Team seven met up at dawn in training ground three and for once they weren't expecting their sensei.
"I have enough supplies to last us a month," Naruto announced upon seeing his two teammates. "No food though. Sealing food gets weird. I haven't figured that one out yet."
"They're probably not going to starve us," Sasuke said assuredly. Naruto doubted his confidence.
"Always better to be prepared."
Sasuke shrugged. "Why did we meet up so early anyways?"
"Are you an idiot?" Naruto asked rhetorically. "We're going into the unknown and you don't want to be fully prepared? Are you trying to get us killed?"
"And that's why we're meeting up now,": Sakura interjected before the two boys could get into a fight. "The exam is based around three man teams although they aren't always that way which means they're testing teams, not just individuals. As such it would be best that we go in prepared as a team," she said, stressing the last word.
Naruto and Sasuke blinked, the argument apparently forgotten.
Sakura suppressed a sigh. She loved her team but sometimes they could be such. . .boys. It would be nice to see Ino and Hinata again if only because she hadn't seen them for months. There was that standing rivalry with Ino of course which would be getting in the way but she would sort that out when seeing her. Besides there was no ways that she was the leader of her own team, so Sakura could shove that in her face.
"The first order of the day is figuring out what we know already. From what I can tell the chunin exams have traditionally been divided into three stages. The final stage is almost always a tournament, but the rest is mostly unknown and up to each village to do what they want. There was a chunin exam in Iwa just before the second great war where they made all the shinobi fight naked in the final tournament. Although that may have been what caused the great war, but I'm not an expert."
"Sakura," Naruto grumbled. "Relevance?"
Sakura nodded. "Right. So for the first two tasks we're going to be going in blind. People have died during the exams on previous occasions but from what I can tell it's never been as a direct result of the challenge, rather it's mostly from competing teams. As such we should expect genjutsu, mind games and potential combat with a little bit of survival training. If the exams are testing our ninja ability then they won't be forcing us into open combat situations which leads me to think that we'll be put into situations that will mimic real life ninja missions such as being bodyguards, messengers, thieves and assassins. But probably not assassins," she amended at a frown from Naruto.
"So basically we don't know anything," Sasuke pointed out.
"You're not helping with that attitude," Naruto shot back.
"Can we save the fighting for in the exam?" Sakura asked while feeling the conversation spin out of control. "We still need to develop a way of talking to each other without letting anyone else know what we're saying."
"We could just do what we did last time," Naruto suggested.
Sakura winced. "Didn't you tell us that Haku was able to see through our act in seconds?"
"Oh yeah."
"We could always ask each other something that only we would know," Sasuke said.
Sakura nodded. "We might have to fall back on doing that but interrogation makes it weak."
"That still doesn't actually explain how we're supposed to communicate with each other," Naruto said. "All this does is make sure we're not enemies under henge."
"We could learn hand signals," Sasuke suggested. "We're going to have to do it eventually."
"Not enough time," Sakura said. "So maybe communication isn't possible in detail but we should be able to communicate situational awareness."
Both Sasuke and Naruto gave her blank looks.
"You know, to inform each other of our status. Like if someone has a knife to Naruto's neck and he knows that he could get out, so he says something like uncle's toenail to tell us that he can escape."
Sasuke nodded his understanding while Naruto still looked a little perplexed. "It sounds good," Sasuke said. "I have some suggestions."
(O_O)
"There are this many people taking the exam?" Naruto asked in awe as they passed by almost one hundred shinobi. "Some of these guys look tough."
Sasuke nodded. "That's why they're here."
"Yeah but they made themselves look tough. It's like they aren't so confident in themselves, so they're trying to scare others off from the outset," Naruto said, eyeing a particularly overdressed collection of ninja. "Do you think it's hard for them to move around with all that stuff they're wearing?"
Naruto was pulled along speedily by Sakura. "It's rude to stare Naruto."
"Sorry."
Arriving inside the academy building team seven was met with a large crowd that had gathered outside a particular room. Moving ahead they saw that there were two chunin blocking the entrance to room three hundred and one. There was something strange about all of this though, Naruto knew that he hadn't been in the academy for the past few months but he was pretty sure that the rooms were numbered based on the floors and they weren't on the third floor by any means. He looked back at Sakura with an inquisitive glance which was returned with a whisper.
