Chapter 6

Jounin Exams part II

Escort practice

My god that's a lot favs and follows and reviews. Didn't know this would become a great story. Hope you enjoy it so far. This story is coming great.

I guess I have to do a bit of explaining here if you want to understand this chapter. First off, Neji and Shikamaru aren't the only Jounins here, Kiba and Akamaru, Choji, Hinata, Tenten and Ino were made the rank. Lee was the only one who didn't due to failing the first test last year. When he thought his Sensei lost his flames of youth in a Genjutsu. Hope this explains a bit of the Chapter for you.

Goal to reach 50 follows then 100 follows.

I did a bit of work with the Summary so that's why It changed.

The next day, Naruto got up from bed and walked down stairs to his kitchen, making himself some ramen. Even though he's allowed to buy food from stores, he still loves the instant Ramen mix even today.

Passing the first test was easy, he knew Ibiki's tricks and traps, he knew what Ibiki was capable was. The only thing that Ibiki couldn't tell was that Naruto already knows his tricks and traps.

Today was the day for the second part of the Jounin Exams, Naruto would have to be careful this time. He knew the exams would get harder test by test since he knew a lot about the Chunin Exams.

He didn't mind though, it was fine for him.

He remembered how surprised he was to see Sakura coming through the first test, couldn't believe that his former teammate managed to get through the first test. He always known her for not being much of a ninja in the past due to her always being the Uchiha fan girl she was.

Naruto finished his ramen then got changed into his ninja outfit.

He then started to walk towards the location of where the next test is set up, that location would be the border of Konoha.

Naruto left his house then walked towards the gates of Konoha.

(Location, Haruno residence)

Sakura was excited to go to the next test this time. This time there had to be teams of three. Even though Team 7 was history, she still hoped for Naruto being on her Team. Unlike last time when she first graduated from the Academy she wished he wouldn't be on her Team.

Sakura was smiling affront of her mirror and just hoped that Naruto would be on her team, so that she could show Naruto that she had changed a bit.

Last time in the first test she realized that Naruto started to see that she had changed, even though he showed a bit of realization, she was still very happy that he had started to see it.

She was going to show what she really is made of and that she's no longer that Bastard of an Uchiha's fan girl anymore.

She walked out of her house towards the gates of Konoha.

(Location, Konoha's gates)

150 Chunins were all grouped up at the gates affront of a small wide platform. On the platform was the proctor for the Jounin Exams Anko Mitarashi. She smiled at the crowed of Chunins who were all grouped to talking to each other.

In the group, Sakura saw Naruto who was standing there, looking at the gates of Konoha, she walked towards Naruto to stand next to him. Sakura and Naruto along with the rest of the Chunins had backpacks on for in case of emergencies.

Naruto noticed this but didn't want to react to it at all, Sakura knew Naruto wasn't interested, but stood next to him because she still considered him as a friend and love him.

She was really hopping that Naruto would start to realize that she had change after the second test. Out of nowhere a man in a green jumpsuit wearing a Chunin vest came out between Sakura and Naruto, holding the back of their necks, he had wide eye brows and weird eye with large pupils and a bowl neat haircut. Wearing a green backpack on his back. The figure turns out to be Rock Lee.

"HOW'S YOUR YOUTHFULNESS GOING ON YOU TWO!?" Lee Asked, youthfully

Sakura and Naruto stared at each other than at Lee then sighed.

"Lee, you're here, great." Sakura sighed, "CHAAA! I HOPE LEE ISN'T ON MY TEAM!" Inner Sakura Shouted

Naruto looked at Lee and Asked with a smirk, "So Lee, it seems that you passed the first test of the Exams, ready for the Second?"

"MY FLAMES OF YOUTH ARE ALWAYS BURNIING NARUTO-KUN! EVEN THE AKTUSKI CAN'T EXSTINGUISH THESE FLAMES! THE EXAMS WILL BE OF NO CHALLENGE TO ME WHICH WILL HELP ME TO GET TO RANK JOUNIN IN NO TIME!" Lee Shouted, his eye literally burning with Youth

"Great." Sakura said with a small smile

Naruto then turned his view towards the platform, not wanting to look at Sakura. Sakura then became saddened by this and changed her head away from Naruto aswell, she just couldn't take the fact that he doesn't love her anymore.

Lee noticed this then got a bit confused, he just then smiled and did what Naruto did, look at the platform.

The crowd was loud and talking, soon Anko walked towards the front of the stage.

Soon, Anko seen that all the 150 Chunins were finally here, she stepped forward affront of a microphone, adjusting it to make her announcement. She then tapped on the microphone to get everyone's attention.

The whole crowd stopped, looked at the stage and was silent. For a few seconds Anko cleared her throat and began to talk.

