AN: I know right, an update within a month of the last one. Must be a sign of the apocalypse or something. Self Deprecating aside as always hope you enjoy the chapter and please feel free to leave a review. Thank you for your time.
For their part, it took a considerable amount of willpower from team 7 not to stare at the strange new man wearing the green spandex jumpsuit and monstrously large eyebrows. The three of them had heard of Might Guy of course, the man's exploits were known throughout the village. However none of them would've pictured Konoha's foremost taijutsu master looking like this. Naruto took a look at the near legendary jounin then at Lee, who was staring at the man with total reverence, and thought, if not for the different names, there might've been the possibility that they were father and son. They kinda looked alike, wore the same jumpsuit, had their hair cut in identical fashions, and wore their Konoha headbands as belts. They even had the same massive eyebrows.
"Ah, the flames of youth burned brightly in both of you." Guy said while placing his hand on Lee's shoulder, while giving an approving look at Sasuke. It was then that he looked over to Naruto and Sakura, his smile wide as ever he gave them a thumbs up. "I expect I'll be seeing the fires of youth burn passionately in you two during these exams as well." Beside him Sakura blushed as Naruto just smiled and returned the gesture.
"Now then you kids are Kakashi's I take it." Guy said standing to his full height sizing the three of them up. He was silent for another moment before his smile grew even wider. "I can tell he's done a fine job training you three. What do you think Lee?"
The younger taijutsu specialist jumped at the mention of his name and bowed deeply. "I agree Guy-Sensei. Although I only sparred with Sasuke I can tell that both Naruto and Sakura are equally skilled in their own fields."
Naruto and Sakura's face both brightened at Lee saying that he felt they were equally skilled as Sasuke. They both knew it was true, that there were things they could do better than him, like he could do things better than both of them. However most people they'd dealt over the past few months seemed to think that because Sasuke was an Uchiha, he was by default better at everything. It was nice to meet people who thought they had their own strengths.
"Yes but for the moment it seems my training is superior." Guy chuckled, "I'll have to tell Kakashi that the score is now 21 to 20."
"Forgive me Guy-Sensei but I don't think a single sparring match is enough to gauge who's had the superior training." Lee interrupted, "Perhaps you should wait until after the exams to change the score."
Might Guy considered his students words for a moment, "You're right Lee, better to wait and see the results of these exams. The score remains 20 to 20."
The significance of these words were not lost on Team 7. In whatever strange competition Might Guy had going on with Kakashi, the two were tied with the results of these exams determining who would pull ahead.
'Heh, no preasure.' Naruto thought as Guy and Lee both provided them with another thumbs up before departing.
"Those guys are kinda weird." Sakura stated as they also continued to the examination room.
"I hope there are others as strong as that Lee guy." Sasuke commented, mostly to himself. "But yeah, they did kinda freak me out abit with the eyebrows."
"Well I liked em." Naruto said placing his hands behind his head. 'That weird Gaara guy from Suna, Kado, Karin and Torren, and Rock Lee. These Exams are going to be awesome!'
Hinata had tried her hardest not to stare at Naruto when he and his team entered the room, had tried even harder not to blush as Kiba lead their team over to them. She ultimately failed on both accounts but was spared from some embarrassment by Ino Yamanaka who had, rather enthusiastically, jumped Sasuke. The ensuing argument between Sakura and Ino provided enough of a diversion for Hinata to get a hold of herself, but even without using her byakugan, the Hyuuga heiress knew that the rather loud exchange was causing more than a few pairs of eyes to glare at them.
"Well looks like the gang's all here." Kiba said as Sasuke managed to wriggle his way free from Ino. "The Rookie Nine are back together."
"The what?" Naruto asked giving Kiba a quizzical look.
"Some stupid nickname the older Konoha genin teams are calling all of us." Shikamaru Nara explained, Choji Akimichi was next to him munching on a bag of chips. "They make such a big deal over all three rookie teams taking the exams this year that I honestly wish that I hadn't agreed to go along with it."
"Th-then why d-did you?" Hinata stuttered.
