The chuunin exam. The third stage of the chuunin screening process was finally about to commence. The stadium was filled to the maximum capacity and all of the genin awaited their respective fights eagerly.

Junichi stood at the designated genin waiting spot. It was basically a dugout ring going around the bottom of the stadium. He had all his gear and he was ready for anything. He paced slowly, waiting for the sickly looking man to call out the names of the first two competitors.

"I think we need to discuss an important matter Junichi san." Gaara said, suddenly appearing to the side of him.

"And what might this important matter be Gaara?" Junichi asked calmly, not fazed by Gaara's sudden appearance.

"I think you should know that the kazekage sama wants us to attack the leaf during this exam." Gaara said as if he weren't giving out information that could get him killed.

"Really now?" Junichi said with a grin "You have your orders now don't you. The only question is, are you going to carry them out."

"Upon much deliberation, Temari and I voted for Kankuro and we will be defecting from the sand to join the leaf." Gaara said, once again with a completely normal face.

"Well I'm glad you came to such a conclusion." Junichi said with a grin "The question is, what do we do about it."

"We can do nothing while the kazekage sama is here." Gaara said, "Should you tell the hokage, our lives would be in danger."

"Then I guess all we can do is prepare." Junichi said calmly, the grin fading from his face "I can sense this is going to be one hell of a fight."

Like that, the match between Sakura and Ino was over. Junichi had completely missed it, and didn't even know who won, nor did he care. He watched attentively as he waited for the next names. Nagama Saotome and Nara Shikimaru were up next.

Both guys walked into the arena, Saotome getting a good luck kiss from Temari first. They stood and faced each other. They were so much alike it was scary. The way that they both slumped when carrying themselves was uncanny.

"Well, I've been watching you for a while and I don't know your song so…" Saotome said as he handed his guitar to the nearby jounin "You take good care of that. Now. Hope you've got some tricks up your sleeve."

"This is so troublesome…" Shikimaru muttered as he stood readily. They both stared each other down for a second.

Saotome moved first, throwing one kunai at Shikimaru and then throwing a handful of shuriken at him randomly. Shikimaru dodged narrowly, trying not to move too much. Shikimaru then leapt back and got into his thinking position. Saotome looked around for a second before rushing in for a taijutsu fight. Shikimaru leapt into action, activating his shadow controlling technique, which Saotome was only barely able to get around do to the surprise.

For now, both boys stared each other down, each trying to formulate their own plan. Saotome was actually thinking about Temari, but it was all the same to him. He only barely noticed the wire that appeared at his feet. For a while he stared at it and then looked down the line and saw a shadow traveling along it. With all the speed he had, he cut the line and stopped the attack. Now he decided would be a good time to attack.

Saotome rushed in with one fist ready in a punch aimed straight at Shikimaru's head. The lazy ninja barely dodged and utilized Saotome's opening. Saotome soon found himself unable to move his body and looked down to see his shadow connected with his opponents.

They both stood there. Shikimaru had only done this to buy himself time. He really didn't know what to do after this one. Saotome sat there, whistling, knowing all along that his opponent was using up valuable chakra. He knew he could keep this up for a while, but his opponent could only last so long, and once he wore out, Shikimaru would feel the burning fist with full force.

In the mean time Saotome was kind of bored. That was, until all of the sudden, Shikimaru ran past him and headed for the other side of the stadium. Saotome, still being under the influence of the shadow, had no choice but to follow in the opposite direction. He started panicking when he noticed the wall was getting closer and closer but he kept running. With a loud thud, he slammed into the wall and fell over. Shikimaru was on the other side panting slightly.

When Shikimaru had jumped back and used his shadow technique, he had made the distance unequal. The fist fighting was just to soften him up and make sure he went down. It was almost a sure victory, but then Saotome got up.

Saotome stood, his nose bleeding "You're clever Shikimaru…little bastard." He said as he held his nose with two fingers "But I have much more stamina, and am a taijutsu specialist. I'll give you one chance to quit before I try out a new jutsu on you."

Shikimaru thought about it. He wasn't good at taijutsu or ninjutsu especially. His chakra was low, not out, but lower than he would like. And his opponent could withstand running into a wall at that speed. The outcome of this match did not favor Shikimaru at all.

