Sakura smiled at her two teammates as they walked towards the meeting place for all the teams that had passed. She was watching them as Naruto tried to get Sasuke to try some of his chocolate ice cream with overflowing chocolate sauce in a bowl that they had found in the cafeteria on their way. She was trying to think of a way to get them closer, especially after last night. When she had come out of the shower she saw the two of them sleeping with each other. Apparently Naruto had fallen asleep while Sasuke was giving him a massage and Sasuke had decided that since the stiff beds wouldn't help Naruto's stiff shoulders that his muscled chest would. She had been upset when she had woken up that morning because she didn't know who woke up first, but the lack of a blush on Naruto's face and the satisfied smile on Sasuke's made her assume that Sasuke was the first to awaken.

"Ne, ne, Sasuke," Naruto's voice cut into her thoughts, "Why won't you try the ice cream?"

"It's not something you should be having in the morning before a fight," Sasuke answered, "and you know I don't like sweets."

"But you like chocolate," said Naruto trying to give him the spoon filled with ice cream.

"I only like your chocolate," sighed Sasuke.

"Why?" asked Naruto finally giving up and shoving the melting chocolate on his spoon.

Sasuke shrugged, "I don't know. Maybe you make it differently."

"Sakura," Naruto turned around so he was walking backwards so that he could look at her, and Sakura noticed as Sasuke's shoulders stiffened and he moved closer to Naruto just in case he tripped, "do I make chocolate differently?"

"Now that I think about it," said Sakura thinking back to the last time she had his homemade chocolate, though she was pretty sure that Sasuke only liked Naruto's chocolate because Naruto made it, "Your chocolate does taste a little different than normal chocolate. It tastes much better. How do you cook it anyway?"

Naruto thought about it for a moment before shrugging his shoulders and saying, "I don't really remember any recipes. I just like to cook things," then he turned back around to face Sasuke and ask another question, "Sasuke, where did you sleep last night. I thought that the middle bed was supposed to be yours, but I woke up on that one."

"You fell asleep while I was giving you a massage," Sasuke explained, "and I thought there would be no point in waking you just so that you would move to the other bed so I took that one."

Sakura had to hold back a giggle as Naruto nodded his head showing that he believed Sasuke's story.

Naruto was halfway through his ice cream when they reached the large room that they remembered from their first genin exams. As they looked around not much had changed, but one thing they did notice was that there was an extra team from the leaf village that included Haku, Zabuza, and some other person that they did not recognize. They were the last to arrive so everyone was staring at them as they got into their places with Sasuke in the front, Sakura in the middle, and Naruto behind.

"Alright now that your all here," said Anko in a loud booming voice, "We can finally get started. You all passed the second test, but there's still too many of you so we're going to have to have a preliminary test…Why do you have ice cream?"

Everyone turned to Naruto who was still enjoying the last few spoonfuls of his ice cream. "You never said we couldn't bring any food, and I found this in the cafeteria so I got some to bring with me while we listen to whatever you have to say."

Anko hissed at him and was about to say something when one of the teachers cut in, "OH MY GOD! What a fiery young youth we have here! Willing to go up against a teacher and eat a bowl of ice cream."

Everyone smiled awkwardly at his statement except for one student whose eyes seemed to sparkle in determination. "I will go and get a bowl of ice cream too Gai-sensei!"

"No you will not!" hissed Anko as she turned back to Naruto, "Now look what you've done."

"Doesn't matter anyway," said Naruto calmly pushing the now empty bowl into a seal on a scroll, "it's all gone."

Anko glared at him until she felt eyes on her and she turned to see that Sasuke was just glaring back at her with eyes just as cold as her own. She smirked at him and muttered something about this day being fun. "As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted. This preliminary test will take out at least half of you."

"Excuse me," said Kabuto raising his hand, "Is there any way I can quit before the preliminary."