"ALRIGHT! MAGGOTS! YOU ALL WERE REAL LUCKY TO PASS THE FIRST TEST OF THE JOUNIN EXAMS! BUT REMEMBER THIS! YOU WILL NOT BE SO LUCKY!" Anko Announced with a serious expression on her face

"HERE IN THIS TEST YOU WILL BE RUNNING FROM KONNOHA TO SUNA WHERE YOU WILL BE DELIVERING A SCROLL FROM THIS TABLE HERE!" Anko pointed at the map that was brought up by the Jounins on a board, then pointing at the pile of scrolls which were next to the platform

"REMEMBER! IF YOU LOSE THESE SCROLLS! THAT WILL BE A INSTANT TERMINATION FROM THE EXAMS! AND I GOTTA TELL YOU THAT STEALING ONE FROM THE OTHER TEAM WOULD MEAN A PERMANENT TERMINATION FROM THE EXAMS AND THE SHINOBI SYSTEM FOREVER! I ALSO GOT TO TELL YOU THAT SOME OF YOU DON'T HAVE YOUR TEAMMATES WITH YOU! SO TO EVEN YOU ALL WE PICKED SOME OTHER CHUNINS WHO WERE ALSO DOES NOT HAVE THEIR TEAM WITH THEM!" Anko Added

"WE WILL GIVE YOU THE NAMES OF THE CHUNINS THAT YOU GOT TO TEAM UP WITH! EVEN THOUGH THEY'RE NOT YOUR TEAMMATES!" Anko Continued

"GOOD BYE AND GOOD LUCK! YOU'RE GOANNA NEED IT!" Anko Finished with a smile, then turned the microphone off then left the stage

Soon, a few squads of Jounins were giving everyone small pieces of paper with the names of the people they're supposed to team up with, a few didn't get any, they were with their teammates of course.

Naruto got one piece which told him who his teammates are. He looked and read to sigh in a bit of anger, he read the note which told him who his teammates were.

Haruno Sakura

Lee (Note: I don't know Lees full name, sorry)

Lee Naruto was okay with, Sakura was a different story however, but If he has to make it to rank Jounin and pass the second test to get to the third and final, he's going to have to work with her, even though he no longer considers her a friend or a teammate but someone who he just works with.

Sakura read her note and was happy that she got to be in Naruto's team. Lee was her friend, so she didn't mind him at all being in the same team as she was in. She just wanted to take this as a chance that she will regain Naruto's friendship and heart.

Sakura looked at Naruto, and Naruto looked at Sakura only to be once again hugged by the youthful teen.

"YOSH! WE'RE IN THE SAM TEAM SAKURA-CHAN, NARUTO-KUN!" Lee Shouted, his eyes smiling with his smile

Naruto groaned, but changed his expression quickly to a happy one, to see that Lee's enjoying himself with his blond and pink friends. The only thing was, the blond didn't count the pink as a friend anymore.

(Timeskip, thirty minutes later)

After the team gathered and collected their scrolls, they were given names for the teams, mostly numbers.

Surprisingly though, Naruto's team was called team 7, which of course reminded him of the old days with him and his team, the only two people they were missing were the Uchiha and Hatake.

He wasn't the only one though, Sakura felt exactly the same as Naruto, remembering the days with team 7. She also felt guilty, remembering how stupid she was always hurting Naruto for Sasuke who turned out to be a power hungry jerk the whole time.

Lee was just cheering about how youthful this team is and how great they are goanna be in the second test.

Soon all the team finally got together and waited at the gates of Konoha.

Anko came affront of them with a racing pistol. The Jounin Exams are competitive, only a few are meant to be selected by either fate or luck.

Anko raised the pistol high and soon counted down.

"3!" Anko Shouted

Few of the Chunins started to sweat drop.

"2!" Anko Shouted again

Now few more were licking their mouths and concentrating on the gates.

"1!" Anko Shouted one more time

The Chunins now were feeling the adrenaline, nervous, excitement and worry in their bodies.

"0!" Anko Shouted, finishing her countdown

BANG!

The pistol was shot and at the same time the gates opened up.

All the Chunins ran as fast as they could to go through the gates of Konoha.

It was a huge scene, as they started to spilt up group by group. They all soon started to separate and cheat by knocking other teams out.

Team 7 realised what was going on and decided to take this trip up the trees, however Naruto didn't want to do that, as he could see that the battle was rougher up there than down here. They would just have to be lucky to even get to the borders of Suna.

Soon the sounds and the shouts of people running and fighting stopped, as the team could only hear their own footsteps, no longer were they any close to any of the other teams, or they thought so?

Though for the bit of the trip they were not followed or traced by anyone. It was declared that they were probably safe from harm, for now. Now the main focus was to get to Suna, which was only about a few hundred KM away. Luckily Sakura, Naruto and Lee packed some supplies for this journey.

For a while now they did not see any attempts on their sabotaged of their test so far. Knowing what could have happened, Sakura soon calmed down and thought that there will be no danger coming towards them at all. However, Naruto knows that It's too good to be true, there's a trap and he knows it.

Remembering the Chunin Exams, Naruto remembers how clam he used to be when he always thought that no one was coming to get him in the second test of the exams.

He remembered that he was protected by the Uchiha when he was attacked by Orochimaru, his rival, his friend, his…, brother in name, who had now turned his backs on everyone.

Naruto snapped out of his thoughts, and continued to concentrate in the road ahead, this was sure to be one long trip to Suna, and a dangerous one too.

