Uchiha Sasuke; 2 Years Later

Age 14

-My Success-

Today was the day of the Chuunin Exam Tournament.

This year, I fought my way through the preliminaries and am successfully admitted into the true portion of the Chuunin exam that mattered. I was clearly the most skilled ninja in the tournament and therefore it would be easy sailing on my way to becoming a chuunin.

I made my way nice and early to the exam. Being late didn't work last time, so I decided to show my punctuality to the new Hokage. Though she wasn't really all that new anymore, since she had been our Hokage for two years.

"Hey Sasuke!!" I heard a voice behind me.

It was Ino's voice, I knew right away. She was also in the tournament, but only because her opponent in the preliminaries was a pathetic contender and hardly put up a fight. I turned around to face her, but I was surprised to see she looked almost like a boy that it at first fooled me. Her hair was cut shorter than mine was and she was no longer wearing purple or a skirt.

"Hi Ino." I said, not really knowing how to react. I guess she had cut it in the month I hadn't seen her.

She came up next to me and we started walking. I was a little confused at first at how that had transpired… she hadn't even ASKED to walk with me and suddenly I was walking with her.

"Sasuke, maybe we'll fight each other in the tournament!" Ino said, sounding excited.

"Maybe." I said, though I knew it would never happen.

"All I have to do is win my fight against Hinata and I KNOW you'll win your first fight!" Ino continued. "It'll be so fun if we get to fight each other!"

"Yeah." I said. "Right."

And she didn't say anything more. Well, at least she hadn't annoyed me to an unbearable extent.

We reached the stadium where most people were already waiting. Among myself and Ino, there was Naruto, Kiba, Hinata, Lee, a female ninja from the Sand Village named Yatara as well as a ninja from the Mist Village named Demakase. I was to fight Demakase in the first round. I didn't really know what to expect from him, but I knew I'd beat him.

My fight was also scheduled to be in the first bracket. I was glad I wouldn't have to wait around for any period of time and get my first fight over with.

Demakase was ugly and had buckteeth. He was also probably in his late twenties and the fact that he was here made me think that it was all a charity because he was such a bad ninja that the higher powers decided to just let him in the exam to make him feel better about himself.

But I wasn't going to underestimate my opponent.

So when the examiner told us to start the fight, I immediately took on the offensive. And, as Demakase stood there like a moron, I managed to land many punches and kicks on him.

I figured there had to be a catch and he was trying to lead me into believing that I had one and let down my guard. But no. After only a few minutes, Demakase was a mess on the ground, which confirmed my earlier suspicious that he did not belong in the tournament.

"Winner; Uchiha Sasuke." Said the examiner. Like it was even a question.

I went back to the overhang where all the other chuunins-to-be were waiting.

"Oh wow, Uchiha Sasuke, your name has gotten all the way to my village and I have to say you certainly live up to it and I'm really surprised that you're not already a chuunin and I have to say that you are really really cool and strong too!!" screamed that girl from the Sand Village. But I ignored her. Because I hate her.

"Ino, you're up next, right?" I said.

"Yeah, I am!" Ino answered. I have no idea why I even said that, but Ino ran by me towards the fighting arena. Hinata also nervously shuffled by. I knew I didn't even have to watch this match to know that it would be nothing impressive. I'd be fighting one of those two girls in the next round and I most certainly was not worried at all.

"Hey Sasuke," said Naruto, stomping over. "You think you're SO cool just because you beat that Mist guy up! Well you're NOT!"

"Right, Naruto." I said, rolling my eyes.

"Sasuke!!" Lee yelled, running over as well. "Promise you'll save the finals for your fight with ME!!"

"I'M fighting Sasuke in the finals!!" said Naruto.

"I thought we all mutually decided that I was going to fight Sasuke in the finals." Kiba said randomly.

Once the Sand girl put her two cents in, I decided to just ignore the rest of the conversation. It didn't concern me because they could not predetermine anything. If they wanted to fight over who got to be beat up by me in front of three villages, then let them.

Suddenly, I could hear cheering from the crowd. Someone had won the fight. I stood up because I must admit I was vaguely interested about who would be fighting me in the next round to see Ino coming back towards where we were standing. I wasn't surprised. Even though Ino is nothing special, Hinata is even less special.

"Nice job!" said the Sand girl.

"Thanks!" said Ino.