Anko's smirk grew larger, "Sorry kid, but the groups are even and I can't have you making them odd. Anyway, we've decided that too many chunins can't change from team to team so we are going to test your teamwork as well in this test."

"How are we going to do that?" yelled Kiba.

"I'm glad you asked kid," said Anko as another ninja who looked way too sick to even be out of bed, "Hayate here will explain," then she moved back to stand with all the other ninjas who stood in front of the large hands in the form of one of the more basic seals.

"My name is Hayate Gekkou," he coughed, "and I will be the judge of your preliminary exams. Let me explain the rules. We will be having a two on two match," this made even team seven gasp in surprise, "the first team to have both the members become unable to fight loses. If it is necessary you can kill the other members, but I will be here to stop you if it's not. You will be placed into your teams randomly and then your opponent will be chosen randomly as well."

Anko was watching the students quietly as the propter explained the rules when a sudden rush of pain hit her. She looked over to Sasuke, who Orochimaru had said in the woods was the target of the seal. She saw him grab his shoulder tightly as though he was in pain, but something was wrong. His reaction seemed to be delayed since he should have felt the pain at the same time she did. She had the feeling that he was just faking it so she looked to the other students to find the girl behind Sasuke, Sakura as she was told, had her arm twisted behind her back in a way that was just short of painful and her eyes looked determined, but worried. Behind her Naruto looked calm except for the little bit of color that was draining out of his face and the death grip he held on Sakura's arm.

"What do we do with him?" asked Ibiki.

"Who?" was Anko's answer.

"Sasuke," answered Ibiki as though it were obvious, "he's got the seal placed on him."

"I don't think he does," muttered Anko.

"What do you mean?" asked the Hokage.

"I don't know, but that team is acting really weird," answered Anko glaring at the team, "We need to just get them all out of here. Give them to the ANBU and figure out what's wrong afterwards."

"I don't think that's going to happen," said Kakashi from beside them.

"And who are you to stop me," growled Anko.

"I'm not going to try," he answered, "but I know my team and they wouldn't just let you take them out of this no matter what the reason would be."

"I don't care," she growled as the pain in her shoulder began to subside, "They're a danger to all of us."

"We aren't leaving," joined another voice and they all turned to see that everyone was staring at them, not because of their conversation, but because standing right next to them was Naruto who had been the one to speak, "and Sasuke isn't dangerous," he rose his voice a little higher so that the teachers nearby could hear him, "You should keep your voices down. You never know whose listening to you when you speak about secrets. You never know what enemies can be nearby." He gave them a smile and walked calmly back to his perch behind his feminine teammate. Still everyone was silent waiting for someone to say something.

"Well you heard him," said the third hokage, "They won't leave. Besides you already said that you didn't want there to be an odd number of candidates."

"But Lord Hokage," she gasped.

"Please continue," was the Hokage's only answer.

The propter coughed and said, "Very well. If you'll all please move to the upper level and we will begin." As everyone move to the higher grounds one of the five light purple panels began to open to reveal a large black screen. "Now the first team of two will appear on the screen." It only took a moment for the names to flash by until it stopped on two. "The first team will be Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki." The two of the smirked and jumped down from their high perch after Sakura had given them a good luck. The next two names were Dosu and Kabuto who joined them on the ground floor.

"This'll be just great I can't believe I have to fight with you," grumbled Dosu.

"I'm afraid you'll have to deal with it," answered Kabuto with a smile, "I suggest we make a plan."

Naruto swiftly took out a scroll and used a summoning jutsu to summon something that no one could see and handed it to Sasuke. "Why are you giving these to me," he asked through there connection.

"I can't use them," answered Naruto as he watched the two enemies plan out there tactics, "They mess me up. they're going to try to split us apart. I suggest we let them."

"But that's too dangerous," said Sasuke, "What if one of us gets to badly hurt."