(Timeskip, two hours later, Location, near the borders of the desert of Suna)

Sakura, Lee was tired, Naruto was a bit stinging in his legs but wasn't near the word tired yet, though he had noticed Sakura and Lee were getting tired so he stopped.

Lee and Sakura both stopped aswell, and collapsed on their butts on the ground, Naruto was eye smiling at them with a smile on his face.

"Sorry, I forgot that you don't have the same strength or amount of Chakra like Pervy-Sage or I do." Naruto apologised, feeling embarrassed

"You….., *huff*….., Youthful two and a half years of training were not a waste of …..,*huff*….., time Naruto-Kun…..,*huff*…., your much more youthful than Gai and I combined." Lee replied with a smile and a thumbs up, winking at Naruto

"Thanks Lee, we'll wait here for now, rest for about twenty minutes and we're off again." With that said, Naruto then sat cross-legged, his back toward lee and Sakura, taking his sword off of his back and looking at it

This did pain Sakura a bit, as she knew the reason why Naruto was doing this, so to ignore Sakura. She didn't mind though, she was just rubbing her aching legs to massage the muscles in her body, to stop the stinging and pain she had received while running.

Both Lee and Sakura continued to pant for five minutes and stopped, that means that they were resting easily, and soon they can continue off to Suna.

"So what's the plan of action?" Sakura Asked, her expression changing from tired to questioning face

Naruto turned around, facing Lee and Sakura, with his sword on his shoulders.

"Not much, we have to get to Suna as soon as possible really." Naruto replied, with a normal expression on his face

"But what about a leader, surely we need someone to guide to victory?" Lee Asked

"We don't need a leader, we need teamwork." Naruto replied, this time with a serious look

Sakura now snapped out of her comfort zone and couldn't believe what she was hearing. Remembering the Chunin Exams, Sasuke was most likely the leader for the group. Mostly he wanted to fight the other Genins that time to improve his strength, that also meant mostly leaving his friends behind.

"What?" Sakura Asked with a confused look

Naruto looked at Sakura and Explained "We're a team aren't we? We don't need a leader, we need each other. We'll decide things together, we'll figure out how things should be done and how we should do it at the moment. We can't just rely on one person, but the whole team instead, we need to rely on each other, we can't let someone to become leader and decide things on their own."

Sakura knows what Naruto's referring to, probably it was for the best that the whole team gets to work together. Remembering team 7 days, they most likely not a team, instead people who were trying to act solo.

Sakura remembers that she used to chase Sasuke who refused any help from his teammates, because of this, she ignored Naruto who needed help aswell, probably the most since he did try to work with Sasuke and Sakura but was always rejected for it.

Naruto wanted to do what Kakashi had failed to do, he wanted to make sure that this team stays as a team and not what happened to the old team 7.

After hearing that Lee spoke up.

"THAT'S VERY YOUTHFUL NARUTO-KUN! WE CAN DEPEND ON EACH OTHER LIKE THE YOUTHFUL FRIENDS AND TEAM WE ARE!" Lee Shouted, giving Naruto a thumbs up

Naruto then turned his back to Sakura and Lee, Sakura then turned her head down. Lee was confused but then feeling sorry for Sakura. She had been training hard and changing her personality for Naruto, she realised back then two and a half years ago that she wasn't much of a teammate or friend to Naruto at all, she even discovered that there were feelings inside of her that she had loved Naruto. Because of her crush for Sasuke, she was so blinded by that crush that she had hidden her feelings for Naruto, trying to forget them, and she never even noticed it until Sasuke's sentence.

Lee didn't want to speak up for Sakura's sake, he knew she wouldn't want that, he just hoped that Naruto would forgive her and her sensei for the mistake that had made back two and a half years ago.

(Timeskip, 15 minutes later)

After their small break, Naruto got up, picking his bag up and sliding his sword back on his back, then started to walk towards the desert of Suna.

"Come on, we have to get back on track." Naruto informed

Lee and Sakura both got up, picking their bags up aswell.

Soon the team started to continue their walk. But as soon they started, they were cut off by a metal string spiky fence that had been thrown affront of them.

They all gasped and looked around, three figures jumped down, forming the position of bowling pins. Two of them in the back were holding the fence up, the one affront of them chuckled a bit.

These figures had brown cloaks on, wearing a Japanese fashioned straw hats. The straw hats were covering their faces, making it difficult to make out what they look like.

"This is as far as you can go." The figure at the front said, adjusting It's straw hat

"Get out of the way before we move out!" Naruto threatened, with a serious tone

"No way that's goanna happen." One of the figures said

"GET THEM!" The one affront ordered

The figure affront than took a Kunai out and attempted to stab Naruto. Naruto however grabbed the wrist and punched the nin in the stomach. The nin then attempted to punch Naruto with It's other hand. Naruto dodged the fist and kicked the figure on It's back, once the figure was kicked, it fell forward, revealing the cloud's symbol on It's back.

"These guys must be the cloud?" Naruto guessed in thought

The other two figures then followed the one affront of them, both pulled their wired fences back as rope, charging and swinging them at Sakura and Lee.

