A/N: I've not watched the Naruto episodes around the chunin exams in a long while, so this is based on my fading memory of the canon. I won't be watching Naruto again until after I've finished writing the chunin invasion, because I don't want the cannon to influence my writing too much. After the chunin exams, much of the chapters will be going outside of cannon for the two years in which Naruto is out of the village training, because of my focus on Sasuke.
A/N: due to the number of fighting scenes ahead, updates will be slow.
Chapter 17: Stage one
The morning of the exam, Sasuke made sure that everyone had a good breakfast before packing their sealing scrolls with food enough to last them a week just in case they went straight from the first stage of the exam to the survival portion without a break. The whole team had given up bags after Naruto had joined Sasuke in the study of Fuinjutsu, since they found it far more useful to seal everything they would need away.
Once ready, the team headed to the academy together – prepared to face the challenge ahead of them as a unit. Naruto walked in the centre of their formation, with Sakura flanking his left while Sasuke had his right. In the last month Naruto had been taking to the leader role more often – only stepping back when Kakashi asked someone else to take up the role or the situation they were in was better suited to Sasuke or Sakura's skills.
All the information they had received about the first part of the Chunin Exams was that they needed to appear in classroom 304 at the Academy by ten o'clock in order to qualify for the exams. They arrived at nine so that they had time to observe the competition and also get passed any tests that might have been set up before the official start of the exam.
Heading into the building, they by-past a large gathering of genin on the second floor by taking one of the side staircases instead of the main staircase. The side staircases weren't easy to find, so only the Konoha genin knew about them, which meant they didn't have to sneak past any of the foreign shinobi. Unexpected, they didn't encounter any other genin teams from Konoha on the back staircase.
Kakashi met them outside of the door they were expected to go through in order to wait for the exam.
"I've never seen genin improve as much as you three have in the last six months. You have worked hard for this; remember what I've taught you and look out for each other. I expect to see you in the finals." With these rather unexpected words of encouragement, Kakashi used a Shunshin to leave before they could response.
"Well then," Naruto shot them a brilliant smile. "Let's take this exam by storm."
With that pronouncement Naruto pushed the door open and led them into the room which only had a handful of foreign teams already present and no Konoha teams. As they moved to a corner of the room that would allow them to observe everything and everyone, the other genin in the room dismissed them as a threat.
The next team to make it in was team 8, which Shino and Hinata directed towards them despite Kiba being the one in the 'leader' role. At this point, Sasuke was pretty sure that Kiba was only in that roll because he was the loudest. Shino had the intelligence to be able to direct the team and come up with the best strategies that used his teams' skills to their best ability, and his physical skills were in line with the typical development of his Clan with the potential of being even better if he used a hand weapon like the Ninjato or kusarigama. If his disposition wasn't to be silent, he would have easily taken the leader role which would be easier once he was a chunin since he would be working with people used to working with the Aburame Clan. Hinata was so painfully shy because of her kind nature combined with the beat down tactics of her clan that she wasn't ready to take any kind of leadership role – she needed to be shown her worth before anything else was possible for her.
"Dog breath," Naruto greeted his old academy ditching partner. When a teacher had kicked him out of class, he'd inevitable end up hanging out with Kiba and occasionally Shikamaru – they were the closest things Naruto had to friends before he'd joined team seven. However, his relationship with Kiba had been quite abusive in that Kiba never treated him like an equal or someone the other boy respected.
"Dead last," Kiba's greeting wasn't as friendly as Naruto was because he truly believed that Naruto was the bottom of the pack. "I'm surprised to see you here."
"We were nominated just like you," Naruto smiled brightly. "Just means our sensei trusts that we're good enough to make it."
"There's no way you went from dead last to Chunin material in six months." Kiba snorted. "And you can't ride on Sasuke's coattails for this exam."
"No one on this team rides on anyone's coattails; we're all good enough be chunin." Naruto narrowed his eyes before dismissing Kiba and turning to Shino and Hinata. "How are you?"
"I am well," Shino shifted his glasses sightly as he answered. "You look like you've gotten stronger."
"I'm… good." Hinata stuttered, blushing when Naruto looked to her, waiting patiently for her answer.
