Well here we are back again did ya miss me? yea, yea I know this took a while but you cant rush the good stuff! if you do then its not as good and the wait makes it seem like a bigger deal when you do see an update in your inbox right? *dodges random projectiles and ignores shouts of 'update faster damn it!'* um ok then.... I'll just.... ummmm..... over here..... also don't worry i won't abandan this story, least ways not untill the final chapter is out, so even if my updates take forever you can rest easy knowing that eventually there will be a new chapter.

On a side note I edited this myself, as the beta had hurt himself and was unable to type.... so if you find any mistakes in it that's why. I wanted to get one chapter out before summer ended and I've also got chapter 30 done so I hope to get that one out in a week or so..... anyway this chapter will probably have grammar errors but ah well as long as I get the point across its all good... ok chapter start!

29..29..29..29..29..29..29..29..29..29..29..29..29..29..29..29

"I quit" Kankuro said as the examiner called his name. Shino shrugged and began to trek back up the stairs back to where he was standing only moments before. The spectators were booing at the 'battle' and throwing things in the puppet masters general direction.

"well that was a bit anti-climatic..." Kiba mumbled

Naruto smirked "I thought that was the best one yet, it was over before it began!"

Kiba snorted "I want to see more action!"

Naruto rolled his eyes before closing them. Shikamaru yawned as his name was called. "really this is too troublesome..." he leaned on the railing looking down at the waiting sand-nin. "I'd..." He never got to finish as he was kicked off the balcony by Naruto. Shikamaru fell down and when he hit the ground he just glared up at the blonde. spectators began to boo again and various things were now raining down on the lazy genin. "Troublesome..." he mumbled as people began yelling. "Might as well get this over with..."

-------------------------------------------

Sasuke watched the stuffed bear idly as he sat on his bed. leaning to the right the bears head followed making Sasuke eye twitch. He was back at trying to be tactical in how to escape his prison of a room. Some how the bear had made an air cannon out of an old paper tube and could now launch socks and other small articles of clothing at him if he tried to move. He had made some progress however, by slowly taking away anything that could be used as a weapon. he had found out that once something was thrown out of his room it was no longer possessed, and since cloth doesn't conduct electricity they could easily be thrown out. He himself had tried jumping out the doorway to not touch the frame, but still got zapped giving him a very stylish new hair-do, which of course he fixed as soon as he could reach his comb.

He glared at the bear again, it knew he was after it. If he could get that evil possessed childhood toy out of his room, he could win. Everything seemed to be controlled by the stuffed animal after all... He put the broom on the ground and pushed towards the bear carefully. The bear seemed to tense as he moved closer. The stuffed animal had the sock cannon at the ready but still he inched closer. As he got withing striking range the bear shot a few things at him but Sasuke batted them out the door with the broom.

The bear was out of ammo and knew it was trapped. Sasuke hopped off the bed and swatted the bear out the door and into the hallway beyond. It twitched once trying to stand but fell. Sasuke smirked. He won. He put the broom on the bed and casually walked over to the door. As he reached it he could feel the static in the air and stopped abruptly before he could take a step through it. He grabbed a metal hanger and cautiously kicked it into the frame. "BZZZZZZZZT" the hanger crackled.

"DAMN IT!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. He was on his last nerve, and just about ready to set fire to his house, damned be the consequences. He saw movement in the corner of his eye. Quickly he turned to it and saw his faithful broom coming to life. The now traitorous broom came close and seemed to wind up to wack him.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Sasuke nearly screamed as he launched himself at his alarm clock tackling it to the ground off the night table. The broom clanged to the floor with a hollow sound and the hanger stopped throwing off sparks, though granted it was partly due to somewhat melting into the wooden floor. Sasuke stopped beating on the alarm clock and tentivly walked over and poked his hand through the doorway. nothing... a tense sigh of relief as he began to frantically get ready to get himself to the Chunin exams.

Within five minutes he was ready and was darting out the door with an apple for breakfast, running as fast as he could. Running through the streets of konoha he couldn't help but notice how vacant everything was. He knew most people were going to be at the exams watching the matches, but still... the eerie silence seemed to send shivers up his spine. Even the places that he knew would usually be open no matter what were closed. out of the corner of his eye he saw an ambu running only to quickly disappear in a cloud of smoke, off to where ever it is ambu go.

Even though there was no one around he couldn't help but stiffen at the tension in the air. Soon the coliseum came into his line of sight encouraging him to run faster. As he bolted into the stadium through the spectators door, he frantically began searching for the way up to the balcony or battle field. He saw a stair case that had sunlight shineing through and decided to go for it. As he trecked up the stairs and into the open at full speed he never thought to consider who might be there when he flew out of the door way... and thus the black haired nin crashed right into Haku who was walking back over to where Naruto sat.