Lee jumped out of the way, then stomped on one of their faces to the ground, then jumping off of them. The cloud nin then charged Lee, swinging the wire then throwing it at Lee. Lee the got tangled up by the wire, feeling the spiky edges sinking in his skin, Lee struggled to break himself free.

Sakura dodged the wire from the other nin she was fighting then charged to punch the cloud nin. The cloud nin then jumped backwards, avoiding the punch, then pulled the wire back and threw it at Sakura one more time.

Sakura again dodged it then grabbed the wire to pull the cloud nin towards her. The cloud nin was shot towards Sakura, who was then punched in the face by her.

PUNCH!

The cloud nin was down but not out.

Naruto was still fighting with the other cloud nin, who was delivering a series of kicks and punches towards Naruto. Naruto kept dodging every single one of the kicks and punches, he then jumped a meter away.

"SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!" Naruto Shouted

POOF!

Six clones were created, then charged towards the cloud nin. The cloud nin then found itself surrounded by the clones then tackled by them.

The real Naruto then grabbed some rope from his bag and walked towards the nin.

Before Naruto could get close to the nin, the cloud nin then resisted, making the clones lose their grip on it, who then jumped up and kicked the real Naruto down, causing the clones to disappear.

POOF!

Naruto was on the ground, with the cloud nin standing on his back looking down at him. With quick thinking, Naruto quickly slid away from the nin. The nin lost It's balance then fell.

Naruto kneeled up, doing multiple hand signs then shouting, "WIND STYLE: ICE BREATHE -50 !"

Naruto then blew his breathe towards the nin, who was soon covered by Ice, trapped by the cold solid form of water. Both arms and legs were frozen to the ground.

Naruto then got up with a smirk on his face, he then walked towards the cloud nin and took the straw hat off. Revealing that this nin who was thought to be a boy was a 15 year old good looking girl, a Kuniochi. With brown long short hair, clear black eyes and fair soft skin. Who had a serious and angry look mixed together, directed towards Naruto.

Naruto however ignored the glare that was being sent to him and continued to his bag and picked everything up.

"WE HAVE'NT EVEN FINISHED THIS FIGHT YET!" She screamed with a hint of anger in her voice

"We have, you are beaten, and don't worry, the Ice will melt in exactly thirty minutes. You'll just have to wait until then." Naruto Explained, then walked away, ignoring the many struggles of the girl who was trying to break herself free from the Icy trap.

With Sakura, she was having at least a bit of trouble with this cloud nin she was up against, she was trying to send her many kicks and punches, but were avoided by the cloud nin.

This cloud nin was fast that's for sure. She was trying to hit him or her for the past five minutes she was battling, It felt like hours since she had punched him or her last time.

She was also getting beaten here, the wire rope was always swinging at her all the time, she could only dodge so little at the speed the cloud nin was swinging, she was also figuring out a way to beat this cloud nin.

She realised that every swing had happened, she could see that the swings were getting slower and slower by the minutes, she could tell that this cloud nin was losing energy and getting tired fast. It wasn't long before Sakura managed to figure a way to beat he or she.

As soon as there was another swing, Sakura grabbed the wire, luckily she was wearing gloves, or otherwise her hand would be bleeding from the spikes.

She then turned the tables around, by holding the wire tightly and started swing her body with the wire which was still held by the cloud nin around in circles. The cloud nin got dizzy and dizzy from being swung around. Not only that but he or she was swung into trees and bushes, injuring the cloud nin. Soon Sakura then swung the cloud nin towards the ground with a powerful force, creating a large crater.

BOOM!

A large crater was formed, and the cloud nin was knocked out.

Sakura tied the cloud nin up with the wire. While doing this, the straw hat fell off, revealing yet another young good looking Kuniochi about 14 years of age. With bright golden long hair and pale soft skin.

Soon she opened her eyes, her eyes were bright yellow eyes.

"Well, well, looks like you beat me." The girl smirked

"I don't want any trouble at all, all I want is for me and my friends to pass the Exams, that's all." Sakura said, with a serious tone and expression

Sakura then started to run for Lee and Naruto to make sure that they're okay.

Leaving the young girl struggling to break herself free.

Lee was still struggling to break himself free from being tied up by this cloud nin. Which was a very bad Idea, he was cutting himself due to his struggling.

The cloud nin was laughing at Lee's misery and struggle, amused by the poor Lee.

Lee soon had a quick thought, he quickly stopped struggling, the motioned his body in a straight position, he grabbed the wire rope, and turned his own body like a tornado, which pulled the cloud nin closer to him up to face to face distance.

Lee smirked then did his tornado trick again, he grabbed the cloud nins hand and both were spinning around and around.

Lee finally lets the cloud nin go, sending he or she flying to a tree, which made them lose their straw hat in the process.

Le finally untangled himself free from the wire rope and threw it away. He took a quick look at the cloud nin. His face suddenly turned from seriousness to ashamed, as he had realised that this cloud nin was, a girl.

A 16 year old girl Kuniochi, with purple short clean hair, along with purple eyes, fair soft skin colour and soft skin, she was really good looking aswell.