"We have to take that chance," sighed Naruto not really liking the idea himself, "I can't fight Dosu because my ears are to sensitive and it'll be just as dangerous for them to be apart as well. Don't worry I won't hold back as much as I have been. I want to kill Kabuto now so he's not as much a danger to us as he was in our future."

Sasuke sighed, but nodded anyway as the two opposite him positioned themselves with Dosu in front of Sasuke and Kabuto in front of Naruto.

"Alright," coughed the propter, "Begin."

Naruto drew out his sword and immediately rushed towards Kabuto knowing that Sasuke would stay behind and allow Dosu to come to him. Kabuto gasped as he saw Naruto rush towards him. Naruto was much faster than he thought and he wouldn't have time to dodge the attack so instead he used his kunai to move the attack, just in time, so that the sword would peirce his left shoulder instead. "That's a little harsh for a simple sparring. Come on take some pity on me. I'm weak from the whole second test."

Naruto growled as he tried to force the sword to go right through Kabuto's chest, but he had still not gained his full strength from the future, he was weak from trying to destroy the seal, and Kabuto still had his kunai held against it keeping it in place. "I don't take pity on traitors. Especially since you aren't weak at all." Deciding that he wouldn't be able to move his sword to the right he turned it in Kabuto's shoulder making him yelp in pain and ripped it out to the left.

Kabuto screamed in pain as his arm was almost ripped off by Naruto's sharp blade. "I don't know what you're talking about," he pleaded desperately as he tried to put pressure on his wound, which was bleeding profusely.

"Oh," Naruto leaned over and quietly whispered into his ear so that no one else could hear, "So you mean to say that you don't know anything about your traitorous act of going to work under Orochimaru and then coming back to the leaf so that you could spy on the great Uchiha and any other opponents that could cause a threat to your plans to attack this village and try to take it over."

Kabuto's eyes widened and he tried to make a slash at Naruto's chest using the kunai that he still held, but Naruto knew it was coming and was already flipping backwards by the time he was able to make the attack. He threw the kunai at Naruto when he was still in the air, but Naruto just twisted his body nimbly to get out of the way. "You know a lot Naruto," he mumbled under his breath as he sent chakra towards his shoulder so that it would rapidly heal, "too much."

"I know much more than you think," answered Naruto as he again moved forward aiming to cut off his head, but before he even made it close enough to Kabuto he was jumping back again only to rush forward and start the whole process over as Kabuto stepped backwards each time. Each time he went he was aiming for a new fatal attack. He had aimed for every fatal attack except for the heart so Kabuto moved to defend his heart as Naruto came at him again, but this time Naruto did not jump back or aim for his heart. Instead the sword pierced through his right hand, pinning it to the wall that Kabuto hadn't realized he had been backed up against, and two fingers pressed into his shoulder. When the sword was gone his arm fell uselessly to his side along with his left. Naruto did not waste time as he jabbed to sword into Kabuto's leg so that he was pinned to the wall and took out another kunai. Kabuto looked up to one of the paler teachers with long black hair who was also Dosu's sensei. The teacher nodded and put his hands together to create a hand sign.

Kabuto had only wanted the sensei to get rid of Sasuke for a moment so that Dosu could come and help him, but he was shocked when he looked back at Naruto who was getting ready to thrust the kunai deep into his heart only to see him drop it and fall to the floor in pain as black marks that looked much like clouds crawled up his neck and onto his face. He was screaming in pain as the seal grew and then shrank only to grow again. Though he was shocked, he could not give up this opportunity as his left arm had just finished healing and he could now move it. He pulled the sharp sword out of his own leg and turned it against Naruto who didn't seem to even notice the attack coming towards him. Kabuto growled at the annoying screams as he aimed the sword and made a cutting motion downward as Sakura screamed for him to move out of the way and Sasuke struggled to get past Dosu. If he cut off the head he wouldn't be able to scream like that, and he wouldn't be able to tell anyone of Orochimaru's plans.

yay cliffie! i think this is my first ever cliffhanger. i hope you like it