The two rolled right into a yawning Naruto who was knocked over onto his side. Quickly standing up he spotted what had knocked him over. "Well Sasuke you really know how to make an entrence..."

Sasuke growled as he pushed Haku off him. "You don't need to be so rough... nor did you need to throw your self at me. I'd have been happy to create an opening for you." Haku said brushing himself off.

"So what took you so long?" Naruto smirked slightly "And why are your shorts on inside out?" Naruto's smirk grew "And is that a pajama shirt?" Naruto chuckled eyeing the pale blue shirt with ZzZ diagonaly across it.

"Shut up idiot"

"At least I can dress myself in the mornings, and manage to get here on time." Naruto stuck out his tounge

It was then that sasuke resulved to ignore the blonde for the duration of the exam. Sasuke let him self relax slightly as he watched shikamaru below with temiri. "I quit..." Shikamaru said suddenly making most everyone start yelling.

"Guess you get to battle Garra now" Naruto said simply standing right beside Sasuke. both genin watched as the two below cleared off the battle field. "If he starts to go nuts give him some space..." Naruto said low enough for only Sasuke to hear, making him look at the blonde. Naruto looked out across the field to the tree that Jiyara was in. "well good luck" He said before heading off to talk with his white haired sensi.

----------

"So are you ready?" Naruto asked somberly as he reached the perverted Sanin.

Jiyara sent a casual glance over to the Hokage before watching Sasuke's match begin. "Well, let's put it this way. if I said yes, I'd be lying..." the white haired ninja sighed. Naruto looked away from the match hearing the elder man was serious. There was no casual joking in his voice just uncertainty.

"So if things go down the way I think they will, you summon Gamabunta." Naruto said shifting to get more comfortable

Jiyara opened his mouth to protest but quickly closed it realizing what the blonde was implying. "You think you'll need to summon Kyuubi then?" he asked.

"Probably." Naruto sighed. "Even with years of experience I think I would only be able to fend him off for a bit once he taps into Shukaku's power. believe me, you don't tire easily with demon chakra running through you." Naruto said locking eyes with the elder man.

Jiyara nodded thoughtfully. "I guess its about time I get into position then...." he said as he heaved himself up. "Good luck brat" and with that he was gone.

Naruto looked down to the battle field to watch Sasuke zoom around Gaara dodging blasts of sand along the way.

"Five minutes until show time" Kyuubi said voicing what Naruto was thinking. "Just try not to worry about everyone else too much, distractions are never a good thing when fighting..." Kyuubi said as Naruto stood and jumped out of the tree to get back into the stadium.

---------

Naruto walked back over onto the spot where Sakura was cheering Sasuke on. When Naruto came back Sakura glared at him and went into a ranting fit over how inconsiderate he was being not supporting his teammate. Naruto ignored her and continued along the balcony. Sakura stopped her rant and watched the blonde curiously sencing something was wrong but she was more intent to continue cheering the Uchiha on. Naruto sighed and tried to relax. He needed to be ready... He needed to be able to pick up any trace of Kabuto or Orochimaru. Scanning the area with his mind's eye and sensing nothing he relaxed slightly, earning a close by Shikamaru's attention.

Shikamaru studied the blonde intently. He had never seen Naruto act so calm and focused... well other then when he fell asleep in class that is, but he knew Naruto was very much awake. 'Is he worried about something?' He wondered watching the blonde tense and relax once again. Shikamaru looked down at the stadium briefly, idoly watching a sand incased Gaara and a speedy Sasuke.

Sitting down not too far away from the blonde Shikamaru scanned around the stadium. Briefly taking note on how many Ambu there were around, and how most of the Jonin seemed to be on alert. He caught sight of a chunin nervously glancing around at the people in the stands, before he regained his composure and continued on his way after swallowing a lump in his throat. 'Looks like Naruto's not the only one who's on guard....'

With a sigh Shikamaru turned to half face the blonde "So what's everyone so uptight about?" he asked quietly so only Naruto would hear him.

Naruto opened an eye and smirked slightly at his spiky haired friend. "I was wondering when you'd notice." Shikamaru raised a brow encouraging the blonde to continue. "Well, to put it simply there might be an invasion during the exams." Naruto said flatly.

Shikamaru's eyes widened. "I'm guessing it's going to happen soon then, considering everyone looks as if there getting ready to spring at the first thing that moves.... what a drag...." Shikamaru finished with an exasperated sigh.

"Yea they think it's going to be during this fight." Naruto said gesturing down to Sasuke and Gaara.

Shikamaru groaned at the thought of having to fight again, but he cut himself short as a thought occurred to him. "How do you know this?" he asked simply.