Lee was ashamed of himself for fighting a girl, he bowed down and apologised.

"I'M VERY, VERY SORRY FOR HURTING YOU MADAM!" Lee Apologised, blushing furiously

"I DON'T CARE! DIE!" She screamed as she threw a Kunai towards him

Lee didn't notice the Kunai until it hit right between his feet. Thinking that the girl's a terrible thrower, he noticed that there was a paper on the Kunai, he realised that it had a exploding tag on and jumped as far away as possible.

BOOM!

The Kunai exploded.

Lee got up and looked around to find this young girl, he couldn't find her anywhere. Soon he felt tapping on his shoulders, he looked back that she was behind him, the girl punched Lee In the face then kicked him towards the edge of the crater.

She charged at Lee with full speed, taking a Kunai out of her right pocket. Lee regained consciousness soon and realised she was coming right at him. Lee took action and quickly got out of her way, letting the edge of the crated get stabbed instead of him. I was Lee's chance, as the girl was struggling to pull her Kunai out.

Lee quickly jumped towards her. It pained him to do it, but he had no choice, he drawn his fist out and punched the girl in the back of her head. She was knocked out.

Lee picked her up bridal style, and let her down on the outside of the crater. He had layed her on the soft part of the ground, then left to reunite with Naruto and Sakura.

Later the trio reunited at last.

"Lee, are you okay?" Sakura Asked, showing concern for the green Konoha ninja

"I'M FINE AS YOUTH!" Lee answered, winking at Sakura giving her a large smile and thumbs up

"You Naruto?" Sakura Asked, showing the same amount of concern to Naruto like Lee, but this time, blushing lightly

"Yeah, I'm fine." Naruto replied, lifelessly

Sakura was hurt by the reply.

"Let's continue shall we?" Naruto Asked

With that said, Sakura Lee and Naruto continued to their destination to Suna.

(Location, borders of Suna's desert)

The team has just made it to the desert towards Suna. They could see the hilly sand and the endless distance of the desert.

There was no end, all they could see was absouloutly nothing but sand and a very hot sun, covering the land with It's light and heat.

The team could just see no end. But they knew where they had to go to.

They started walking across the hot waste land desert in hopes of coming to Suna.

(Timeskip, 1 hour later)

The team had a bit of a struggle, as the wind blew harder and harder until the sand was flying to their eyes. The desperately wanted shelter, the sand was just too much for them to handle, the wind was becoming stronger and stronger by the minute, they just couldn't take it anymore.

The wind was starting to grow more and more, they started to see something at the distance, something very, very big. It was a huge cloud of sand heading towards their direction.

After careful spectate of the cloud. They had realised that It was a sand storm, a big one.

"SANDSTOMR!" Sakura screamed, trying to cover her eyes from the sand

"WE NEED TO FIND SHELTER!" Lee Shouted, back towards the direction of the wind

Naruto tried to take a good look at the sand storm, by the time he did, he realised that the sand storm was huge and was very close to them already. By the time the entir team realised this, It was too late, the sand storm already got close enough until It could consume them.

"WATCH OUT!" Naruto warned

Soon the whole team was consumed by the sand storm, they could barely stand as the wind was trying to push them.

After quick thinking Naruto got an Idea, he quickly took his sword out and stabbed In the ground. He held the sword tightly, Infusing It with his chakra.

"STAND BACK!" Naruto Shouted

"WIND STYLE: AIR DOME!" Naruto shouted again

Next what had happened, was a large dome of air appeared, protecting Naruto, Sakura and Lee. It was only about ten meters wide, tall and big. The ground gave out soon, creating a small crater. Naruto fell in, he was protected by the crater from the sand storm.

"EVERYONE! COME IN!" Naruto Shouted, Lee and Sakura jumped in

It was quiet in the crater, they were protected and hiding in the crater like a WWII fashioned type of pit. They were safe, that's for sure. But It was dark in the crater, nothing was seen, not even themselves.

"I have an Idea." Sakura Informed

Sakura took her bag off and looked for a camp light she had brought with her. After minutes of searching, she had finally found a camp light, she then switched it on and put It In the middle of the crater. Finally the trio could see each other.

"GOOD IDEA SAKURA-CHAN!" Lee gave her a thumbs up and a huge smile, winking at the young Kuniochi

Sakura smiled, but then lost It when she saw Naruto, who was holding his palms up to get the warmth of the light, Ignoring Sakura. Naruto didn't even thanked her, or said good job to her, he had just simply Ignored her and just sat there like nothing was said or heard of.

Sakura looked down towards the ground, wanting to get rid of this depressed feeling she had at the moments. Lee stayed out of It of course. But It was quiet and he needed to lighten the mood a bit. So he thought of what to do and came up with a soloution.

"How about we tell something about our lives?" Lee suggested, with a soft smirk on his face, "Like Naruto-Kun. How did you get that sword of yours?" Lee Asked, with a curious look changing from a soft smirk one

Naruto snapped out of his concentration, feeling embarrassed he took his sword out and showed It to Lee.