The next team to come through the door then was Team 10, Ino in the lead. Ino scanned the room and when she spotted Sasuke, she made a beeline for her. Sakura acted instinctively, knowing enough to know that Sasuke didn't like physical contact and having become self-aware enough to know that the actions she and Ino had taken against Sasuke over the years were wrong. A swift switch and the two of them had swopped placing, meaning that Ino ended up with her arms wrapped tightly around Sakura.
"Ino, you are making a scene," Shikamaru sighed as Ino squeaked, swiftly letting Sakura go.
"And Sasuke-san," Sakura had started consciously changing her form of address to the more formal to show that she was trying to let go of her crush, which Sasuke appreciated, "doesn't like being ambushed, Ino."
"I wasn't ambushing Sasuke-kun, I was going to hug him." Ino disagreed.
"Without his consent," Shikamaru sighed. "Doing that to a ninja will result in either them avoiding you, or them stabbing you. You are lucky Sakura chose to swop places with him."
"Nobody hugs Sasuke," Naruto agreed, having bodily placed himself between where Sasuke was now stood and Ino – it wasn't much of a movement since Sakura had been the one stood on Naruto's right closest to the wall and so better protected in the event that anyone tried to take out the rookies before the exam began.
"Doesn't Sasuke speak for himself anymore?" Kiba frowned.
"Hn," was all Sasuke had to say to that. He hadn't broken his silence while in the Academy, he wasn't planning on breaking it for the ego of this boy. Outside of his training with Lee and his conversations with Shikamaru, the only time he'd spoken in the Academy was when he was asked a direction question by one of the sensei's. Kiba should have known that and remembered.
Naruto groaned, dropping his chin to his chest at the familiar sound. It was disconcerting to hear it coming from his right instead of his left, but that didn't make the sound any less annoying. When dealing with strangers, or clients, Sasuke would use words, or if he was with the clan but not when he was faced with fellow Konoha Shinobi. He had absolute confidence that would change once he was placed in a situation where he couldn't get out off without talking or he needed to take charge over the other genin.
"Have nine rookies ever been nominated for the chunin exams before?" Kiba suddenly blurted, looking between the three teams.
"Not in their first six months," Shikamaru answered with a long-suffering sigh when the majority of the genin looked to him, although Naruto and Sakura both glanced questioning to Sasuke first. "It's happened before, that a handful of genin gets nominate if they show great skill, but not even the genius like Itachi Uchiha and Kakashi Hatake were allowed to take part in the first chunin exam after their genin graduation. They were forced to wait and gain mission experience."
"The average between genin graduation and first chunin exam is a year, but most don't get the promotion until their second exam." Sasuke tagged on, not wanting to discourage but knowing that Kiba and Ino needed a realistic expectation of the fact that they are unlikely to become chunin this time round.
"We'll get it first time, just you see." Kiba boasted.
"You might want to keep it down, painting a target on your backs isn't a good idea since you're all rookies."
A greyed haired, older team with a Konoha headband approached the group. Sasuke and Shikamaru exchanged a look which spoke volumes – this is was one of the most dangerous spies in the village because they didn't know who Kabuto worked for. They assumed that he worked for Danzo considering how easily he was slipped into the villages forces and his backstory which was similarly designed liked the other agents of Danzo's they discovered outside of the black-ops. However, they were also very sure he had some kind of connection with Orochimaru – but whether that was because the snake had earned his loyalist or because Danzo had sent him in to act as a spy for him, they didn't know.
"Who are you?" Naruto frowned, even as his eyes caught sight of the headband from their village.
"I'm Kabuto, genin of Konoha. This is my seventh time taking the chunin exams." Kabuto introduced himself.
"Wow, you must really suck to have failed seven times." Kiba blinked.
Kabuto laughed off the extremely rude comment, rubbing the back of his head and scrunching his eyes up. "Well… it does mean I'm very experienced with these exams. If you'd like some advice."
"You failed seven times; I think we'd be okay without that." Kiba snorted.
"Well, I have these cards which tell you about the people in the exams…" Kabuto pulled out a stack of blank cards. "If there is anyone that you'd like me to tell you about."
"Sasuke, the red head from Sand and Naruto." Kiba requested immediately.