"Allright." Shikimaru said, putting his hand in the air "I hereby forfeit. Judging from your stamina, I'd say you're still kicking, while that took a lot out of me."

"You made the right choice my friend." Saotome said with a warm smile as he came up and shook Shikimaru's hand and patted him on the back "We'll have to have a real fight some time, just you and me."

"I'd rather just play you in a game of shouji." Shikimaru said, "Fighting is way too troublesome."

They both walked off of the arena floor. As soon as Saotome got back to his little spot, Temari was already on him with some tissue, and she tried to clean the blood from his nose. Slightly gross. Shikimaru however, was hounded by his team for giving up too easily.

All right. Next two names. Hyuuga Neji and Junichi. Sweet. Junichi grinned as he calmly walked to the arena. His opponent was a taijutsu specialist, while he was a ninjutsu specialist with some kenjutsu thrown in to make a nice party mix. If he was going to survive this, he would have to pull out his best ninjutsu for this one…and he had that very ninjutsu picked out.

Neji stared at him with his deep white eyes for a while. Junichi looked to be an ordinary person but something about him made the hint that he was so much more. Upon turning on his byukagan, he saw not only Junichi's tenketsu, but also a woman in a red dress standing behind him.

"Sorry my dear, but I don't think you should be doing that." She said to him with her heavy accent and smiled, showing her fangs. Neji deactivated his byukagan swiftly due to the shock at seeing a person with pointy teeth.

"If my guess is correct, you must have spoken with Eva." Junichi said with a catlike grin "Don't worry, her power is almost useless in this infernal sunlight. All I get is a little bit of speed and strength."

Neji rushed him quickly planning on hitting his tenketsu around his heart and thus, killing him. Suddenly, he was thrown back by some sort of force. Neji flew a good ten feet from that blow.

"How do you like my chakra blast? It was inspired by your jyuken you know." Junichi said with a sly grin "Don't worry, I didn't rip the technique off. My attack doesn't affect your tenketsu, but it does feel like getting hit by a load of bricks. Of course unless I were to pump most of my chakra into it, there's almost no chance that you'll sustain any serious damage from it."

Without saying anything, Neji rushed him again. This time when Junichi used his chakra blast, Neji did just as he hoped and dodged the attack. Neji ran up quickly to hit him with his jyuken. Junichi used his mammoth blade and just held it in front of him, repositioning it every now and then.

Kakashi and Kanoe stood in a shadier part of the stadium next to a few columns talking idly about this or that, neither actually paying attention to the fights below. It was at this point when Zabuza stepped out of the shadows next to them, his arms crossed over his chest as he watched Junichi intensely.

"What do you think you are doing here?" Kakashi said idly. Ever since he had seen that sword he knew Zabuza was alive, he just didn't know how. "You are a missing nin and I will have to report seeing you here as is my duty."

"Go ahead." Zabuza said calmly. "I'm here to see the boy fight. He has my sword after all…he fights like a demon."

"Zabuza, how were you brought back to life? How did you survive the encounter in the wave country?" Kanoe asked, once again calmly. Stupid jounin…

"I was sent to hell." Zabuza replied "And then I was pulled out of it by Satan himself. I was useful enough to warrant that gift, though Haku was not…"

"You know, considering that we all have a little history together, I could hold off on reporting you if you're only here to watch the kid." Kakashi said boredly. And so Zabuza watched the rest of the exam.

Junichi was slightly angry. His sword had been thrown out of his hands and was too far away to get now. He liked that sword. He had earned it. It was important to him. He decided to let out his most recent ninjutsu.

"FOUNTAIN OF FLAMES" Junichi shouted as he completed the last seal. He looked at the sky and suddenly a pillar of flames shot out from his mouth going up into the sky and coming down in sporadic places all over the arena.

It took Neji all of his ability to dodge the fire around him, but he knew that Junichi couldn't keep it up for long and would soon tire out. But he couldn't take the risk of him not and decided to go in to attack. He ran in and with his palm trained right for his heart. He was almost in reach when he noticed Junichi's slightly outstretched palm and a chakra burst shot from it, sending Neji flying through the air again, and straight through fire.