"This?" Naruto Asked, "I got this while on my training trip with the Pervy-Sage. It was a gift. A gift from the Lord of this Nation's daughter. From a mission I did with her." Naruto Explained

Both Lee and Sakura shot out of their minds and were shocked. Naruto had met the most Important of this country? How? How did he meet her? When did he meet her? And what had happened?

"So…, What happened Naruto?" Sakura Asked, with a confused look

"What happened, Is what I'm goanna explain later today after the test. It's kind of a long, long story actually." Naruto Explained

Lee Pouted, Sakura turned her view back to the light. Sakura was thinking that he doesn't want to tell her because he doesn't like her anymore. But It Is a long story, It Is.

(Timeskip, Thirty minutes later)

After Thirty minutes of being stuck in a pit, the sand storm had finally cleared out. Letting the team to get back on track to Suna.

While walking, Sakura fell back a little behind, Lee stayed close to Sakura about a meter ahead of her, Naruto was about five to eight meters away. Of course Lee said to Naruto that he should wait up, but Naruto told Lee that this was to take precaution, In case If they fall in any traps or anything.

Upon on their walk, It was going smoothly.

While walking, Naruto was feeling that the sand was a little bit soft. He however Ignored It and continued.

Suddenly, the ground gave away, letting Naruto's right leg sunk in the ground.

"AHHHHHH!" Naruto Screamed, as he fell In the ground

Both Lee and Sakura stopped, and looked at Naruto as his left leg began to sink aswell.

"Quicksand." Naruto whispered in fear, "STAND BACK!" Naruto warned

Both Lee and Sakura stood back one step.

Naruto started struggle his way out, he started by pulling his right leg as hard as he can out of the quicksand, he used all his force to try and pull It out, but was overcome by the strength of the suction of the quicksand. Because of this action he had sunk up to waist In the quicksand.

Lee couldn't take It anymore to see his friend struggling with his life on the line. Lee decided to take a few step In the quicksand while channelling his Chakra to his feet. In order to stay a top of the quicksand.

Though It did not work out, the quicksand was too soft and hard to determine what amount of Chakra he should use to stay a top.

Ignoring the fact that his feet were sinking, Lee continued to get close to Naruto. But as each step he makes, the deeper he sunk In. As soon he was a meter away from Naruto, That's when he fell In, causing him to be at least a waist deep In the sand trap.

Now both Lee and Naruto were trapped Inside of their slowly sinking deaths.

Sakura became very worried and sad, as both her friends were trapped and sinking to their graves. She showed an expression of worry on her face, she wanted to help Naruto and Lee out.

Lee was pushing himself up, he kept pushing himself up from the quicksand. Though this was a bad Idea, he sank a little deeper than Naruto was, about a stomach deep. However Lee Ignored It, he believed that he had more youth than before that not even quicksand can kill him. (Oh Lee, what will we do with ya?)

Naruto stopped his struggling when he was a waist deep. He saw that Lee was Sinking deeper, due to his struggling.

"Lee, stop struggling, you're only making It worse for yourself." Naruto Told Lee

Lee stopped and replied "DON'T WORRY NARUTO-KUN! THIS QUICKSAND CAN'T TAKE ME IN! I HAVE WHAT THIS DOESN'T! YOUTH!"

Then Lee continued his struggling.

"THAT IS NOT WHAT I MEANT!" A pissed off Naruto shouted

Lee Ignored It and continued to struggle.

Naruto looked back down on the quicksand. HE couldn't believe that he was already a stomach deep In It. Naruto knew he could use Shadow Clone Jutsu to whip up a few Shadow Clones to save himself and Lee, but this wasn't the normal type of quicksand, this was a Chakra Infused type. Naruto Instantly recognized It when he felt the signatures coming from It. The quicksand doesn't reveal the signatures until an enemy has fallen upon the trap.

Naruto turned around slowly to make sure that he would not sink as fast as Lee was sinking. He turned to see that Lee was about a chest deep, only he left arm was free as the right was already consume by the quicksand.

"Lee, are you okay?" Naruto Asked with concern, looking down towards Lee

"YOSH! DON'T WORRY! I AM OKAT NARUTO-KUN!" Lee Reply, giving another thumbs up and a wink with a smile towards Naruto

"*Sigh*" Naruto sighed

This really wasn't the time for Lee to act all youthful, they were sinking deeper and deeper to their deaths.

Naruto turned his view at Sakura, looking at her, he realised Sakura had a horrified look on her face. Something In Naruto was telling him something. However he had to Ignore, and come back to reality. He was sinking and he had to find a way out.

Naruto looked back at Sakura after a moment starring at the quicksand which was consuming his body.

Sakura had to do something, she just had to.

"HARUNO! HELP!" Naruto Shouted, with a hint of horror In his voice

Sakura was happy a bit, though upset that Naruto had once again referred her to Haruno, but happy that Naruto wanted help off of her.

Sakura took her back pack off and looked for some rope, she found some rope In her bag then was about to throw. But she screamed In horror.

"AHHHHHH!" Sakura Screamed in Horror

Naruto wondered why? He looked down, only to see the remains of Lee, which was mostly just his hand sticking out.