Shikamaru cast a lazy glare at Ino who'd finally stopped arguing with Sakura. "My father always taught me that pissing off the women in my life can be… troublesome."
Hinata sympathized with him. She hadn't felt particularly ready for these exams either but at the same time she didn't want to let her team down. Shino, as always was silent about the matter, but Kiba couldn't help but chuckle.
"Man you're not even going out with her and she's got you whipped." That got a chuckle out of Naruto and a glare from both Shikamaru and Ino. Before either of them could say anything however the door to the room opened once more. The nine of them turned to see a group of three red haired genin walk in the room.
"See you guys I told you we'd find it eventually." one of the red heads, a boy with short trim hair, dark gray shirt and black pants, said to his teammates.
A girl with shoulder length hair, glasses, a light purple shirt, black shorts, and red eyes, responded with a scoff. "Well no duh you dolt. You looked into every damn door on this floor"
"We were bound to find it sooner or later." another boy with longer hair than either of them tied into a ponytail, a dark green long sleeved shirt and light blue pants. "Might've been sooner if one of us had taken the lead."
The first two wore their headbands tied around their brows while the third wore his around his right arm. Hinata didn't immediately recognize the symbol on the metal plate but after a moment found it identical to the Uzumaki clan symbol on Naruto's back and shoulder.
"Kado! Karin! Torren!" Naruto called out waving over to them. "Over here!"
'Naruto knows them?' Hinata thought as the three strange redheads smiled and started for them. Naruto met them halfway and wrapped all three of them into a hug. Hinata tried not to be jealous as the remaining eight of them worked their way over.
"Who the hell are they?" Kiba asked Sasuke and Sakura.
"I'll let Naruto tell you." Sakura replied with a smile. Hinata thought she saw a degree of satisfaction on the pinkette's face. She looked to Sasuke to see a similar look on his face, but his eyes also held an emotion that Hinata was very used to seeing within her own clan. Bitterness. She blinked in surprise at that but upon a second look she couldn't find it again.
"So Naruto, care to introduce us to your friends?" Choji asked before popping some more chips into his mouth.
Hinata's crush smiled wide as stepped to the side. "Guys, this is Kado Uzumaki, Karin Uzumaki, and Torrin Uzumaki of Uzushio. They're my clanmates."
Torren smiled sheepishly as Naruto introduced him and his teammates to the other Konoha rookies. He noted the look of surprise on each of their faces at the mention of both their clan names and Uzushio.
"Nice to meet you all." Kado said with a respectful bow to the other genin. Almost immediately some of the Konoha genin were bombarding them with questions. What kind of food was there in Uzushio? Did they have any unique breeds of dogs? Were there any cute boys? Kado and Torrin deferred that question to Karin. The rather pale guy with black glasses even asked what species of insects lived in their village.
Torren noted that the only two not asking questions was the guy with his headband tied to his arm like Kado, 'Think Naruto said his name was Shikamaru' and the Hyuuga girl, 'And she was Hinata.' Shikamaru looked like he really didn't care enough to ask any questions, and Hinata seemed to take the opportunity to look at Naruto… who was oblivious. 'If she doesn't have a crush on him, I'll shave my head and become a monk.'
Just as the three of them managed to put an end to the questioning, Torren heard a soft chuckling. The twelve of them turned to see a Konoha genin, a bit older than all of them, wearing a purple shirt and pants, glasses and white hair walking over to them.
"You guys just don't know when to keep quiet do you?" the newcomer asked.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Kiba demanded, his dog barking from atop his head. "Who the hell are you supposed to be?"
"Well my name's Kabuto, and do you see those all those guys over there?" the white haired man asked, gesturing to all of the other genin in the room. For the first time Torren noticed that they were all glaring at him and the others. "Some of them were already going to be gunning for you lot because you're rookies. But with the way you guys just keep drawing attention to yourselves you can change some to most. Get the picture?"
No sooner had the words left Kabuto's mouth had Naruto rather loudly declared, "My name is Naruto Uzumaki! And I'm going to beat every single one of you!" Suddenly literally every single eye was on the loud mouthed blonde in bright orange. The remaining eight Rookie Nine, the three Uzushio Uzumaki's and Kabuto all sweatdropped.
