"What did you just say?" Zabuza asked, hoping to god that he'd misheard his wife.

This couldn't be happening. Not yet. It was way too soon. They'd only just gotten married a little more than a month ago for heaven's sake.

"I'm pregnant." Mei repeated.

He hadn't misheard his wife as he'd been desperately hoping he had done. He was going to be a father, despite the fact that he wasn't ready and would never be ready. He wasn't cut out for this kind of life. He had been made for a life of action and adventure, not changing diapers. He didn't even know how to change diapers, since he'd never gotten a babysitting job during the four D ranks he'd taken as a Genin before they'd handed him C's because nobody wanted to trust him with anything that didn't involve killing. He honestly wasn't ready to face the fact that in eight months or so, he'd be responsible for a small thing that screamed, wet and crapped itself, and he didn't think that he ever would be.

Haku on the other hand was standing there grinning like an idiot, apparently happy at this turn of events. Well, it wasn't Haku that was going to be the parent, and it wasn't Haku who was going to be responsible for the care and feeding of the impending bundle of doom. After the wedding, Mei had made it quite clear what she would do to him if he tried to foist all of the childcare duties off onto his loyal follower.

"Congratulations Zabuza-sama." Haku said much too cheerfully for his tastes.

That settled it. He was going to find a wife for Haku, a wife that was willing to have lots and lots of babies, and they'd see who had the last laugh then.

Sasuke was somewhat surprised when he woke up to find the sun already in the sky. Usually, Kakashi would wake him up at some insanely early hour for more of the training from hell. As he looked at the already risen sun, he wondered at the feeling that today was important somehow, but for the life of him, he couldn't think of why. It was as he was counting the number of days that he'd trained with Kakashi that he realized what it was. Today was the the day of the third phase of the Chunin Exams, and if they didn't get a move on, they'd be late.

When the realization had finally sunk in, he shot out of his sleeping bag as if it were filled with flaming scorpions, raced out of the tent as if the very hounds of hell were on his heels, and went searching for Kakashi. There was no way in hell he was going to show up three hours late for something as important as the Final Phase of the Chunin Exams. After searching for several minutes, he finally found Kakashi lounging in a tree reading one of his ever-present pornographic novels.

"We've got to get out of here now or we'll be late!" he yelled up to the man, relieved that he hadn't disappeared altogether as he was occasionally wont to do.

"Late for what?" Kakashi asked lazily, not even bothering to look up from his book.

"Late for the Chunin Exams!" he replied.

"Whoops. Looks like I picked the wrong day to finally give you a day off." Kakashi said as he closed his book and dropped from the tree after tallying something up on his fingers.

He couldn't tell if the man was being serious or not since Kakashi had a really twisted sense of humor, and it was sometimes rather hard to tell whether or not the man was joking. Deciding not to bother wasting anymore time trying to determine whether or not Kakashi had actually been serious, he dashed over to the campsite wondering if they had time to pack their supplies. In the end, he decided to do so anyways, since there was no point in leaving stuff out where just about anybody could take it. More than one ninja had "scored free supplies" due to the carelessness of others in the past. He knew this for a fact since he'd seen That Boy scrounging for kunai and other unattended weapons on the practice fields when he was running low. As there wasn't really any time, he decided to sacrifice neatness for speed, and haphazardly threw everything within reach into his bag.

In his office in the Administration Complex, the Hokage sighed as a final guest arrived as he was preparing to depart to the local arena that was going to be home to the Third Phase of the Chunin Exams. Scheduling for the event had initially been a nightmare, as he'd had to work with the game schedule for Konoha's Ninjutsu team which had had an important match scheduled for today, as the playing season schedule had been drawn up well before the lots had been drawn up for the locations of this year's Exams. In the end, he'd been forced to give VIP seating and free snacks to the Konoha Tigers who were in charge of the arena when it was not in use for the Exams, in order to get them to forfeit today's match against the Fire Country Lions who had also had to be given VIP seating for the event.

