Sorry it took so long to get the next chapter finished. Ah the wonders of school life. From now on i'll probably be putting out a chapter a week, maybe two. School has come up to choke off more of my time. I don't own Naruto as you all know...i wish i could stop saying that.

The double doors of room 301 swung wide to admit Team Seven. The room before them was packed full of ninja from what seemed to be every nation in the area.

Naruto couldn't help but voice his opinion. "Wow."

Sakura was amazed at the numbers of ninja assembled in the room, most of which were looking at the new arrivals. "There's so many. Are they all here for the exam?" Sakura swallowed hard. "They all seem so strong."

"Sasuke-kun! You're late!" Someone jumped on him from behind. Naruto and Sakura turned to see a long haired blond girl hanging on to Sasuke's neck like a leach. Naruto sweat dropped. *Who the hell is this girl? Does every girl in Konoha like Sasuke?*

Sakura was furious. She knew who the girl was.

The blond girl continued. "I've been waiting eagerly for you ever since I heard I would be getting to see you after such a long time." Sasuke looked like he wanted to be sick but only glared over his shoulder at the girl.

"Get off of Sasuke Ino-pig!" Sakura was pointing a finger at the girl attached to her teammates back. Naruto looked between the two of them. *Huh. Rivals? Oh dear lord. Another reason to hate girls.*

The girl, Ino was apparently her name, dropped off of Sasuke's back but didn't leave contact with him. "Oh its Sakura. Your forehead is as big and ugly as usual I see."

Sakura clenched her fists and practically burned with envy and hate. "What did you say?!"

Ino stuck her tongue out and made a face. Then she noticed the other member of team seven. "Oh. Sasuke-kun, who's this?" She asked as she looked at Naruto. Sasuke brushed her hand off his shoulders and tilted his head towards his teammate. "That's Naruto."

Naruto was sure he didn't like the girl but when Sasuke said his name Ino responded in a way the made Naruto think a bit differently. Ino smiled and bowed slightly to him. "Hi. I'm Yamanka Ino."

Naruto forced a smile on to his face and nodded back. "Uzumaki Naruto."

*Ok, so she's a nice girl when Sasuke or Sakura aren't involved* Naruto thought. *But she's still a girl.*

Soon five other genin joined them. Sakura introduced them all to Naruto who smiled, nodded, or glared at them in turn. He had met Kiba's team before but had only talked to Kiba himself. The Hyuuga girl was still shy and quiet like she had been on the road and the tall dark boy with glasses, introduced as Shino, seemed an awful lot like Sasuke when he wasn't in a good mood. Ino's team seemed even worse off. The black haired boy known as Shikamaru looked like he'd rather be sleeping then anywhere near the exam. *He doesn't look like a very reliable guy* Naruto thought. The last of the new genin was a large boy named Chouji who looked like his favorite past time was eating. *Heh, pitiful. How did they guys get into this exam?* Naruto wondered.

"So, how far do you think you can get Sasuke-kun?" Kiba asked.

Sasuke gave him a tight smile. "You seem pretty confident Kiba."

Kiba looked proud of himself. "We trained like hell, we won't loose to you guys, especially with that idiot on your team." He pointed to Naruto who just smiled back.

"I still owe you for the other day dog brain. I'm sure I can find a wok quickly if you want to fight."

Kiba and his dog growled but didn't answer. Hinata answered from behind the wild looking genin. "I'm sorry, Naruto-kun, Kiba-kun didn't mean to say that."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. *Is she defending me or her teammate? Geez what a weird girl.* Hinata blushed and looked away.

Another voice called out to the group. They all turned at see an older boy with silver hair approaching them. "Hey you guys. You should quiet down a little." The boy stopped and looked them over. "So you're the rookies that just graduated huh? You need to stop fooling around and making a scene. This isn't a field trip you know."

Ino looked mad. "Who the hell are you to tell us what to do?"

The silver haired boy smiled. "My name is Yakushi Kabuto. Take a look around."

Naruto had already noticed the stares they were getting from the other ninja in the room. Kabuto didn't have to tell him that they were being watched. "The ones behind you are from the Hidden Rain. They have short tempers. Everyone here is tense. Its better not to cause a scene."

Kabuto smiled. "But I guess it can't be helped. You're all rookies so you don't know any better."

Sakura gave him a knowing glare. "Kabuto-san? Is this your second time then?"

Kabuto shook his head. "No, its my seventh, my fourth year in other words."

Everyone looked rather shocked at his statement. "Then you must know all about it" Sakura said.

"But he hasn't passed it yet"Shikamaru said in disgust. "This exam looks like its going to be a lot harder then I thought. How troublesome."

Kabuto looked a little embarrassed but quickly recovered. He rummaged around in his pack. "I should probably tell you a bit about the exam." He pulled out a stack of small cards which he proceeded to explain were info cards. Naruto saw that there was a long speech coming and tuned it out, choosing to investigate the room instead.

Naruto counted about a hundred and fifty genin in the room. *Damn that's a lot of people.* he thought. Several teams attracted his attention. The first was a group near the middle who appeared to be from the Hidden Sand. Each of the three team members seemed to have something attached to their backs. The smallest boy had a large gourd, the second boy had a strangely wrapped...something, and the sole girl had what appeared to be a large war fan. The second group was the three person Hidden Sound contingent, all of which seemed to be keenly interested in the conversation happening next to Naruto. He noted their position in the room then moved on. The third and final group appeared to be Kabuto's teammates. They wore the same uniforms as Kabuto and looked about the same age but their demeanor seemed different. Maybe they were just excited.

Naruto heard his name mentioned and turned back to the conversation. Kabuto was looking at him. "Naruto-kun is it?" he asked.