"And now change most to all." Kado said as Sakura delivered a rather spectacular blow to the back of Naruto's head.
Thankfully the scene before them didn't have time to progress much further. The door to the examination room slammed open as a tall man in a black trench coat over gray fatigues, a bandana styled Konoha forehead protector, and two long scars trailing down his face, stomped into the room followed by several other men in identical gray fatigues.
"Everyone take your seats and shut up." the scarred man said. Immediately Torren and the others all found empty seats. Once they were all seated the man took his place at the head of the room. "My name is Ibiki Morino, I will be your first exam proctor. The Chunin Exams begin now."
'These are some of the hardest questions I've ever seen.' Sakura thought silently to herself as she dutifully moved her pencil across the paper, answering her third question. To say that all of the first time takers of the Chunin Exams were surprised that the first exam was an actual written exam would be an understatement. Sakura wasn't that surprised. What did they all think they were going to be doing in a classroom.
The rules of the first exam were simple. Every genin was given a sheet of paper with nine questions on it. The exam would last for two hours. At an hour and fifty minutes, a tenth question would be given to everyone. If you failed to get enough questions right, you failed the exam. If you were caught cheating five times, you failed the exam. If you failed the exam your entire team failed with you. Simple.
At least it seemed simple at first. Then Sakura actually looked at the questions on the exam. They were the hardest, most complicated, difficult questions Sakura had ever seen before. After looking at the paper for a few minutes Sakura came to a sobering conclusion. Very few of the genin in this room would be able to answer any of these questions. Upon this realization the second failing condition made sense to her. The exam wasn't to see who could answer the questions per se. It was to see who could cheat and not get caught.
Sakura figured that Sasuke could probably uses his Sharingan in some way to get the answers but what about Naruto. She was seated directly behind him and so far, forty-five minutes into the exam, he hadn't even touched his pencil.
'I don't think he has any special means of gathering information.' She thought as she jotted down her fourth answer. There's no way I can help him. Sasuke can't help him either. Cmon Naruto, you're resourceful, you can do this.'
Naruto stared down at his blank piece of paper, a singular thought running rampant through his mind.
'I'm fucked.'
Kado stared down at his piece of paper, completely blank save for his name in the upper right hand corner. His left hand gripped his pencil while his right rubbed at his eyes. Fifty minutes had passed and already about ten teams had been eliminated from the exams.
'Well it's now or never.' he thought as he raised his hand. "Excuse me, Proctor."
"What is it?" Ibiki asked, glaring at the young Uzumaki.
"My eyes are straining too much from a glare in the room, can I put these on?" Kado asked holding up a pair of sunglasses.
Ibiki looked at one of the lookouts around the classroom. The man stood up and walked over to where Kado was sitting. Kado handed over the glasses and the man examined them. After a moment he looked back a Ibiki and nodded his head. Ibiki nodded in return and the man handed Kado the glasses.
"Thank you." Kado said with smile as he slipped the glasses over his eyes, which could now see things much, much more clearly. With his glasses secured, Kado started writing down answers.
'Alright, Karin should be about halfway through her exam, and Kado's putting his glasses on so he can copy down her answers.' Torren thought as he dipped his left hand underneath his desk and made a single one hand sign. His right shoulder grew warm as the seal he had placed there released and started moving his arm and hand in conjunction with Kado's. Before long his paper was about halfway filled with answers. His arm still moving of its own accord, Torren glanced at the clock.
'Forty five minutes left until the tenth question.'
"Alright everyone pencils down. It's time for the tenth question." Ibiki said once the remaining forty five minutes had passed. So far a total of nineteen teams had been caught cheating and subsequently eliminated from the exams. Ibiki looked over the remaining thirty six teams with veiled interest.
'Hmm, a quite a few of them left so far.' he thought with a fair bit of approval. 'Let's see how many choose to remain after hearing about the tenth question though.'
"Now then before I give you the tenth question, let me explain the special rules about it. First if you get this question wrong, you automatically fail the exam, regardless of your answers to the nine previous questions." That bit of news hit the genin in front of him pretty hard as several gasped in surprise while others remained completely silent.