"I hope I can fight you later on!" the Sand girl continued.

"Hey!" said Kiba. "You're fighting ME next and I'm going to beat you!"

Kiba and the Sand girl had to go out to the arena, but I didn't care enough to watch that round either.

"Sasuke, I am really excited to fight against you." Ino said, sitting down. "I think it'll be enthralling!"

I rolled my eyes. Girls were so annoying, even if they DID look like boys.

Naruto and Lee were over at the entrance doing narrations of what was going on in the fight between Kiba and the annoying Sand girl. They were talking about how bad they were going to beat each other too.

I did expect Kiba to win…but he didn't. I hadn't ever really paid attention the sand girl fighting so I didn't know what to expect from her if she ended up winning against Lee or Naruto. Probably Lee. But I doubt she'd win. I mean, unless she was REALLY good. Which I doubt.

But the Sand girl didn't come back to the overhang. Even though she had won in her fight, she was unable to continue fighting and had to be taken to the medical area.

"ALL RIGHT!!" cheered Naruto and Lee at the same time. "NOW I AUTOMATICALLY GET TO FIGHT SASUKE!!!"

They both glared at each other as they went out to fight.

It was now only Ino and I in the hangover area. And then I came to realize that I hadn't done anything about the fact that she was still sitting next to me so I cleared my throat and stood up.

"Sasuke, are you thinking about a strategy to defeat me?" Ino asked.

I looked at her. "No." I answered truthfully. I didn't NEED to spend time thinking of a strategy to defeat her.

She smiled. "Well you should." She said. "Because, otherwise, you won't be able to beat me."

Something was really different about her. "Something's different about you." I said, though I didn't entirely mean to.

"It's the hair." She said immediately. "I know you like long hair better, but it was always getting in the way whenever I trained so I had to cut it."

I'd still like to know who started that rumor about me preferring long hair.

"Whatever." I said, looking at the fight for the first time. I had looked over just in time to see Lee dramatically tossing his leg weights to the side. I did a quick glance at the stands of people, thinking maybe I'd see something I knew. I saw Shikamaru sitting near the Hokage in all his jounin glory. I lost faith in the promotion system when I found that Shikamaru was a jounin and I was still a genin.

But not for long.

Lee's certainly been training hard since last time I saw him fight. Certainly harder than Naruto who takes a lot of time off and wastes all his energy trying to be my rival and obsessing over Sakura.

I wasn't all that taken aback when Lee rose triumphant from the battle.

"We will now begin Round Two." Called the examiner. "Yamanaka Ino and Uchiha Sasuke."

She and I went into the arena. The stands were completely silent.

"Sasuke, would you hate me if I beat you?" Ino asked as she got in her fighter's stance.

"That's not an issue, so I'm not going to bother thinking about it." I said, getting into mine.

"Ready?" said the examiner. "Go."

I didn't want to end this one as quickly as I had ended the other one because I wanted a chance to show the examiners and Hokage what I could do. Even though I knew there was always a chance for that in the finals when I fought against Lee, it's better to be safe than sorry because if I didn't become a chuunin this time then I'd…oh I don't know. I'd so SOMETHING.

I used my Sharingan, something I had neglected to use in the first fight, but it's not like I needed it. The entire crowd gasped at the sight of it, knowing that I was the only one among them who could do it.

I threw a punch, but intentionally missed. Ino raised her arm, hit my fist to the side and threw me off balance. Then, she spun around to kick me while I was stumbling, but I recovered quickly and easily and was able to dodge her attack. But she had conducted it with great speed, which told me that this was no time to be taking it easy.

And if that didn't clue me in then Ino scolding me for taking it easy did. If she was sharp enough to notice that I was going easy on her after only one punch then maybe she deserved a little more effort.

I decided to use the Katon Housenka in order to distract her and while she dodged, I was going to land my attack on her.

I started the hand seals and just when I was about to finish them, Ino was suddenly behind me and attacking again. I ducked just in time and went to hit her, but she once again disappeared.

She was making me look like a fool.

"Shinranshin no Jutsu!!" I heard her yell.

I spun around to see her standing only a few yards away from me with her hands contorted into a seal. I didn't immediately know what the attack she was going to use was, but I knew it's not something I wanted to be caught by so I leapt to the side. As I rolled to the ground, I whipped out three shuriken and threw them at her.

She caught each of them easily but while she did that, I attacked.