The blond nodded. Kabuto seemed a little confused. "I've never seen you before. I thought I had information on all of the teams participating but I don't have a card of you."

Sakura saved him from an explanation. "He's new to the village. He was born here but left when he was young. He just returned to Konoha last week. That's probably why you don't have a card on him Kabuto-san."

The older ninja scratched his head. "I guess that makes sense. I'll have to make one for you later."

Naruto, Sasuke, and Kabuto quickly noticed something was amiss. The tension in the room had increased suddenly. Then Naruto saw it. The sound nin were gone. *Where'd they go? No, this isn't good.* Naruto thought as he eyed the room carefully. A flash in the crowd alerted Naruto to their movement. Kabuto saw it too. Sasuke and Naruto exchanged glances.

A body launched itself off of one of the desks. The spiky haired sound ninja produced two kunai and threw them at Kabuto. A third kunai, this one launched from Sasuke's hand, speared the two sound blades and brought them up short. They wouldn't have hit anyway, Kabuto had already slid backwards to avoid the attack. Doing that put him in the perfect position for another attack by the sound's teammate.

Another sound appeared right in front of Kabuto's face and swung an arm in a haymaker type punch. Kabuto just dodged it. A second later the older boy's glasses shattered.

Sakura blinked. *But he dodged it. It never even touched him.*

Kabuto removed his glasses and smiled. The smile didn't last long however. He pitched forward and threw up. The other genin watched in horror as the silver haired boy retched.

The bandaged genin who had delivered the attack smiled beneath his wrappings. Then he noticed his other two teammates weren't standing next to him. He turned to see Sasuke holding a knife to the other sound boy's throat. His female teammate was pinned against a desk by four identical blond ninja. Then he felt a kunai prick his belly. Sakura was braced to take him down. She glared murder at him. "What did you do to Kabuto-san?" she asked in a low grating tone.

The sound ninja would have answered if he had had time but before he could a huge explosion of smoke erupted in the front of the room and a deep voice spoke up. "Settle down you punks!"

Every head turned to see the new arrivals. Team Seven backed off as the smoke cleared. They didn't want to get in trouble for fighting.

The smoke cleared to reveal a number of examiners and one large man in a long black coat. He had a tough looking face that was lined with scars. "Sorry to keep you waiting. I am the examiner for the first test of the Chuunin Exams, Morino Ibiki." The huge man pointed a finger towards the back. "You three, from the Hidden Sound! Don't think you can get away with fighting before the exam. You three as well." He pointed at Team Seven. "Do you want to be failed right now?"

The bandaged sound ninja turned and apologized. Sakura apologized for her team as well.

The scarred man smiled when they were done. "I suppose this is a good a time as any to say this. You are not allowed to fight another unless you are given permission from an examiner. You are not allowed to kill another, even if an examiner does give you permission to fight. You will be failed immediately if you do, understand?"

He got silence in return. "Very well. We will now begin the first exam of the Chuunin Selection Exam."

An hour later Team Seven walked out of the Academy building totally drained emotionally. They had passed the test, but only just barely. It had become quite obvious early on that there was no way someone could pass the test without cheating. Sasuke had hit the mark with his Sharingan early. Sakura was naturally smart enough to get through most of the questions without cheating. Naruto on the other hand, was not that smart.

He had figured out the trick behind the exam like everyone else. The only problem was that he knew almost no techniques for spying. Jiriaya had been a great resource for learning stealth and spy techniques but Naruto had ignored them for one good reason. He didn't want to become a pervert like his sensei. To that end he avoided all techniques and practices that might be used for perverted actions. Sure he could move silently and stay hidden, those were basic ninja traits, and he had developed his "special" technique to deal with perverts, but beyond that he knew nothing. This left him in a hole as far as the exam was concerned. He had sweated it out in the hopes of being able to answer the last question. He had even refused help from the Hyuuga girl when she saw that he had nothing on his paper. He had to save his pride after all. If he was going to cheat it was going to be off of a guy's paper, not a girl's, and especially not off of a person who was giving the answers willingly.

So Naruto had spent his time observing the other actions and techniques of his fellow test takers. He hadn't seen much, those sorts of techniques weren't meant to be seen, but what he had seen had impressed him. He had no idea how Sasuke had cheated, he had been placed several seats back from the blond, but he was sure he would find out at some point.

The teams were slowly whittled away until only about half were left.

The tenth question, when it came, was a complete surprise to those remaining. The choice to take it was the first surprise. This choice further decreased the number of teams to 26. Naruto had refused the let the examiner's words scare him. He simply spoke up while he twiddled his pencil in nervous anticipation. Everything was riding on the idea that he could answer the final question. "Hurry up and give us the problem old man. I'm here to take the test and I'm not about to leave. You can't scare me away with your threats. I won't back down. That's my way of the ninja!"

Ibiki had smiled slightly. *This guy is interesting. He's fearless. He managed to erase everyone's doubts. Well then, I guess its time.* he thought.

"Everyone remaining here...passes!"

Shouts and outbursts had rung from around the room, most vocally from Naruto, Sakura, and the Sand female with the big fan. Ibiki answered all their questions, explaining exactly how the test had worked and explaining its relevance in real world applications. After everything was explained and he had wished them luck the second examiner arrived, exploding through one of the room windows for a big flashy entrance. No one, however, was very impressed. They had survived the first test.

Notes: Letting you know that Naruto doesn't know about the sharingan yet, at least not about sasuke's. Also, i will be changing a good number of the fights in the tower fights. I'll be keeping a few, the ones that you just can't change, but many will be different. The finals will have less changes but there will still be some differences.