"A perverted toad told me." Naruto smirked. "But most genin weren't told about this for obvious reasons." Naruto said

Shikamaru nodded thoughtfully. If the genin were told they would; A, not fight to they're fullest in the exams wanting to conserve energy incase of attack later and possibly give away that Konoha caught wind of it. B, if they're inexperienced be unable to conceal they're nervousness. and C, if they knew WHO was going to attack they would probably be glaring, or constantly looking then the enemies general direction. it all bioled down to them being more likely to give away any upper hand Konoha had gained..

"So what do they want me to do?" Shikamaru asked giving a side glance to Naruto. "I know you wouldn't be telling me about this if there wasn't something that I was needed for. You don't just tell people something like this, just to have them sit back and watch..."

"Well, you're the best at making strategies, so if and when things start to happen I-err they were hoping you'd be able to get the other genin either to fight or flight there way to safety" Naruto said silently cursing the slight slip of tongue.

Shikamaru raised a brow but nodded. Locking eyes with the blonde he was going to ask a question that he currently had no answer to, and not too many ways of getting it on his own either... well not easily anyway.

As he opened his mouth to speak Naruto caught a spike in chakra and saw feathers falling from the sky. Shikamaru sighed and quickly protected himself from they're effects. looking over to Naruto he saw that the blonde appeared to be out cold. Naruto cautiously opened an eye just enough for him to see what was going on with out letting anyone know he was awake.

"Looks like the shows about to begin" Hearing Shikamaru grumble and flop over told him the lazy nin was probably thinking the same thing as he was. Play dead.... or asleep as the case may be. Any enemy ninja that came to look over them would assume they had fallen under the spell of the genjutsu, and believe them to be too weak to bother with.

Naruto waited until he was sure the sand siblings had taken Gaara away from the battle grounds before getting up. Taking a quick glance around, Naruto smirked silently as he saw a few sound nin fall into a trap they had laid on the field. the leaf nin who set it off was none other then... a random ambu. Most of the traps that they had set were made to look more like jutsu then a trap, keeping the illusion that Konoha was caught off guard. Without hesitation Naruto sped off into the direction he had sensed Gaara. not long after Naruto went off Shikamaru was bitten awake by Pakun.

"well now it's been a long time since we've had to fight Gaara for real, hm?" Kyuubi said as they neared the to-be battle grounds.

'Now if I remember correctly Sasuke should already be there fending off Garra... and hopefully, Sakura wont come out here this time...' Naruto thought as he ran.

"hum Gaara's not making it hard to find him is he? I'm pretty sure any untrained villager could sense that!" Kyuubi said licking his lips.

Naruto smiled slightly at the foxes attempt at keeping him level headed and calm. 'Your going to have fun with this aren't you?"

"Probably" the fox said grinning "and don't worry I'll be careful"the fox added with a snort knowing what was running through his containers mind. In about five minutes Naruto found himself face to face with a half transformed Gaara and a panting Sasuke.

Sasuke gave a low frustrated growl as Naruto signaled to him. "Nothings working on this guy! Any attack is just being repelled!" Sasuke half yelled.

Naruto nodded "so I guess that means you could use a hand?"

"as much as I hate to admit it...." Sasuke trailed off has the pair had to dodge a sand attack. They landed on a near by tree branch hoping to use the leaves as camouflage.

"Are you done already?! Mother craves you blood!!" Garra half laughed half screamed up into the surounding trees.

"You have an idea?" Sasuke asked trying to keep his voice as low as possible so as to not give away their position.

"yes, a couple actually, one of witch is a last resort mind you..."Naruto said all but whispering. "We need to try to make a direct hit on him, and we gotta keep him from transforming. You go left I'll go right lets try to overwelm him" Sasuke nodded understanding the plan. "When you see an opening take it"

Naruto quickly leapt from the tree into another as quietly as he could. Garra continued to laugh about taking they're blood. "I can smell your fear!" He sneered as he turned in Naruto's direction. Naruto smirked as he made about a hundred clones witch all jumped out and attacked.

Gaara easily swatted the majority of the clones aside dispelling them. The few that managed to escape threw a multitude of kuni at the red head. With a yell of defiance sand easily wiped out the remaining clones. Almost as soon as the last clone disappeared Gaara was engulfed in flames from Sasuke fireball.

As the roar of the flames died down, Gaara's laughter intensified. Naruto looked to Sasuke who had his mouth slightly open as he saw that his target was incased in a cocoon of sand. As the cocoon broke away it revealed a fully transformed Gaara. his gold and black eyes narrowed as drool lobbed out of his open mouth. Raising a hand he lashed out blasting sand at Sasuke faster then the black haired nin could dodge.

Sasuke smacked into a tree but easily recovered from the impact, and as fast as he could, jumped away up to where the real Naruto was hiding watching the blood clone below battle Gaara. "Just what is this guy?" Sasuke heaved clutching his bleeding shoulder. Naruto's only response was to smile sadly, making sasuke give him an odd look.

