Disclaimer: Alright, once and for all, repeat after me:

Ryu does not own Naruto. (Ryu does not own Naruto.)

Or anyone in said manga/anime. (Or anyone in said manga/anime)

Ryu does own everyone else. (Ryu does own everyone else.)

Perfect. Now, remember it!

Ryu: Alright! Alright! Next chapter, one day, EVERYONE HAPPY! RIGHT?

Gaara: Don't mind her. She's been really busy with three jobs and co-authoring another fanfic with one of her roommates. It's actually turned out pretty interesting. (World of Naruto by MechaKeitaro)

Kyo: Plus the other, what, four she's working on…

Ryu: looking at flood of people who wanted her story AGES ago Sorry! He can't type to save his life. You'd be waiting years between chapters. Besides, I'm back!

Etna: Don't worry. I've got my spear to her back. She can't get out of this.

Chapter 7: The First Test

Kisaike sat, waiting, hiding, watching. She had been sitting on her lodging's roof since she had returned from the dinner with the Konoha genin, waiting for her twin's emergence. Suddenly, a movement on a nearby roof caught her eye. She stared as Gaara entered the scene. The light from the waxing moon played in the pools of his aquamarine eyes as he surveyed the night. Suddenly, he took off, jumping from roof to roof. She watched, still from her hidden vantage point, as he alighted on a particularly high rooftop, and stood there, eyeing the city. Then he sat, staring at the moon. Kisai felt a stab of pain in her heart.

That's exactly what we used to do together, she thought. She looked at him again, one last time, then went inside.

The next day seemed to come quicker than she anticipated. She awoke before dawn, and went to the roof with a cup of coffee to enjoy the sunrise. She sat and watched the sun flow lazily into the sky, warming the world below. She stood, stretched, and went inside to prepare for the coming day. She practiced her henge, tweaking it occasionally to make sure she looked nothing like herself. She had decided on a male henge for the first test, since pretty much all the examiners would be male. Once she felt she got it just right, she took off, cruising above the streets, jumping from roof to roof. Smiling, she entered the examination hall and went to the room across the hall from the examination room. When she entered, she dropped the henge for a bit, so that the Hokage could recognize her. The Hokage stood there talking to a large man with numerous scars. She walked up to the two of them.

"Ahh. Here she is now." The Hokage turned to her with a smile, then gestured to the large man. "This is Morino Ibiki. He's the proctor for the first exam." He turned to Ibiki. "This is Kisaike. She's the one that we spoke of."

Ibiki turned to face Kisaike, who gazed up into his hard eyes unflinchingly. Suddenly, he broke into a wide grin. "So, you're the genius from a new village, huh? Well, welcome to Konoha. Let me explain what this first examination is all about." He handed her a clipboard. "This first portion is a written test. The test isn't completely the written stuff though. We're also testing their information gathering skills; the only difference is that we're calling it cheating. When you notice that someone is cheating, you mark down what seat it was and what it was that made you notice that person was cheating. That way their sensei can talk to them about how they messed up. Five times caught, and that's it. Just call their number and tell them they failed." He paused for breath, then continued. "We expect that they will cheat. If you notice anything interesting, any interesting way of gathering information that you think may be useful to be taught in classes, please write it down. Don't forget, ANYTHING that you notice that makes you know that they are cheating, mark it down. An enemy may very well be another ninja. They need to be able to gather information quickly, quietly, and, most importantly, without notice."

Kisaike nodded, glancing at the clipboard. It was just blank paper. She looked back up at Ibiki. "Anything else, Morino-san?" She henge-ed back into her disguise.

He shook his head. "No. Just wait for a few. The students are gathering as we speak." He gestured to the room across the hall. After about 15 minutes, the sound of a scuffle emanated from the room. "Ok. Time to go."

The smoke bomb burst. When the smoke cleared, she was standing with the others in front of a room full of people, most older than herself. They all looked back at the examiners, some with the guilty look of being caught doing something they knew they weren't supposed to. She had made sure she blended in with the rest of the examiners, age and outfit wise. So, looking out over the crowd of genin, she didn't feel awkward. In fact, considering that most of the examiners were chuunin themselves, she felt rather comfortable in their midst. While Ibiki gave the opening speech, she found a place to sit, next to an examiner she didn't recognize. She saw the strings, though, and who they belonged to. She shook her head slightly, then smiled good-naturedly at the group when Ibiki announced that the examiners would be watching them. She saw Naruto, looking nervous away from his teammates. She located Sakura and Sasuke too. Sakura was unflinchingly confident, and Sasuke was, well, Sasuke.