Sasuke and Shikamaru exchanged glances both at the fact that Kabuto was going through his cards looking for the three cards that Kiba had requested, but that it was clear he had information on not just foreign ninja but also on ninja from their village. How much did he know and by consequence how much does Orochimaru and/or Danzo know about them?
"Right, let's start with Gaara, age twelve. We've got the minimum 60 D-ranks, 20 C-rank missions, 4 B-rank missions and wow, an A-rank. It says here he did that with no injuries." Kabuto whistled impressed. "His team mates are Temari and Kankuro, his older siblings. Gaara specialises in ninjitsu."
"Then… let's see Naruto Uzumaki." Kabuto found the next card. "An impressive 91 D-rank missions, 11 C-rank missions, 5 B-rank missions and wow… 3 A-rank missions. Naruto also specialises in ninjitsu, his taijutsu is average and he's listed as dead-last when he graduated but with three A rank missions under his belt, I think that's changed."
"Sasuke Uchiha, completed the same missions as Naruto due to being on the same team. Listed as rookie of his year, and looking to become a ninjitsu and kenjitsu specialist." Kabuto finished.
Well, some of that information was definitely not information that he should have. Kakashi had reported Sasuke's use of kenjitsu, along with Naruto's to the Hokage, but that specialisation hadn't been officially confirmed or written. Their A-ranks were also classified, so he could get their numbers but he shouldn't have been able to get details on what exactly was included in those missions. Despite the fact that he hadn't said anything, Sasuke was pretty sure Kabuto did have the details of the missions.
It was a side eye between Sasuke and Shikamaru that solidified what their next cause of action was going to be. They'd been letting Kabuto be, because keeping an eye on this particular spy had been extraordinarily difficult, but now they needed to do something. To act and get some proof of suspicion to Kakashi who would know what to do with it. So, when Kabuto insulted the ease dropping Oto-nin's and they attacked, Sasuke moved to intercept the Oto-nin while Shikamaru used the opportunity to pick-pocket.
"Right listen up!" Ibiki entered the room with four chunin's behind him. He was stood at his full imposing height, the scars across his face visible with the top of his head concealed by his ever-present bandana and his trench coat billowing behind him. "There will be no fighting in this portion of the exam, anyone caught fighting before we say so will be expelled." He didn't glare at anyone in particular but that comment was definitely directed at the Oto group who'd attacked unproved.
"You will enter the exam room and sit at the desk with your number on it. Your number will be picked from the box on the way in. Once seated, I will explain the rules of the first exam." Ibiki stepped to the side and the genin began the process of filing in.
Sasuke ended up sat in the second row at the back, two in from the chunin who were sat along the side walls watching each row – one from either end. Naruto was sat two rows forward and two to the left. Considering that this was a written exam (as the first portion nearly always was), Naruto had a clone on Sakura's shoulder and one on Sasuke's shoulder as well – disguised as something innocuous on their uniform.
"Right, squirts. This is a one-hour exam. You have nine questions on the paper being handed out to you, the tenth questions will be given verbally. For every question you get wrong, you will loose 2 points. Between you and your team mates, you must achieve a total of nine points but if even one person on your team fails you will all fail. For everyone time you are caught cheating, you will lose a point and if you're caught five times you are automatically disqualified – you and your team." As Ibiki was explaining the rules of the test the pieces of white paper were placed on their desks, genin were glancing worriedly in the direction of some of their teammates who they were clearly worried about passing this portion of the test.
Sasuke took a deep breath and relaxed back into her chair, because she knew that her team were good enough to pass this test. Naruto had the fail safe of using his clones to look at Sakura's and Sasuke' test answers if he needed it but Sasuke had faith that he would be able to answer at least two of the questions without her. Possible more because Naruto was stupidly smart even if most couldn't see it.
"The test begins… now."
Sasuke flipped his exam paper over and glanced over the questions before starting from question nine and working his way forward because he knew that Sakura would start from the front and work her way backwards.
9. A team of two chunin and a jonin were on an infiltration and information gathering mission in Iwa. During the extraction phase, they found themselves hunted by a team of ANBU level hunters who are determined to stop them at any cost. The extraction team have to get beyond the border to where there is a support team waiting to meat them and ensure the information makes it back to Konoha. The team is low on chakra and running out of options, what is their best cause of action?