"LEE! ARE YOU OKAY! CAN YOU HEAR ME?!" Naruto Asked, Worried for his green friend

Lee's hand turned Into a thumbs up and replied, "YOUTH!"

"*sigh*" Both Sakura and Naruto sighed In relief

"HERE CATCH!" Sakura Shouted, then threw the rope towards Naruto and Lee

Naruto caught the rope, then gave a bit of the rope to Lee.

Soon Sakura started the countdown to pull.

"3…..,2…..,1…, PULL!" Sakura Shouted, counting down from 3

Soon Sakura pulled the rope hard. But still Naruto and Lee were sinking, but only by a bit now.

Soon Naruto had to pull his way towards Sakura. After the two struggled to pull each other, Naruto managed to get out of the quicksand. Naruto then helped Sakura, grabbing the rope and the two started to pull Lee up.

Both of them struggled hard, trying to pull their green friend out of the sandy pit.

Soon, Lee's arm came out, along with his head, with his eyes closed. Soon his chest then legs started to come out, and now Lee was finally free from the quicksand aswell.

Naruto and Sakura were exhausted from all the pulling they did. They were laying on the ground, tired and exhausted.

Lee was spitting sand out of his mouth and trying to brush himself off from the sand that he had collected while Inside the quicksand.

"Thank you Sakura-Chan, Naruto-Kun." Lee thanked, still spitting the sand out of his mouth

"Your welcome." Panted Sakura and Naruto

Sakura soon noticed that Lee was the only one who had thanked her for saving him, she could see of course that Naruto was thankful, but still, she just wished that he would show It more to her.

(Timeskip, 15 minutes later)

The team took one small brake. They were very tired and hot due to the very hot sun of the desert.

Naruto and Lee started to get up. Naruto had noticed that Sakura was sleeping on the sand.

"Haruno, wake up, we need to start walking. We have to continue our Journey." Naruto Informed

Sakura didn't respond, she still was sleeping.

"Haruno?" Naruto Asked, a bit of concern in his voice, for the young pink Kuniochi

"Naruto-Kun, Is there something wrong with Sakura-Chan?" Lee Asked with a bit of concern In his voice aswell

Naruto took a few steps closer to her, he put his hand on her forehead and felt that It was warm, very warm. She must have passed out after saving them from the quicksand.

"She's got sunstroke, and It looks like she's passed out for a while." Naruto replied, spectating Sakura's condition

"What do we do?" Lee Asked

"Simple." Naruto replied

Naruto then took Sakura backpack and put It over his shoulder, He then picked Sakura up bridal style and continued, "We continue. I'll carry her and you just make sure that we have no unwanted guests that will come for us."

"Understand?" Naruto Asked, Lee nodded, Naruto smiled back, then continued with Lee to walk

Even though Sakura was passed out, she could feel Naruto's warm chest beside her head, leaning against the cosy jumpsuit of his. She smiled a bit, giving a small soft smile, She was sleeping still but knew somehow that Naruto was carrying her, which also proved that he still loves her somewhere Inside him. He just have to find It that's all.

(Location, Suna's gates, Timeskip, 2 hours later)

Soon, team 7 had finally arrived to Suna's gates, this was where they gave a scroll to one of the sand Jounins.

They had passed the second test, Lee was excited and shouting about youth, Naruto smiled in confidence.

"I guess not many people have passed?" Naruto guessed, seeing that there were only about 30 Chunins with them

"I'm going to take Haruno to a medic nin Lee. Wait for us okay." Naruto Informed

"Okay." Lee replied with a smirk

Naruto soon got to one of the medic of Suna and told them about Sakura's condition, they took her in.

"How Is she?" Naruto Asked

"She's a bit too warm, but she'll be okay. Let us take care of her and she'll be alright." The medic nin Informed

Naruto smiled, then nodded.

The medic nins left with Sakura, to treat her.

While Naruto was In Suna for a while, he had noticed three people, It was the exact same people who had attacked them before earlier on today. Naruto saw them glaring at him hatefully, they were mad that Naruto made them late, but still they had passed the second test, one of them wanted to stab Naruto and make him pay for what he'd done to them, the other two held her down to make sure that they don't get any unwanted attention, they would be expelled from the Exams if they did any wrong moves right now.

"LET GO OF ME! I'M GOING TO KILL THIS BASTARD!" The girl screamed in rage

"You don't even have a chance against me." Naruto warned, with a smirk on his face

"If you fight him now It's all over for you and us. Don't do It." One of the two Informed

He didn't want to cause a fight between him and them for something that they caused at first. They were the ones who had attacked him, Sakura and Lee first, not them, and the way they were mad at them about what had happened earlier, made Naruto smile in their own anger, seeing how they were mad at them.

The trio of girls left, with one of them saying how much she would want to kill Naruto in every merciless way as possible.

"Someone has a short fuse." Naruto thought to himself

Soon one of the sand Jounins came up and put a large poster up for the Chunins who had failed.

Chunins entered: 300

Chunins passed the first test: 150

Chunins failed the first test: 150

Chunins passed the second test: 30

Chunins failed the second test: 120

At this moment, the Chunins who saw this were talking to each other in worry.