"Well what's plan B?" Sasuke asked grimacing slightly as the blood clone was destroyed.

Naruto opened his mouth to answer but stopped cold as he caught a glance of something he didn't want to see. Even what he had expected as a worse case scenario paled in comparison too what he saw. "Naruto?"

The blondes face paled considerably as he turned to look. at the newcomer. "H-Hinata?!"

-------------

Phew well there's the next chapter up and posted ^^ hope you all liked it^^ I know this took forever to get out, but hey I'll hopefully manage to get 2 updates out rather quickly! that's good right?.... RIGHT?... your silence hurts me....anyway I'm not done yet! please enjoy the following omake!!!! (oooooo ahhhhhh)

---------------

(please note that I did not bold Kyuubi's lines here... for anyone who cares....) again silence /cries/

How to torture your enemies with puns: Requested by: DustBunnyQueen

"Alright listen up and listen good because I ain't gunna repeat myself. Ya wanted the great Kyuubi to give the lot of you a lesson well here it is!" Kyuubi said using Naruto's body. Sakura shuddered at the sound of the deep gruff voice coming out of Naruto, who's currently red eyes glared about the group before him.

Kyuubi spit off to the side and snorted before once again glaring at the group. Looking at his claws Kyuubi smirked before raking them down the side of the chalk board creating a high pitched screech. Every member of team 7 cringed and covered they're ears. "I said listen up!"

Once satisfied Kyuubi continued. "Now then the key to pun torture is to go with a theme they don't necessarily have to be all that punny either...now you see what I did there? I replaced funny with punny!" Kyuubi snorted a laugh while everyone else exchanged awkward glances.

"Well aren't you a punachous bunch!" Kyuubi smirked. no one laughed. "punacious pugnacious get it?"

"Oh yea.... not really..." Sakura said flatly

"Fine pinky you pick a new theme" Kyuubi growled

"Umm.... Well were in a forest?" Sakura said causing the fox demon to smirk.

"Well arbre-trairy(1) to popular belief I have managed to torture the kit many a time with my puns" Kyuubi said gesturing to the surrounding forest. team 7 clued in and gave a quick "Oh".

"Ok now I'm going to write some things on the board here so copy it down in your notebooks...." Kyuubi used a claw to etch his teachings into the chalkboard much to the dismay of his 'students.'

"Don't you have any chalk?" Sasuke growled out through clenched teeth.

"No I don't.... it's not my fault chalk is spruce around here"

"Wait was that a...." Haku started but trailed off as Kyuubi's red eyes flashed to him.

"What was that? Pine up will ya?" Kyuubi said making his class moan. "Fine then maple we should move on?" Kyuubi asked but no one answered.

"I pity Naruto for having to put up with this guy all the time...." Sakura mumbled as Kyuubi continued to drone on about proper usage of puns.

"He holds the demon back and for that he is a hero" Kakashi said rubbing his forehead.

"And we don't have to listen to him all the time like he does...." Haku said.

"...So does anyone need to ash any questions?" Kyuubi looked around seeing no hands. "Chess nut..."

"Oak ay... I'm going to leave now..." Kakashi said before poofing away

"See! he gets it!" Kyuubi said somewhat snobbishly.

"I think I'll follow his lead" Sasuke said with a smirk "Sycamorea(2)" He said with a wave before bolting away into the woods.

Kyuubi nodded fondly "That was a good one"

"I need to go get something to eat..." Haku said rubbing the back of his neck "Willow you be joining me?" He asked Sakura somewhat pleadingly.

"Sakura gotta go...." She said flatly before following Haku and taking off into the cover of the trees.

"Oh that was lame!" Kyuubi yelled "Get back here and cedar down! Ya gotta do butternut then that!" with another snort and a huff Kyuubi crossed his arms and stuck out his tongue in the direction Sakura had left. "birch"

29..29..29..29..29..29..29..29..29..29..29..29..29..29..29..29

1. Just incase you didn't know 'arbre' is french for tree.

2. Supposed to be a play on sayonara.

My friend who I read the jokes to said these two were a little confusing, so I did that just incase.

Well there she be! and there's the Omake in all its glory! I tried to use chalk board jokes but I couldn't think of any so I stuck with the old classic... Trees! I tried to use as many as I could think of ^^ Whoo that felt like a long chapter... I'm not sure if it really was long or not but you can be the judge of that! and all you have to do is hit the review button at the bottom.... dooooooo iiiiitttttttt.... DDOOOOOOO IIIITTTTT!!!!! peer pressure... ok and if that didn't work then do it outta the kindness out of your own heart....no? ok how bout this... A-hem... please R&R or else I'll sick naked Gai on you! (how's that for motivation!) anyway thanks for reading I'll get the next one out soon (I hope)