Author's note: We don't own Naruto; we do own the original characters.
Please Read and Review. We'd really appreciate it.
This was a joint fic, written by myself and a friend whom has no account.
So without further ado:
Kakashi had told them to wait on the bridge at eight in the morning. The sun was high in the sky, but Naruto still saw no sign of him. He was sitting next to Sakura, who looked just as annoyed and bored as he did, and was occasionally muttering to herself about how Kakashi always left them waiting like this. Sasuke, however, had barely moved since they arrived. His eyes were closed, and his head was lowered.
After even more waiting, Naruto stood up.
Sakura looked up at him, "Where are you going?"
He looked back at her, "I'm going to get some lunch. He's probably not coming today."
Sakura was about to lecture him on his inconsideration and/or insolence, but then realised the simple wisdom in his words. She was about to stand up to leave, as well, when Sasuke spoke up.
"Wait, you two. He's here."
Naruto frowned and looked around at their tardy sensei. "Sorry! My elderly neighbour tripped over, and being the Good Samaritan that I am, I had to help her." The three Genin frowned at him. "And then she treated me to breakfast as thanks!"
"Liar!" Naruto and Sakura shouted in unison.
"Ah, sorry, sorry." Kakashi said, unnoticeably smiling behind his mask, "But I have good news! You're all re-enrolled in the Chuunin exam!"
Naruto looked surprised for a moment. "But I thought we already completed the Chuunin exam."
Sasuke nodded. "We defeated our opponents in the final exam, so why do we have to go into the exams once again?"
"Well, except for Sakura." Naruto pointed out, earning himself a punch in the face.
Kakashi ignored them. "Well, the last exam was kind of inconclusive," he rubbed the back of his head; "After all, we did get invaded during the third part of the exam. And because the Third Hokage died and no one knew where the records were kept, no Genin that participated have any real record of participation."
The three Genin looked slightly upset.
"You'll be pleased to know that we are hosting the exam again. The country of wind was going to host this lot, but it seems that we received the event again because of the war. As was the case last time, you only have until four o'clock this afternoon to decide."
Sakura and Naruto both stared at him in shock. "What?! This afternoon?!" Sakura yelled.
"I haven't even had lunch yet!" Naruto complained. Sakura gave him a bewildered look.
"Sorry, I was a little late telling you. Here are your forms." Kakashi gave out the slips of paper. "And good luck to you." Before he could suffer the repercussions of his tardiness, he disappeared in a gust of wind and leaves as suddenly as he had arrived.
Sasuke looked up at the sun, and then started to leave. "Come on, Sakura. We've only got two hours."
"Haaaiii, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura squealed. Sasuke's eye twitched slightly.
"You too, Tobe."
"Shut up, Sasuke!" Naruto growled, "I'll show you who's the Tobe!"
The three ninja set off for the registration office, but at the first opportunity, Naruto disappeared. Looking around, Sakura noticed his absence. "Huh? Where's Naruto?"
"Don't worry, he'll turn up eventually." Sasuke declared apathetically. "He always does."
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Three Genin from a small, unknown village stood before their Kage's desk.
"We've arrived, Omnikage-sama" uttered a strangely charismatic female with a relatively lithe figure. She had stormy coloured eyes and shoulder length brown hair. Thick, leather scabbards, each with weapons in them, were strapped to various places on her body: 2 behind her shoulders, 2 across her breast, 1 on each upper arm, 2 on her lower back, one on the outside of each thigh, and one upon the side of each ankle.
To her left, a man stood about a head and a half taller than her. He had fair, mid-back length hair that looked very undomesticated, and it looked as though he couldn't lift a tenth of his own weight. His glazed, unfocused, brown eyes shifted around lazily.
To the left of both of them stood an impatient-looking, rather bestial chap. He tapped his heel restlessly as he looked at the girl to his right out of the corner of his eye. Unlike the other two, he wore a Chuunin jacket.
The man before them wore the garb of a Kage, but his clothes were decorated with every colour of the world's other Kage. He's that Omni. "You three are the finest Genin, nay, the finest Shinobi in this entire country."
"Well that's not saying much." Grumbled the bestial fellow, Rakameroolebah, "We're the only Shinobi in this country."
The taller of the three, Bob, yawned, and sat down.
The Omnikage's eyes flicked over to Rakam whilst he spoke, "Er... yes, well," he stuttered, trying to regain his composure, "I enrolled you three into the Chuunin exam in Konoha."
"What!?" complained Bob "That's an undisclosed distance away. It could take ages to get there!"
"Shut up," Kris 'Wavy Dagger' Bjornson said as she kicked Bob in the back of the head.