"Genjutsu."
Naruto nodded and looked at Sasuke who also seemed to understand. Sakura watched the crowd grow bigger and eventually signed for Naruto and Sasuke to follow her as she made her way upstairs, slipping out of the crowd without attracting too much attention..
"Hey you."
Then again maybe they weren't as stealthy as they thought. Team seven faltered but continued walking again stopping when the voice called out again. Team seven turned slowly to face the sound, hoping that the shout wasn't in fact levelled at them. It was not to be as the entire crowd had turned to face them because of the shouting. "The room to the exam is here," said a boy dressed entirely in a green jumpsuit.
Naruto turned to Sakura with and smiled uncomfortably. "Oh us, in the exam, surely not. We're just looking for the uh. . ." he sent a pointed look to Sakura.
"Bathroom," she finished, then covered her mouth as her cheeks flared.
"Got a problem with that?" Sasuke directed to the boy menacingly.
The boy nodded. "Fight me," he challenged.
Sasuke snarled but Naruto laid a hand on his shoulder. "Isn't that an inappropriate thing to say to someone that needs the bathroom?" he directed at the boy. "Do you expect him to be weaker in a fight because of his uncontrollable bladder? Is that why you want to fight huh?" Naruto sent a wink Sakura's way and she seemed to understand.
"It's absolutely reprehensible to try and sabotage our team before the exam has even started. How could you be so dishonorable?" Sakura affirmed.
By now most of the crowd was looking away awkwardly. Ninja didn't like to talk about their toilet habits, especially seeing as most of them had pretty embarrassing habits. Any ninja could see the value in going to the bathroom before a long mission. Naruto didn't think the atmosphere could have gotten any more awkward until the boy started crying. Actually crying might not be the right word, more like he had two faucets hidden behind his eyes and just put them on full blast, drenching anything in the nearby area with his projectile streams.
"I am so sorry for my dishonorable deeds," he proclaimed, bowing before Sakura's feet repeatedly. "For such a transgression I must punish myself with climbing the Hokage monument one hundred times without the use of my legs."
As the boy continued to bow to Sakura, Naruto eyed his two teammates wearily. This felt like a trick, like the boy was about to jump up and start attacking them when they let their guards down.
"I thought we were planning on keeping a low profile," said another boy, that looked alarmingly like Hinata, who stepped up next to the weeping green leotard. "I am sorry for my teammate's behavior, it would seem that he forgot our entire plan," he said through gritted teeth as he nudged the boy with his knee. "I am Neji of the Hyuga. The crying one is Rock Lee and the bathroom is actually not on that floor. Which you should know if you've been in the academy. Unless. . ." he trailed off with a smile then beckoned a girl to him. "Come Tenten," he said in a much louder voice that everyone standing with them would be able to hear. "Let's show these fine shinobi the way to the bathroom. It's the least we could do after our teammate's deplorable behavior." With that he walked past the slightly surprised team seven and headed up the stairs. The girl, Tenten, dragged Rock Lee's crying figure upright and ushered him forward. Then finally team seven followed, if a little confused.
They walked mostly in silence, save for the occasional weeping sound from Rock. Sakura ran a few steps to catch up to Neji, obviously seeing him as the leader of the strange team. "Hey, thanks for the help. It must have been easy for you to see through the genjutsu," she said, clearly trying to start a conversation.
Neji stopped and looked at her. "I wasn't helping you. This was more convenient than telling everyone about the genjutsu. We are not friends and we never will be, so don't talk to me." With that said he turned away from her and continued his walk. Sakura scowled after him muttering how he spoke to her first, but followed seeing as he was going the right way.
Naruto sidled up to Tenten. "Are they always like that?"
"Pretty much."
"Must be a pain."
"You have no idea."
Naruto nodded pityingly. One Sasuke was bad enough, but two? Unthinkable. And having a teammate that could cry so easily must have made any conversation a figurative tightrope..
The two teams stopped in front of the hallway before the exam room, facing each other. Neji was eyeing Sasuke intently as was Rock eyeing Sakura. Tenten, much like Naruto seemed bored and was looking anywhere but at her two teammates.