Low on chakra, there was only a couple of options open to a team caught on the wrong side of the border. Of course, different teams with different skills would respond in a different way but she needed to respond to this based on the standard skill set of chunin and jonin shinobi in Konoha. Which means, their best option was going to be setting false trails and using avoiding tactics – getting low and moving slow. Bushins to make trails – preferable elemental ones which didn't take up much chakra but should be something chunin and jonin's shoulder be able to do – and creating at least three trails before heading off using advanced henges into either civilians or animals. Their low chakra reserves would make it easier for them to blend in as either of those options.
With one question answered, Sasuke moved onto the next.
8. You are on an elimination mission. A team of three chunin who are tasked with taking out fifteen bandits, at least three of which are trained in some level of shinobi arts although intelligence suggests they are not confirmed shinobi with all round training. At least one of these individuals have chunin level kenjitsu skills, but no one on your team has matching skills. On completing the elimination mission, it is important to still be able to run and evade any tracking forces because the camp has been set up on the border of Grass and there is a chance of pursuit from Kiri-nin until you get back to the boarder of Konoha.
The joy of having an assassin for a sensei and a trapper specialist for a team mate, meant that Sasuke new exactly how to handle a situation like this without using up large recourses of chakra. The first step was trapping the area around where the camp is set up, then having the team attack from one direction with distance weapons and then use fire ninjitsu to force the bandits to flee towards the taps, engaging those left behind. In the first assault, the targets should be the ones identified with shinobi training.
Sasuke had just finished answering question number five when the Naruto clone on her shoulder popped, which let her know that he'd gotten stuck and needed some help. Since they were twenty-five minutes in, she figured he'd gotten the first three questions done without help, and possible one of the later questions since he would have flicked through to answer some of the back questions if he could.
Once she'd finished her test at forty minutes, Sasuke flipped hers over and leaned back in her seat, arms crossed to make it clear that she was finished as she looked around.
While she had been focused on her tests, she had kept herself aware of what was happening around her because she was too well trained to let her situational awareness drop, but now she actually acknowledged what had been happening. Since the five-minute mark of the tests, genin had been caught cheating and been kicked out of the exam. They had started with nearly three hundred genin in the room, but as they moved closer to the forty-five minute mark, that number had already dropped to around a hundred and fifty. She was sure that some of the first genin to have been kicked out of the exam were actually chunin plants, put in the exam in order to unnerve the genin and show who could and could not be distracted or undermined by such simple psychological tricks.
There was also a lot of cheating going on around the room. Gaara had some sort of sand eye floating near the roof, Tenten had set up a very complex contraption of wires and mirrors, Kiba was using his ability to understand his yipping companion in order to spy on other people's tests, Ino was currently using her mind-walking ability to fill out Choji's exam, and she could make out the quiet buzz of Shino's bugs. She was sure there were other means of cheating going on, but those were the ones that she could catch while looking around in her seat without actually moving anything but her eyes.
"Time's up" a gust of wind from Ibiki had the paper's lifting from their desks and the waiting chunin who had been stood at the end of each row at the back of the room.
With the paper's gone, a new tension formed in the room as they all waited for the final question to be delivered by the tall jonin who stood at the front of the room, glaring around at them all. He was releasing a low amount of killing intent, just as he had been doing during the entire exam.
"Now, for my final question, know this: you may choose to answer or not. But if you do not answer then you and your whole team will fail. if you choose to answer, and get it wrong then you will remain genin for the rest of your careers." With this threat delivered the tension in the room rocketed up.
"Screw this man, I'm not remaining a genin forever." One of the final chunin plants exclaimed and felt the room, his grumbling and glaring team-mates following.
With the first person gone, a damn brock and more and more genin started leaving the room. Naruto reached across the gap separating him and Hinata and took the nervous girl's hand to stop her from also giving up when he noticed how nervous she appeared. Hinata blushed scarlet at his actions, but remained in his seat.
Finally, when there was just fifty-three teams remaining, no one else got up to leave. Ibiki waited a long moment, but finally nodded and upped the killing intent briefly.
"Then you… all pass onto the second round." The killing intent disappeared and Ibiki's stance relaxed.