Competitive Ninjutsu was a popular sport in the Elemental Countries, with each country fielding at least one team and each ninja village fielding a team of their own as well. Most members of the professional teams were retired shinobi, but trained civilians who had either failed the Academy or learned from relatives who had gone on to become ninja could be found on the teams as well, as there were rules against active duty ninja competing in such tournaments. Competitive Ninjutsu was pretty much what its name suggested, Ninjutsu against Ninjutsu, and the best Ninjutsu wins. Points were also given and taken for evasive ability and creative use of terrain or lack thereof. Bouts were either Singles or Team Trials and could last for several hours at a stretch. Some of the flashier moves first seen in the arena had found their way onto the battle field on occasion over the years, such as the Uchiha's Grand Fireball Jutsu which had previously merely been a jutsu that had been used to mark a certain rite of passage before it had been popularized by a top professional player from that clan sometime around the founding of the village.

He'd been torn from his musings on Competitive Ninjutsu that he'd been lost in as he'd grabbed his hat and got up to go in order to be on time for the opening ceremonies when Danzo had walked into his office with some last minute paperwork. Great. Just what he'd needed to start his day...

"Danzo, since the Intelligence Department seems to be your home away from home, maybe you could shed some light on why rumors about an Osuigakure which is supposedly located beneath Konoha have been making their way around the Academy." he said mildly as he signed a supply requisition form that had requested a couple hundred more kunai than the unit that was officially under Danzo's command would need in a year.

"Village hidden in the sewage?" Danzo replied as he took the form back. "Other than the fact that children tend to come up with the most unusual things, I don't know."

In the quarters that were set aside for visiting dignitaries, Orochimaru sighed as he arranged the Kazekage's robes once more. He didn't quite feel comfortable wearing the things, and understood why the brat who had taken the position that should rightfully have been his had ditched them in favor of a jacket. Honestly, they reminded him of the time he'd gone around in a dress after losing a bet to Jiraiya whom he was firmly convinced had cheated somehow. The fact that he was wearing his usual attire under the robes made things worse, as it was the hottest part of August, and this year was no exception.

He was dreading setting foot outside. While the Kage box at the Arena would be both shaded and air conditioned thanks to a number of near invisible seals, the route to the arena and future battlefield where he would be fighting his former sensei was not. Normally, this wouldn't be too much trouble for him since he was acclimated to Konoha's weather, having spent most of the first forty years of his life here, but today he was wearing far more layers than usual. In addition to his normal attire that consisted of underclothing, some armor, and his usual summer battle wear, he was wearing a long robe and an overcoat. He would have been over-warm in all this during the winter, but as it was summer, it was going to be a rather hellish walk.

Bracing himself, he stepped out of the special quarters that had been reserved for visiting Kage and into what had to be a furnace, if the sudden blast of hot air that hit him as soon as he was out the door was any indication. He wondered how he was going to keep from sweating and giving himself away by doing so since this would be nothing for the real Kazekage as Suna was worse, much worse.

At the other end of the village from the much too warmly bundled Orochimaru, Naruto sighed as he made his way to the arena. All he'd heard in the streets was speculation about the performances Sasuke and Neji were going to give today, and hopes for a Sasuke/Neji fight during the final round. Those who hadn't been able to score an arena seat would be able to watch the final phase of the Exams on a screen that had been set up outside, and would be able to catch the events in full or special highlights of the coming events at the local theater for the next month or so.

There was an almost palpable air of excitement in the village, as Konoha had not scored the more desirable and better attended Summer slot in a good long time. While Winters in Konoha were relatively mild, many of the lords who attended the final phase of the Exams did not enjoy traveling during that season, as a sizable number of them had to make their way over treacherous snowy passes and whatnot to even get to Fire Country. The excited air eased his tense mood somewhat, especially after his old team had dropped by to wish him luck that morning, and inform him that they'd be in the stands rooting for him. They'd had no doubts whatsoever that he could pass, and he had few doubts that he would pass as well. He'd gotten this far, and all he had to do now was kick everyone else's ass, starting with that bastard Neji. He just hoped he wouldn't look like an ass to the audience, and later generations who would be seeing his performance while doing so.

The white haired pervert Jiraiya had shown him the film of his own performance during the Exam finals before he vanished to wherever the hell he went when he wasn't teaching him summoning or trying to convince him to let some of that damn Fox out, and he hadn't laughed that hard in a long time. That wasn't exactly how he wanted himself to be remembered though. He wanted future generations to see how cool their Hokage had been as a kid when they studied him in history, not laugh at how stupid their Hokage had looked while fighting.

At Ichiraku Ramen, Gaara hastily drained his bowl as he prepared to leave for the arena in which the Third Phase of the Exams would be taking place. This was quite possibly the last time he would see the old man who ran the ramen stand and his daughter. He'd tried to order for them to be kidnapped prior to the invasion, but Baki had countermanded his order, and Baki would of course be paying for that after this bothersome invasion was over. While it was still possible that the old man would be taken and brought to Suna after the invasion was over and they and their allies won, there was still the distinct possibility that the small family would die before that could happen.

He'd been on the edge all week, and suffering from withdrawal since he'd not been allowed to kill anyone for the past month, and these little visits to Ichiraku had helped him center himself, and hold on until the time was right and he could unleash the demon he contained, whether it be Biju or an evil monk as his people had believed it to be. When he attempted to pay his tab after he'd finished his ramen that day, the old man told him that the bowl was on the house since he was a "friend of Naruto", before he wished him luck in the Exams.

The man had given him free food. The man had given him free food, and not in a "here, now please don't kill me" manner. That had never happened to him before. As he made his way to the arena, he tried to figure out what he felt about it. He knew that hadn't felt this since his uncle had passed, and didn't have a name for it. Whatever it was called, it wasn't entirely painful.

In a different section of Konoha, Shikamaru sighed and muttered Troublesome as he and his father made their way to the arena. Personally, he'd much rather be at home, but he knew that he'd never hear the end of it if he skipped this, and that would of course be more troublesome than just showing up, giving up, and getting it over with since he'd be hearing it from his usually rather laid-back father as well.

His father who was following his mother's orders and making sure he arrived was nursing a hangover because the man had gone out with his old teammates and gotten completely smashed the night before. When he'd gone to pick the man up from the restaurant, it had been while his father had been in the middle of sharing one of the more embarrassing stories of the original Ino-Shika-Cho team with another one of his friends. While learning new things was almost always interesting, he had not wanted to know that when his father and his teammates were Genin, people kept mistaking Yamanaka-san for a girl since the usual make-up of a Genin team was two males to one female, and that the man had been pursued by a particularly stubborn older Genin for more than three months before he had finally snapped and dropped his trousers in a rather crowded public area.

This morning had gone well enough though, making up for the embarrassment of the evening before. Both Ino and Chouji had stopped by to wish him luck. Not that he really needed it though. He was still debating on exactly when he planned on giving up.

In a another part of Konoha, Lee's heart pounded in excitement as he raced towards the arena and his future. Gai-sensei was keeping pace alongside him as he ran. This was it. This was the big one. This was the day he'd prove himself to everyone. There would be no more "Hot-blooded Loser." there would be Rock Lee, Chunin of Konoha and the next Green Beast...

In the quarters that had been the Suna team's home for the last month and change, Kankuro slung Karasu across his back. His heart hammered in his chest as he prepared to depart. Today was the day. Finally, after months of planning, and a tense month of waiting and hoping that Gaara didn't snap and either kill him or find some other way ruin everything, it had come.

Looking at Temari, he could see that his older sister looked just as nervous as he felt. She knew too. Today was the day, and it was too late to go back. Today, they would go to war.

Edited 11-29-12