Junichi let up the ninjutsu, clearly exhausted. It took a lot of chakra and concentration to pull it off and it took even more concentration to pull off a chakra burst at the same time. It was a very difficult thing to do. He walked over to Neji who was on the ground panting. Without hesitating, he just punched the crap out of him over and over again, splattering blood on the ground.

"How…could you beat me?" he panted incredulously "I'm…a genius…from the Hyuuga….clan…"
"Because there's more to it than just birth." Junichi said with a smirk "All of my power is wrought of with my own two hands, like sculpting art with pure steel and no tools. All my life, I have worked and now, I am what I am. If you can't see that, then you're just as bad as all of the Hyuugas. As bad as the Uchihas used to be as well. All birthright and no talent."

Then Neji passed out. Junichi was clearly the victor here. You wouldn't think Neji would have went down so quickly but with burns all over you and being slammed around like that, you might just not be feelin' to hot…err, well…you might not be feelin' to well either. Junichi calmly went back to his spot.

Next two names. Uzumaki Naruto and Inuzuka Kiba. This could be good. Junichi stopped paying attention. He didn't care about other fights if they didn't include him or his teammates, or possibly the sand trio. He idly went about his musings.

The next match was Gaara and Sasuke. Once again, Junichi didn't really care what happened. Gaara would almost definitely win this one. There was almost no chance Sasuke could win. It was kind of sad really. Junichi was bout to take a nap when suddenly a loud explosion went off.

Everybody started running before the genin knew what was happening. The first thing that Junichi saw was the Hokage and Orochimaru get to some building rooftop and start fighting. He was about to run after them when Kakashi appeared in front of him.

"Where do you think you're going?" Kakashi asked as if he didn't know "If you're thinking about fighting Orochimaru or the sound nin, you're severely mistaken. You need to help your friends get out of this mess."

"But I can help! You need us!" Junichi yelled at him, angered by the current situation "Saotome, Naruto, Gaara, and myself all have demons. We could at least create a diversion with all of our combined powers."

"The answer is no. Take your friends and head off into the woods where it's safe. Kanoe and I will take care of everything." Kakashi said and began to walk off.

"Wait!" Junichi said suddenly, causing Kakashi to turn around and look at him boredly "Are you and Kanoe really going out?"

Kakashi would have answered, but another explosion rocked the city and he bounded off. Junichi went and rounded up everybody who could still walk.

"Allright, we have orders to go into the woods and hide." Junichi said with a bit of dismay.

"Man, that sucks!" Saotome exclaimed, "Giant snakes are overrunning the village and we have to hide in the freakin woods! That pisses me off!"

"We don't have a choice you idiot!" Temari yelled at him "You said it yourself. "Giant Snakes". Do you really think any of us could stand up against that?"

"Hey lady, I've got demons on my side, and so do Gaara, Junichi, and Naruto." Saotome replied, but backed down when Temari threatened to beat him.

"We should hide. We have little chance of getting out of this alive if we fight." Shikimaru said calmly.

"As much as I hate to admit it, I agree." Junichi said, "We don't stand a chance against Orochimaru and his minions."

The genin all agreed and begrudgingly went into the woods as fast as they could. They all ran for what seemed like hours. They ran until their muscles felt like jelly and their lungs felt like lead.

Kakashi and Kanoe were surrounded on all sides. They stood back to back facing all these foes at once. Kakashi was tired from using his sharingan and Kanoe had her own blood all over her fingers.

"I guess this is it." Kanoe said with a grin "I guess if we're gonna go, we should go out with a bang."

Suddenly a huge sword cut through the air in an arc around them, taking out three sound nin. The rest looked around worriedly, but weren't able to do anything as the mist rolled in and various fatal cuts were inflicted on their poor confused bodies.

"So, have you decided to stick around or are we next in line?" Kakashi asked calmly as the mist disappeared, revealing Zabuza standing amidst the bodies with his sword back in his hands.

"Well, now that I have my sword back, I think I'll help you little vermin out." Zabuza said evilly "It's only fair, seeing how neither of you could defeat me and let me live."

"Smug bastard." Kanoe remarked as they all leapt off to the next set of attackers. It was going to be a very long and tiring day.