She looked down at her clipboard, and began to write. She wrote her henge name at the top, her examiner number, and Kankurou's little puppet friend. Looking back over the group again, her eyes settled on Gaara. He was performing the third eye jutsu. But instead of trying to hide it, he performed it right out in the open. She shook her head, and jotted it down. She looked over to Temari. No 'cheating' going on there. Looking around, she spotted quite a few others gathering information in a not so subtle fashion. Finally, after a few moments, it was time. She let loose a kunai. It thunked into the paper of an unfortunate, and exceptionally unsubtle, nin. He jumped, then looked at her.

"Out," she said quietly, in her male henge voice. "You fail."

He protested for a moment, then his shoulders drooped, and he and his teammates shuffled out the door.

That first failure broke the seal, as people, in an effort to be careful, gave themselves away. Too much caution could be just as bad as too little, she thought, as she failed another student.

Finally, Ibiki called time. "It's time now for the tenth question." Ibiki ran through the speech about the question, not taking the question, and failing the question. Quite a few people opted out of the question and left. She watched as the room emptied out slowly. Suddenly, Naruto put up his hand, then slammed it back down on the table.

"Don't underestimate me!" he yelled. She smiled as he went on, and looked around to see that those who looked like they had been wavering steadied. Everyone smiled, looking toward the front, waiting on this question. Finally, Ibiki sighed.

"Then to all who remain here, there is only one thing to tell you." He smiled. "You pass."

The last bit of the test time went quickly, when suddenly, someone wrapped in black cloth, burst through the window. After setting herself up, she introduced herself as Anko, the second exam proctor. After telling the genin they would be cut by more than half in the next test, she let them go.

Kisaike dropped the henge, and went to introduce herself to Anko.

"Didn't I say all genin were dismissed?" she asked curtly, rounding on her.

Kisaike's eyes steeled. "I apologize, Anko-san, but I am not a genin."

Anko's eyes settled on Kisaike's hitae, and she looked startled. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize that you were our guest. But, you look a lot like one…"

"Gaara is my twin brother."

"Ahh."

The proctors called to Kisaike. She turned and followed them to a group of seats neat the back of the exam room.

"We're seeing how people did and what they noticed," said one. "Why don't you start?"

She nodded. "Alright. The first thing I noticed was Kankurou's little proctor puppet." Eyes widened. No one else had noticed that very early. "Gaara's third eye. The Hyuuga's Byakugan. Uchiha's Sharingan. Yamanaka's body take over. Tenten and Lee's elaborate set-up of mirrors, I almost missed that one."

"Whoa. Ok, I think we all missed that one. Elaborate."

"Well, apparently, somehow, they managed to get a set-up of mirrors on the ceiling. Look." She pointed. While the mirrors had vanished with the genin, the holes where they had been were still visible.

"How'd you catch it?"

"Lee, actually. He never puts his forehead protector on his forehead. He said it might mess up his eyebrows. So, when he did, I followed his eyes and found the mirrors. Took me quite a while to find out who was controlling them though. Finally, when one of the failed walked by, I saw a slight glint by Tenten's hand. They did pretty well with that one."

The proctors were nodding and laughing when Ibiki came up. "We have a few people who got a full grade on the test." He called out names. When he got to one name, Kisaike whistled. He turned to her. "What was that for?"

"If she aced the questions, she did so on her own intelligence. She didn't cheat in the slightest."

The proctors looked around them. The shuffling of papers could be heard as they looked through them. Proctors began to nod.

"She has no real abilities to speak of, no jutsu she could have used. And she was too far away from either of the ringers. She got all the questions right on her own."

Now even Ibiki and Anko looked surprised. "I am impressed. Well, let's see how she does with the rest of the exam. If she does this well, she will probably make chuunin without too much difficulty," said Anko.

Everyone left after a little while. Kisaike was wandering down the street, wondering where she could eat when one of the genins came toward her and waved her down.

"Hi Kisaike!"

"Hey Tenten, what's up?"

"Actually, I was looking for you," the bun-headed girl replied. "I was wondering if you'd like to come over for dinner with me, Lee, Neji and Gai-sensei. I cook really well."

"Are you sure your parents won't mind?"

She smiled sadly. "I'm sure. They died when I was little. I raised myself from about age eight." She looked up. "Kinda like you."

Kisaike smiled. "I'd love to."

Ryu: Ha! To all those people who said I couldn't get it done!

Gaara: Ok, no flipping out today…please…

Ryu: Reviews! Must have reviews:stumbles around like zombie: