Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

...

Kin sat within the confines of Naruto's bedroom, reading a few magazines that the blonde had managed to get for her that morning. Outside she could hear the cheering of the crowds as they walked through the street towards where the final part of the Chūnin exams would be held. That mattered little to her however, whether or not her teammate made a decent viewing to the crowd wasn't her concern. Getting off of her seat she walked across and opened the window, allowing fresh air to seep through and remove the stagnant smell that had been enveloping the room for the last day or two.

Running her fingers through her hair, Kin made her way to the bathroom as she slowly stripped of her clothes and picked up a towel. She didn't know why she closed the bathroom door as she entered the white room, more of a force of habit than anything. She had no doubt that Naruto wasn't the kind of person to peep on her while she had a shower but that didn't change the fact that she felt more secure with the door enclosed.

As the towel dropped to the floor she looked at herself in the mirror. Or more importantly she looked at the reflection of the two seals which had been on her skin long enough she could almost consider them to be a tattoo. On the first day when she had used the shower she had tried her best to scrub off the ink with every piece of body cleansing equipment she could find but none of it had worked. Now though, she didn't look at the seals as a symbol to the fact that she was a prisoner, but more towards the friendship she had with Naruto.

Stepping into the small shower cubicle, Kin turned the nozzles and allowed the warm water to descend from the showerhead and land upon her body. As she stood there though, she knew that today would be the last day she would be staying within Naruto's house and she would be going back to Oto. After all this time with the blonde though and the hospitality he had shown, she couldn't help but wonder if she truly wanted to go back.

...

Hanabi stood in the centre of the arena along with the rest of the competitors, all of them lined up in a procession order as the crowd looked on and made bets as to who would walk away from the tournament as the winner. Standing in the centre of the ring was daunting and as her eyes fell upon her family sitting amongst the crowd she couldn't help but swallow nervously. Would she get their approval no matter how the fight with Neji went, or would they disapprove of any techniques she used that weren't clan related?

Underneath the arena Tenten looked at the odds on all the combatants for both their individual matches and the overall winner. Part of her wanted to put some ryu on her teammate who was one of the favourites to win the tournament along with Sasuke although as she looked at the brackets she could see that Neji and Sasuke would come to clash in only the second round if they both prevailed in their first match. Another part of her wanted to put money on Hinata, considering that the Hyūga heiress had a bye the first round considering that her opponent had been found dead nearly a week earlier. Opening up her wallet, she looked at the contents inside and weighed up whether or not it would be worth risking the little money she had. Since Guy had been in-between visiting Lee in the hospital and training somebody else in the ways of youth she hadn't had much of an income as of late. For a brief while she had considered working at Sasuke's little gambling den alongside Ino but those outfits made her shiver every time she saw them. She knew that it was perverse it was also successful in gaining customers and in turn income. Her pride as a shinobi would not allow her to be seen in such a way. Her wallet though said that she could possibly disguise herself with a Henge and work under a different alias. A cheeky grin crossed her face as she slipped through the crowd, a plan formulating in her head. For now though she would simply sit by and watch the tournament like everybody else.

...

"Hokage, it is time," said the Kazekage, urging the leader of the village to speak to the people. Sarutobi stood there momentarily as he recalled what he was there for. In all honesty his mind hadn't even been on the exams in front of him, but rather upon the young blonde that had fled the village a while ago. When word that Naruto had left got out there had been a ruckus about sending groups of ANBU after the boy under the pretence that he should be labelled a missing-nin due to the fact he had left the village, despite the fact he was no longer a ninja. It had been to the solid head on Shikaku's shoulders that the rest of the council was able to become calm, the head of the Nara clan being able to explain the situation in such a way that sending an ANBU team would be more troublesome than fortunate.

Earlier that day, Sarutobi had ventured to the ramen store that belonged to the former shinobi of the leaf and saw the destruction that had occurred in Naruto's absence. He made note that at some stage during the next few days he would send a Genin team there to clean it up for when Naruto returned, provided he did return sometime in the near future. Getting out of his chair, Sarutobi walked up to the edge of the platform, looking out at the teenagers that hoped to pass the exam. He couldn't help but envision a few years earlier when Naruto had stood before him, the rest of the Chūnin hopefuls towering over the tiny blonde who stood bravely with confidence against people at least three years his senior. That year had been wonderful to watch as the young prodigy made it to the final round to get knocked out in the final round to the eventual winner. Those two had been the only two to be promoted to Chūnin rank, although the other one ended up getting killed in a mission that both he and Naruto had been a part of.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," said Sarutobi, his voice booming across the pavilion so that all could hear. "Thank you for coming to the Hidden Village of Konoha's Chūnin selection exam. We will now begin the main matches with the nine that have managed to pass the preliminaries. Please enjoy these matches as you witness the shinobi of the villages show their skill as they attempt to reach the level of Chūnin."

"If there are meant to be nine, why is it that I only see eight?" asked the Kazekage.

"The one missing is the Genin who will be fighting your youngest in the last match of the first round, Uchiha Sasuke," said Sarutobi.

"Are you sure that he will be here?" asked the Kazekage.

"His sensei is Kakashi, the man who is notorious for being late," said Sarutobi with a slight smirk. "He will be here, it is just a question of when."

"Then I shall eagerly wait to see when young Sasuke arrives to fight Gaara, that shall undoubtedly be an excellent match to watch," said the Kazekage as Sarutobi took his seat next to him, the two leaders fixing their gaze on the arena as a number of the competitors left the ground level, leaving only Hanabi and Neji at ground level.

"Alright you two, give it your best," said Genma as he officially began the match, the two Hyūga taking matching stances as they eyed down their opponents. The atmosphere in the crowd was tense as they watched Hanabi stare down somebody six years her senior, neither she nor Neji making the first move for several moments. Neji stood there, calm and composed, much in contrast to Hanabi who already had beads of sweat forming upon her brow. It wasn't so much that she was nervous to fight Neji, but to the fact she was performing in front of a capacity arena. Not a seat was vacant and she could feel all their eyes focusing upon her and Neji, it was nerve wracking.

Neji could see that Hanabi was nervous, it was written all over her face. He realised there were several things he could do at the moment, the most dominant would be charging straight forward with a vicious purpose yet he doubted winning the match within thirty seconds would not really show him having qualities worthy of making Chūnin. Reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out several shuriken and without any hesitation let them loose as he tossed them towards Hanabi.

Hanabi seemed to snap back to reality as she saw the projectiles coming towards her and did her best to leap to the side away from the shuriken, yet wasn't quick enough to prevent her clothes from being torn. As the fabric flapped through the air Neji couldn't help but feel as if he saw that underneath the rip in Hanabi's clothes that he didn't see skin but a flash of green. As the younger Hyūga landed on her feet she charged forward, her mind now realising that this was not a time to get caught up in other things. Neji smirked as he raised his hands up and gracefully blocked the first attack that Hanabi threw.

Up in the competitor's box, Hinata watched as both her cousin and sister exchanged blow after blow, neither of them giving an inch and showing that their skill in the family Taijutsu was well worth the watch. She could tell by looking at some of the spectators this match would mean nothing to them, all they were after were some fancy jutsus and possibly an explosion or two. Looking at her fellow competitor's, Hinata eyed off her potential opponents. Due to the fact she had a bye this round it meant that she would either be fighting Shikamaru or Temari, both of which had shown promise in their fight in the preliminaries. In Temari's preliminary, Hinata had silently be rooting for Tenten to win but the weapons mistress simply got put against an opponent she couldn't beat, at least not at this stage in their ninja careers.

Hinata turned back towards the battlefield just to watch Hanabi skid across the ground, Neji having successfully gotten a strike through his younger cousin's guard. Getting back to her feet, Hanabi could already feel the damage that a single strike had done. Even after all her training, she was nowhere near fast enough nor strong enough to be able to tackle Neji. "You're good," she managed to say between ragged breaths. "Guess though I'm going to have to go all out."

This peaked Neji's interest, the Hyūga prodigy wondering what it was that Hanabi was planning. For her to rip off her shirt in front of the entire arena was not what he expected. Thankfully she was wearing something underneath but that still didn't stop his heart rate from going well over a normal rate from fear. Yet fear still managed to creep in as he observed just what it was that Hanabi was wearing. Clad in green spandex, he couldn't help but shiver at the sight of such an outfit upon someone of the Hyūga lineage. Shaking his head, Neji managed to snap back to his senses as he looked at Hanabi and got back into his fighting position. "I don't see what difference the clothes you are wearing makes," he said boldly, his tone rigorous and firm showing just how much he hated that attire.

"These clothes are the clothes of youth," said Hanabi, trying to make up a line of epic proportions that would make Gai proud. Sadly though Gai was the only person in the crowd that beamed proudly at Hanabi's line, everybody else unsure of what to think on the matter. For members of the Hyūga clan, many of them were contemplating walking out on the rest of the fight, not wanting to be embarrassed by the youngest combatant representing their family line. As for Hiashi, the head of the clan had originally been disgusted by what his daughter was wearing, now however he was seeing it in a comical light. Even though she was his daughter, he knew that Hanabi didn't have the skills to go toe to toe with Neji as Hyūga's traditionally fought one another so she went out of her way to try something different. Sadly though, she had found her inspiration from the most boisterous man in Konoha.

"Come then, show me what the 'clothes of youth' can do," beckoned Neji, waiting once more for Hanabi to charge forward. Yet the youngest competitor of the exams remained where she was, her hands clenched tightly as she held them close to her side.

It was then that Hanabi began to chant, nothing more than a whisper to start with as she pushed the embarrassment of wearing such garments in front of this crowd to the back of her mind. Over and over, she said the word 'youth,' like a mantra of some kind as if wishing for good luck to rain down upon her. Slowly, with every word her voice got stronger and carried further. "Youth, youth, youth, youth, youth," she said over and over, each time with more power resounding through her voice until the whole stadium and even those outside the battlegrounds could hear her. Finally, she inhaled deeply and stared up towards the sky and yelled at the top of her lungs, "This is the Springtime of Youth!"

As her words played out it happened all at once, as everybody watching the spectacle saw waves crashing down on the ground from out of nowhere as a solitary beam of sunlight shone directly onto the girl below in a blinding display. Many had to turn away as the light seemingly reflected off of the spandex caused their eyes to burn as if they were looking into the sun itself. As Hanabi looked towards where Neji stood, she lowered her arms as the genjutsu faded, yet Neji had seemingly vanished. "Had that been any other opponent you would have succeeded in this battle," he said in a stoic voice from behind her, before a light chop to the side of the neck caused her mind to fade black as she lost consciousness. "Unfortunately for you, I have suffered much worse from my team and still live to tell the tale," said Neji as he caught his younger cousin before she could hit the ground before laying her gently in the dirt.

"Winner: Hyūga Neji," announced Genma as he rubbed his eyes; having been so close to the attack it was as if an imprint of the image had been scolded into his memory forever. The members of the crowd that had regained their sight clapped for the victor, many of them wondering what kind of supernatural training Neji would have had to gone through in order to not be effected by such a technique.

"That was...enlightening," said the Kazekage from the corporate box.

"For the sake of my other Chūnin, I will not be promoting Hanabi this time round but she will undoubtedly be a force to be reckoned with in the future if she continues to train with Gai," said Sarutobi, fearful of what a young female version of Gai would be like. "As for Neji, I will have to wait to see how he performs in future rounds against somebody that isn't solely a Taijutsu combatant."

"You mean you aren't surprised about him being able to resist that genjutsu?" asked the Kazekage.

"Trust me, he's seen much worse," said Sarutobi with a shudder, knowing full well what Gai and Lee were capable of when they got in the mood.

"Well for our sakes, let us pray that there are no more students of 'youth' amongst the competitors," said the Kazekage, never wanting to bear witness to such a horrible experience ever again.

As the next match was called, Kankuro opted to forfeit rather than face Shino which made the bug user confused as to why and wait until the moment before the match to retire from the competition but said nothing about it. This of course had gotten a negative reaction from the crowd as people booed and jeered at the Suna shinobi that merely accepted their taunts. Shikamaru also would have been on that forfeit list had he literally not been pushed over the edge by Shino, the Aburame clan member saying that he would not allow a member of Konoha to make such a mistake. Despite having won the match in the eyes of everybody around him, Shikamaru had given up when he had had Temari beat which came as no real surprise to the people who knew Shikamaru. Somewhere in the crowd, Shikaku Nara chuckled as he pocketed the ticket he had been holding on to. Even though he knew it wasn't morally right, betting 10,000 ryu on his son to lose was the more profitable way to go.

Finally, the last match of the prelims was announced and as if by perfect timing, both Kakashi and Sasuke appeared in the arena in a swirl of leaves. It wasn't long before Gaara appeared on the battlefield, and with that the last round of the first round commenced.

...

Hope you enjoyed, sorry about the delay, life got in the way. Let's hope the next chapter will come out sooner.

Peace