"Perhaps not." The Omnikage said raising a finger. "Our top engineers..."
"We have engineers?!" interrupted Rakam incredulously.
"Alright, someone stole the wheels off my car, and I replaced them with springs. With this, you can travel through the treetops in style!"
Rakam crossed his arms, "I'm unimpressed. Just so long as it transports us through the trees, I'll be happy." Rakam glanced at the modified automobile. "Because I don't want to become the laughing stock of the ninja community by travelling upon the ground." Kris nodded in grave agreement. Bob, on the other hand, seemed not to respond. Not for the first time, Bob had fallen asleep through an important information session. The other two Genin seemed unconcerned by the odd behavior.
After fuelling the vehicle, the three hopeful ninja jumped in and set off for Konoha. Awesome.
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On a rooftop on the next street from his teammates, Naruto was grinning to himself. "I'll show that Sasuke who the Tobe is. I'll get to the registration office first, and prove I'm better than him!" he laughed somewhat maniacally.
He thought about the route Sasuke would take to the destination, and started coming up with a faster route, before quickly disregarding it and jumping across the rooftops as fast as he could.
Upon reaching the end of the block, he leapt off onto the street below, turning; he began to run down one of the smaller lanes that lead towards the academy. Turning the corner, he found himself suddenly sprawled upon the ground, with a surprised Shikamaru also on the ground. Picking himself up from the ground, Naruto looked at Shikamaru.
"I guess being a Chuunin means you don't have to participate in the Chuunin exam, eh?"
"You're excused." Shikamaru said, sarcastically. He looked boredly at Naruto; he was still sitting on the ground. "Actually, apparently I have to participate as well."
"Huh? Why's that?"
"I'm not going to explain it to you, it's far too troublesome." He sighed, dismissing Naruto with a wave of his hand.
At this point, Chouji emerged from the store behind them. He was carrying two armfuls of potato chip packets. "Alright Shikamaru, let's go." He glanced at Naruto, who he only just noticed, "Oh, hi Naruto. We've gotta go. See you later."
"Uh... wait. Why does Shikamaru have to enter the Chuunin exam again?"
Chouji stopped walking and sighed. "The Hokage announced that due to the war, the results of the last Chuunin exam were all voided."
As the two walked off to the Academy, Naruto could hear "What a troublesome guy."
Shaking off the encounter, he resumed his hurried journey to the registration office.
As he sprinted down the street, Naruto spotted the familiar, diminutive figure of Konohamaru. "Leeeeaaadeeeeerrr! Come play Ninja with us!"
"Not now, Konohamaru!" He yelled, sprinting past the boy at high speed, sending a wave of dust over him. Konohamaru pouted after him before storming off to his previous endeavours.
On the horizon, Naruto could finally see the familiar façade of the Konoha Ninja Academy. He grinned a madman's grin as he sped ever closer to it. He could hardly wait to display his obvious superiority over Sasuke, in front of, presumably, all of the Genin in Konoha and some from other villages, too.
He entered the front gate of the academy to see none other than Sasuke and Sakura at the front door, waiting for him. "Oh, you're finally here."
"Wha... You beat me here?!" Naruto screamed, obviously unhappy.
"You were racing me here?" Sasuke sneered. "How petty, Tobe."
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With a little bouncing and a slight shudder, the transport facilitation device finally came to a halt. Three figures exited."It's a pity that finding a park in Konoha is such a bitch." Bob whined.
"Well it's not as though they have car parks," Kris pointed out.
"So, why did we park all the way out here?" Bob pointed to the walls of Konoha which were a short distance off.
"Because we don't want all of the other competitors to think we're lazy by utilising transport." Rakam snorted, as though they should have known this already.
"Oh."
The only three ninja from their country then set off for the place they were to register. They had only just started walking when a Genin from the village of rain slowly approached.
"Hey, nice suspension!"
This comment earned him a swift kick to the Jatz crackers, by Kris, who looked slightly displeased at the distasteful comment.
"I was talking about your car," the Genin shrieked in a high-pitched tone, whilst he was crouched on the ground in obvious pain.
Kris shrugged and the three continued walking, leaving the rain Genin to be assisted by his comrades.
Kris, Rakam and Bob had never been to Konoha before so they were forced to ask around for directions. At first Rakam had been the one asking around, however he seemed to scare more people away than receive information. Then Kris had been the asker, because Bob declared he was too tired to ask around himself.
It was well into midday before they even knew where they were going, Rakam was feeling a little psychotic, Bob was hours overdue for a rest, and Kris was brinking upon insanity trying to control the other two.
"I hate this place." Rakam declared.
