afraid of messing this up for you and Sakura than for himself?' Kyuubi asked him quietly.

Sasuke felt a small smile tilt the corner of his mouth and closed his eyes. 'I am not surprised.' He felt Kyuubi's muted shock and opened his eyes to see Ibiki take off the covering he wore on his head. The marks of torture covered the bald skin of his head and displayed the pain he had suffered to keep information of his village safe.

Sasuke closed his eyes again as fury filled him. Kabuto should have looked like that before he dared betray them. He listened to Ibiki and the questions that flew toward the strong ninja and knew that if anyone could tell them what a ninja needed to be, it was Ibiki. An idea popped into his mind and he let it swirl around and considered it from every angle. Eventually he'd need a new mentor, Kakashi only had one thing to teach him and he knew how to do it. Besides, it seemed that Kakashi still didn't want anything to do with him. Naruto was going to get Jiraiya and Sakura, if she lasted, was going to be sent to Anko if she was that jealous of the woman. But Ibiki…maybe he was a good choice to be Sasuke's mentor. He had not spent a lot of time with him and admitted that it would be a good idea to learn what he could from the man.

A crash made him look up as Anko made her grand entrance. Sasuke and Naruto both smirked slightly as they saw Ino and Sakura stiffen in horror at the appearance of their 'rival'. When Anko introduced herself, Sasuke felt a fiery determination fill his chest and he could see it in the eyes of his friends and allies. All hell was going to break loose now. It was time to weed out their enemies.

Well? Review. I didn't want to do word for word everything Ibiki says because everyone should know what he says. I used an online scanlation for the direct quotes so if it is incorrect at all, blame the site I used.

Next chapter will begin the Second Test and will get a little bit gorey. I hope you enjoyed!