First, there was 300 of them and now there were only thirty of them.

Which makes It that 270 Chunins had been eliminated from the Exams.

Naruto was smiling at this, he was smiling that there were only a few Chunins left, but still 30 Chunins were too much for the third test of the Jounin Exams. He knew there would be probably a preliminaries, to lower down the number of Chunins to become Jounins.

However, since there were a few people who were tired, the preliminaries would be set at Konoha.

"EVERYONE RETURN TO KONOHA! THE NEXT TEST WILL BE SET IN KONOHA! BE READY AND BE PREPARED!" One of the sand Jounins announced

Soon the medic nin told Naruto all about Sakura's condition and that she was stable, she was fine now, all she needed was a bit of sleep.

Naruto decided to take Sakura back to Konoha, he picked her up bridal style and started to walk back to Konoha with Lee.

(Timeskip, 1 day later, Location, Konoha Hospital)

Sakura woke up, she awoke on a bed, a soft white cosy bed. She looked around her surroundings to see that she was In a hospital room. She wondered, why was she In the hospital? Did she fail the second test?

Sakura felt bad and ashamed, she must've slept and became dead weight to Lee and Naruto, probably she had made them fail the Exams. She felt completely guilty over this.

"Did? Did we fail? Please tell me we didn't fail. This was my chance to prove that I'm changed." Sakura thought, a few tears coming from her eyes

"Why are you crying all of a sudden?" Asked someone

Sakura turned to the door to find that Tsunadae was there, with a smile.

"Tsunadae-Sama. Sensei. I'm sorry. I think I failed Naruto." Sakura apologised, tears still flowing from her eyes

"So that's It huh? Sakura you didn't fail anyone. In fact you've passed the test, you're now on the third and final test." Tsunadae Informed, giving a soft smile to Sakura

Sakura's eyes shot up, wide opened. She passed. She has passed the second test, which also means that Lee and Naruto managed to pass aswell.

"Does this mean Naruto-Kun and Lee passed aswell?" Sakura Asked, a smile forming on her face

Tsunadae smiled and replied, "Yes Sakura. Both Naruto and Lee has passed aswell."

"Though I am curious why you were knocked out. You had sun stroke and passed out after hearing that you saved both Lee and Naruto from quicksand while In the desert." Tsunadae continued

"Later. Naruto walked In here and gave you to me. He put you on the bed and I was here taking care of you while he goes off to his house." Tsunadae added

"Lastly. This may please you to hear, but Naruto was carrying you like a bride. You were snuggling on his chest, thought you were faking It but you weren't." Tsunadae finished with smile

Sakura blushed by what she had heard. She did feel a bit happy now, thinking that Naruto was probably starting to like her again. She was really happy by that news.

"Is Is okay that I leave?" Sakura Asked

"Of course." Replied Tsunadae with a nod

Sakura smiled, then left the Hospital, feeling very happy.

(Location, Namikaze house)

Naruto was In his bedroom, thinking about Sakura. Had she changed or had she not? Was his question.

He still wasn't sure, but he never wanted to speak to Sakura again, he still can't forgive her for what she had said back at the Hospital two and a half years ago.

Though he was considering having a second chance with the young girl. But he didn't want to get hurt by her anymore.

Before he graduated from the Academy and before Sasuke's attempt to leave. Sakura was always hurting Naruto's feelings.

Overall, Naruto couldn't decide to give Sakura a chance or not, he had to wait until he's been proven by her that she had changed.

After seeing her reaction when Naruto was sinking In the quicksand back at the desert, Naruto could tell that she was very worried about him, It was the first time he had seen her this worried for him. The only time she had ever been this worried was always for the Uchiha.

Remembering the old days made Naruto clench his fists In anger towards the Uchiha. Not only did he betray the village, but his brotherhood with the blond aswell. Ever since Naruto fought Sasuke back at the valley of the end, he had never seen Sasuke since then.

This did make Naruto wonder what had happened to him, but he brushed It off of his mind and let It go, never should he see or hear his so called brother again. Never he wanted to know what had become of the Uchiha In Blood Prison.

Naruto was a bit hyped, tomorrow would be the preliminaries.

But tonight he was going to meet his friends at Konoha's BBQ restaurant and have a little talk about his Journey.

DONE!

I'M SO SO SORRY FOR MAKING YOU ALL WAIT!

To explain myself why I was late for this chapter…, Well.

Here's what happened. The day I uploaded the Third Chapter for "Konoha's Runaway Demon" My friend came here for two days.

After that I started to do this Chapter. I was a bit slow.

About Friday my friend came here again and we were playing "Borderlands 2" a lot. Didn't have time to finish the Chapter off until Monday when my friend left.

So thank you for your patience and I'm very sorry for the long wait.

This Chapter was a bit rushed, and probably has a few mistakes and lack of detail so I may have to rewrite It If It's okay with you guys.

If It's not tell me and I'll rewrite It.

Don't forget to read and review.

Very Important If you review. Helps me a lot.

Thanks dudes