"What the hell!" Temari Sabaku shouted angrily. "What was the question?"
"The tenth question was a challenge. When you are chunin, you don't have the chance to turn down a mission you are given. You had to prove you have what it takes to do what is necessary for your villages." Ibiki explained.
"Then what was the point of the written test?" Kiba demanded furiously.
Kiba wasn't the best at written tests so Sasuke could understand why he was so angry about it. The fact that he hadn't realised the obvious point of the test, along with the less obvious one, wasn't particularly surprising for Sasuke since she knew well that Kiba did not have what it took to be chunin yet. He needed to calm his ego and gain more knowledge of the world and what it meant to be a ninja. Along sides Ino, he would likely remain a genin the longest of their group.
Ibiki didn't answer as his head cut to the window, Sauske, Naruto and Sakura also having picked up on what he felt turned towards the window as their bodies reacted. Even as the window exploaded and a blur of purple burst into the room admist's cries of protest, Team Seven had lept from their seats and come together in a defence front atop three of the desks in the middle of the room.
"Have no fear, Anko is fear. Tester for the second portion of the exams." The purple blur landed besides Ibiki with this loud examination before she gave two surprised blinks. "Well, you three are jumpy."
Unashamed, team seven jumped down from the desk's they'd landed on and shrugged. "Our sensei is a paranoid bastard." Naruto explained, unashamed but aware that announcing the name of their sensei before every genin in the room would be a bad idea. Their sensei was extremely famous, and would make them a target for the Iwa genin in the room.
Anko looked thoughtfully at Naruto, before taking in Sasuke and Sakura and nodding as she connected their physical descriptions with names and therefore our sensei. All three of us had very clear physical features that made us easy to identify and easily rememberable and the team with the last Uchiha and the jinchuriki wasn't one you forgot, especially when they were the first team that Copy-Cat Ninja Kakashi past.
"Meet me at training ground 44 in an hour for the beginning of the second task where I will be splitting you in half." Anko disappeared in a purple blur leaving only leaves.
Ibiki just sighed. "Well, scram!" he barked at the genin who simple stared in surprise at the sudden appearance and disappearance of the special-jonin.
Team seven were the first out of the academy. As they knew very well where training ground 44 was, they headed to a secluded area so they could stop briefly and talk. It would only take them twenty minutes to get to the entrance to the training ground, which gave them forty-minutes to regroup.
"So, we're moving on the survival portion of the exam," Sakura observed the obvious. She'd done a deep dive into as much information as she could find on the exams, which had included the typical three-part layout to assess different skills and mentalities expected to be seen in chunin.
"We're going to need to work together and be fast," Sasuke hummed, hiding her shear terror at what awaited them in the forest.
"We have several advantages that the other genin don't have: we've been in the forest before." Naruto smiled confidently. "Together, we can't be beaten."
"But, with the other Konoha genin teams at our sides, we'd be stronger." Sasuke slowly proposed. "If we could get us, team 8, 9 and 10 into the finals then it would be Konoha dominated which would look good in front of potential clients."
"Team 9… is that the one run by sensei's eternal rival? The colourful one?" Naruto questioned. They'd briefly run into Team 9 when their training paths crossed, but Kakashi hadn't let them hang around to talk and they'd only caught the loud voice of Maito Guy following behind them.
"That's the one," Sasuke confirmed. "And our brief encountered had a taijutsu specialist crushing on a certain pink-haired member of our team."
"The one in orange leg warmers?" Sakura took a guess, assuming it wasn't the Hyuuga or the girl.
"With the caterpiller eyebrows." Sasuke confirmed.
Sakura let out an explosive sigh. "Well, if it hell to get them working with us, I suppose I can put up with it. not like I know anything about him."
"That's the spirit." Naruto cheered. "Sasuke will be the one having to put up with Ino,
"And you'll have to deal with Kiba's bragging." Sasuke reminded him.
"So, once we're in the forest we track down the other teams and work together to complete the objective." Naruto determined, tactfully avoiding the reminder that Kiba wasn't actually friendly to him despite his best attempts. "Let's go."
Naruto took the lead to the forest, with Sasuke on his left and Sakura on his right.