"Me too." Bob agreed, wondering whether it was indeed possible to fall asleep whilst walking.
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Tsunade, the fifth Hokage, was checking over the various dossiers of the applicants for the Chuunin exam. She flicked over to Naruto's page, and sighed. Naruto's erratic performances and inconsistent behaviour meant that many wouldn't want him to be recognised as a Chuunin, despite how successful he may be. Then there was always the Kyuubi influence.
She turned the page, and was highlighted to a new village. The hidden village of Awesome. It had sent three Genin to participate in the current round of Chuunin exams. It wasn't unheard of for villages to occasionally send any potential champions to participate and create a name for their village. She looked at the first profile. Kris 'Wavy Dagger' Bjornson. It had other information about height, blood type, her ninja registration number and age and date of birth. However it contained no details about missions completed, or a skills tree.
She turned to the second member; Bob Le'te'dwend. He was senior to the other two members of the group by two years. As with Kris, there was almost no information, save the essential pieces. Turning the page, she looked at the third member. A gasp caught in her throat, Apart from a picture and the name, Rakameroolebah, there was no information. The picture, however, was unusual. It seemed that Rakam was not human.
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Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and most of the other 13 year old Genin were sitting quietly in the corner of the room. They were observing the entrance of the other competitors. They observed a group of Rain ninja enter, one of which was keeling over slightly, his teammates giving him worried looks.
"We passed the last exam; this one should be even easier!" Naruto half-shouted to Sasuke next to him, not caring that half the room could hear his voice.
"Shut up, Tobe." Sasuke said, not pleased that attention had been brought onto them.
The door opened and three more Genin entered the room. They looked different from any others that Naruto had ever seen, and he found himself drawn to the forehead protectors. Turquoise material was attached to the metal plate, which had an insignia of a thumbs up upon it.
"How cheesy," Naruto pointed out. Sasuke nodded.
A voice came from the other side of the room. "Everyone participating in the Chuunin exam may enter the venue for the first exam." Naruto looked in the voice's direction to see a Chuunin examiner. "It will be starting in about five minutes."
Sasuke scanned the room, looking for potential Instant-Rivals™. Once again, he spotted Hyuuga Neji, whom he was already somewhat familiar with. However, since he lost to Naruto in the previous Chuunin exam, he wasn't particularly interested in him, anymore. He spotted Lee again, whom he was also familiar with, but he needed at least a few rivals, because he's so awesome. There was Naruto, too, he supposed.
He scanned the room a bit more, and spotted a bestial looking bloke with a turquoise forehead protector. The way his forehead protector tied his ears behind his head made him look pretty powerful. Another thing that caught his attention was the fact that the bestial fellow was a kangaroo.
Rakam was scanning the room for potential victims, when he caught the gaze of a dark-haired guy in a navy blue shirt. He looked like a worthy opponent. His gaze was snatched by a hyperactive orange jumpsuit. Spiny, blonde hair crested the head that protruded from the jumpsuit in question. This guy looked like he needed a good beating.
From across the room, Naruto noticed a ninja that looked a little different from your typical ninja. In fact, he was a kangaroo, and he was approaching his group, to challenge Sasuke, no doubt.
Naruto was somewhat surprised when the kangaroo approached him.
The kangaroo stopped in front of him, and after a brief pause reached out and grabbed him by the collar.
"Your head will be mine, fateless coward!" He snarled.
Naruto was stunned for words briefly, but his expression quickly twisted to one of eager defiance. "I won't lose to you, I won't lose to anybody. I am going to become the Hokage one day and have everybody acknowledge me!"
Rakam snorted and punched Naruto, leaving the boy upon the ground as he returned to his teammates. Over his shoulder, Rakam said quietly. "Rakameroolebah is my name, remember it well."
Sasuke was somewhat annoyed. Naruto turned to him, a far-too-large grin spanning his face, "Hear that, Sasuke? Looks like I'm the hot favourite this time!" Sasuke glanced at him briefly, and was even more annoyed.
The conglomerated ninja began to filter through to the room of the academy where the first part of the exam was to be held. A lanky, blonde-haired examiner stood at the front of the building; behind him were two large objects covered with white sheets. After everyone had entered the room and were seated, he motioned for the doors to be closed. Leaning forward into the room, he smiled.
"I'd like to welcome all of you, over a hundred competitors from six different nations, to the first part of the Chuunin exam. Of course, I expect there to be fewer than half left by the end of today." He chuckled, and it slowly evolved into maniacal laughter.
"The first exam will be..." the examiner paused, savouring the suspense he had just added to the atmosphere before continuing, "Dance Dance Revolution!"
TO BE CONTINUED NEXT CHAPTER!!!!