In midair, she threw them back at me, something I had not expected. So I caught them as well and returned them.

Our battle went on.

As I tried harder, she did too and I found myself suddenly out of breath. How could she have improved this much in such a short amount of time? I had underestimated her initially and taken her too lightly and now I was paying the price for it.

Finally, when she was off guard, I used her own attack against her.

"Shinranshin no Jutsu!" I yelled as it connected with her. She immediately froze and looked like she was unable to move anymore. I didn't know what I was supposed to do with her jutsu at that point.

We must have stood there motionless for a long time because the examiner began to clear his throat.

"Winner; Uchiha Sasuke." He said.

"It's over?" I said, looking at him, which made me drop the jutsu. Ino fell to the ground and then looked up.

"Oh…" she said sadly. "I was hoping to win…"

I was still a little confused. How could the round be over? Ino could still fight and I had to admit, I still wanted to fight her. She was a good opponent.

"The final round will begin in ten minutes." The examiner said.

"All right!!" I could hear Lee cheering from the overhang area.

I leaned over, looking past Lee at Ino who was rejecting the help of the medical ninjas. She looked very disappointed with herself.

"No, I don't need to go to the medical place!" she insisted, standing up on her own. She looked at me. "Nice job, Sasuke! I don't know why I ever thought I could beat you."

"You're a good fighter, Ino." I admitted. "You have an even blend of ninjutsu and taijutsu."

"I guess I have to work on genjutsu then…" Ino said as she pushed some loose bangs out of her eyes.

Something came flying out of my mouth that I couldn't control. "Your hair looks better short." I said.

"Really?" she said, her face turning red. "I thought you liked long hair."

I didn't know what to say, so I only shook my head.

She nodded and then looked at the medical ninjas. "Actually, I think I do have to go." she said.

As Ino left with the medical ninjas, I suddenly felt very, very stupid. I looked up in the stands at all the villagers watching me intently, as if waiting for me to do something exciting. So I did the opposite of what they were hoping for and just strolled over to where Lee was waiting.

"I can hardly wait for another eight and a half minutes!" Lee said, throwing punches left and right.

He was just going to wear himself out.

Lee and I were the predicted favorites of the tournament. I knew more people expected me to win than Lee, and I also knew I would not be walking away from this tournament with only second place. I had worked very hard to get where I am right now, and not just in the tournament.

"Hey Sasuke," Lee said randomly.

"What?" I asked.

"What did you think of that Yatara from the Sand Village?" he said.

"I don't think of her." I said.

Lee laughed. "She was pretty." He said. "But not like Sakura!"

I have no idea what Lee saw in Sakura. Sakura wore so much make-up and designer clothes these days that she hardly even looked like herself anymore and it certainly hindered her fighting abilities.

"Whatever you say, Lee." I said.

"So I can have her?!" Lee gasped.

"Sure, I don't care." I said. "I don't want her."

"You like Ino better anyway, don't you?"

I didn't have anything to respond to that.

"What makes you think something like that?" I answered finally.

"It's just a guess." Lee said, but he was obviously lying. He had said that for SOME reason.

"Did you hear that from someone?" I demanded from him. "Did Ino tell you that? Because it's not true."

"She didn't say anything." Lee said. "It just kinda LOOKED like you kind of liked her."

He shrugged and started punching the wall.

I was becoming slightly angry on the inside. If Lee was under the impression that I liked Ino… which I DON'T… then I could only imagine what Ino was thinking.

Ino was annoying like all girls. She was just a better fighter than most, but she was still annoying.

Lee would have to receive an extra beating for irritating me and making me have to think about such trivial things.

"The Final Round will now commence!" the examiner called. The crowd erupted with cheers. It didn't feel like ten minutes had gone by, but maybe the examiner was sick of waiting. "Rock Lee and Uchiha Sasuke!"

I could already see my future as a chuunin as I walked out there with Lee. My promotion was pretty much ensured if I was able to defeat Lee. But of course I'd be able to defeat Lee. One of the reasons why I'm so much stronger than the rest of the genins is because I have the ability to focus on my training and not concern myself with impressing the opposite sex.

Of course, I always seemed to end up doing that ANYWAY, but that's beside the point.

"Ready?" said the examiner as the crowd fell silent and my eyes met with Lee's.

The examiner waited and then uttered, "Go."