"Second, anyone who does not wish to answer the question may choose not to take it and opt out of the exam. This of course will result in a failure as well."
"Why the hell would anyone do that?" one of the genin shouted from his desk, a young man from Kusa. "At least if we take the stupid question we have a shot, plus even if we get it wrong there's always next time."
Ibiki smiled. It was not a pleasant expression to see on the scarred man's face. "That brings us to the third and final rule. Anyone who answers the tenth question incorrectly will never be allowed to take part in the chunin exams again. In any village."
There was a moment of stunned silence as the implications of Ibiki's words sank over the genin. Finally a genin from Ame broke the silence.
"That's bullshit! There are plenty of people here who've taken the exams before."
"I wasn't in charge of them then. I am now." was Ibiki's response.
"There's no way Konoha can enforce this rule on the other villages!" the same genin protested, "You can't keep us from taking the exams in another village!"
Ibiki smiled again as he walked over to the Ame genin and reached into his pocket. The genin flinched back, afraid the proctor was going for a knife, but all that Ibiki pulled out of his pocket was a sheet of paper.
"Read it and weep." Ibiki stated as he placed the paper on the genin's desk. The genin scoffed as he scooped up the paper and started reading. His eyes growing wide as he read.
"What does it say Tao?" a different Ame genin, likely Tao's teammate, asked.
"It's a contract stating that genin who fail the tenth question of the first exam will never be allowed to take the exams in any of the villages listed." Tao gulped, "There all listed and the leaders of each village has signed it. Even the Five Kage."
The whole room was silent as Ibiki plucked the contract from Tao's trembling hands and returned to his spot at the head of the classroom.
"So," he started as he turned his pitiless eyes towards the cowed genin, "who wants to risk their careers?"
Naruto watched stupefied as hand after hand rose into the air, none faster than that Tao guy from Ame. Naruto turned to look at his teammates to see which way they were leaning. Sasuke looked determined as ever, clearly not willing to give up under any circumstances. Sakura on the other hand looked worried.
'Why's she worried? She's the smartest one in our team. It's not like she'll get a test answer wrong.' A single look at his own exam paper filled him in however.
'She's not worried about herself. She's worried about me. I'm the weak link here. She thinks I don't a have a chance of getting this question right.' Naruto felt bitter at his teammates apparent lack of faith in him, but another look at his black exam paper told him it was very justified.
Naruto felt his hand beginning to raise. 'I should just opt out, apologize to Sakura and Sasuke for being such a fucking moron, and study like crazy for next time.' Ibiki noticed the movement and focused his attention on Naruto.
'I'm so stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.' Naruto's hand went further up. Ibiki looked intently at Naruto as if waiting for further confirmation of the genin's surrender.
'STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!' Naruto's hand flashed downward, slamming on his desk top with a loud clap.
"I don't give a damn what that paper says! Even if I get this stupid question wrong I'll still become the Hokage some day! My name is Naruto Uzumaki and I say bring on the damn question!"
For the second time that day, all eyes in the classroom were on Naruto Uzumaki because of his loud mouth.
Ibiki Morino stared in surprise at the blonde genin in the orange clothes, the self professed future Hokage, Naruto Uzumaki, in surprise. 'Well he's got spunk.' was the first thought that came to him. After a few moment the exam proctor looked around the room to find that none of the remaining genin seemed doubtful about the final question anymore. Each and everyone of them looked determined to see this through to the bitter end.
'And he's managed to inspire the remainders to place it all on the line. Even the foreign shinobi.' Ibiki had to admit to being a little impressed. Naruto had managed to convince 20 other teams to stick it out. Another look throughout the classroom reaffirmed what Ibiki had suspected none of the other genin were going to drop out. Still formalities had to be kept.
"This is your last chance." he said, his tone harsh. "Is anyone else going to opt out?" The 63 genin all stared defiantly at Ibiki. The exam proctor gave them another smile, this one considerably warmer than the last.
"In that case, I congratulate all of you on passing the first examination."
The First Exam may be over but now the hard part starts. Next time The Second Exam: The Forest of Death!