"Seeing as we know your names I suppose it's only fair that you know ours," Sakura said in response to the glares. "I'm Sakura Haruno. My teammates are Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki. Even though you didn't intend to help us thanks is due all the same," she said professionally.
"You're the rookies right?" Neji asked Sasuke, having apparently ignored everything Sakura had just said.
Sasuke nodded. "Don't underestimate us."
"Why would you say that, idiot? Now they're not going to underestimate us. Do you want to limit us for the exam huh? Why don't we all just walk out of the academy now if you're going to throw away every advantage we have," Naruto exclaimed. "Don't listen to Sasuke," he then said sheepishly to the team facing them. "He gets a bit crazy with all the heat. It's not good for him, y'know. Please do underestimate us, there's nothing worth estimating here. You're obviously much better ninja than us and will definitely do much better than us." Naruto nodded to himself, pleased with his ability to turn the situation around. All he received was a disgusted glance from Neji, an amused snort from Tenten.. Rock having completely ignored him in favor of Sakura, didn't respond.
"Go out with me," Rock said suddenly to Sakura, winking and holding up a thumbs up. "I'll protect you until the day I die," he declared.
Naruto slapped his head exasperatedly. Maybe it was better to just leave ninja to have their own conversations. Everyone was too weird for him.
Sakura frowned at the offer. "But I'm going to be Hokage so that I can protect everyone. If you want to protect me then that will mean you want to be Hokage and that you're trying to steal my goal."
"Eh?" Rock managed, probably having gotten lost in Sakura's train of logic. "No, you can still be Hokage, I'll just protect you."
"So you want to join the anbu?" Naruto asked confusedly. "Do you know how boring that job is?"
Rock shook his head. "No I just want to protect Sakura, more than any of the anbu can do."
"You're saying the anbu can't do their job?" Sasuke asked. He must have been slightly insulted as he was probably planning on joining anbu.
Rock shook his head desperately, opening his mouth to reply when two puffs of smoke signaled the entrance of two ninja When the smoke cleared it was clear to see Kakashi and a man that looked like an older version of Rock, with the green leotard and everything.
"Ah the fires of youth," the man in green exclaimed, making Kakashi wince. "And to think I would arrive here right at the same time as my true rival, to see our teams locked in youthful debate. What were the odds. Eh Kakashi?"
"You followed me here," Kakashi said, turning to his team. "So you made it past the genjutsu. That's good. Remember that even allies can be your best weapons," he said nodding his approval. "Good luck on the exam. Naruto if you pass the first two tasks I'll teach you the nature chakra siphoning seal."
Naruto's eyes widened. "Don't worry sensei. You don't have to bribe me. I already have a reason to pass."
"A little motivation doesn't hurt," Kakashi affirmed. "Sasuke don't get into pointless fights, half of being a ninja is avoiding fights. And Sakura, being a leader doesn't mean charging into battle. The best leader is one that stays alive long enough to lead their team." He nodded to himself. "I've taught you everything you need to pass. Now its up to you." With that he disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"But sensei," Naruto shouted after him. "You haven't taught us anything."
The jonin that had appeared with Kakashi watched them with tears in his eyes. Team seven slowly and very carefully stepped away from the deranged man as he faced his team and told them to be youthful. Naruto was pretty sure that if he was subjected to the hell viewing genjutsu after this it would feature green leotards. In fact there was no question about it. When the jonin sensei finally left his team, Naruto sidled over to Tenten who still seemed to be the most amiable of the team.
"Who was that?" he asked.
The girl blushed slightly. "That's our sensei, Might Guy."
"I'm so sorry," Naruto said.
"I've gotten used to it by now."
"Really?"
"No."
With that the two teams set forth to enter the exam room.
The room was pretty empty and Naruto thought this was the perfect chance to start setting up flash tags around the room in case they wanted them to battle. It never hurt to be prepared and he could probably retrieve them later if he didn't get to use them.
Just a few minutes before the exam and people started filing in more quickly. He was looking forward to seeing Gaara, not so much that Kankuro guy. They hadn't arrived yet however and he had to content himself with Rock Lee's obsessive need to fight Sasuke while he watched his old classmates rolled in. Thankfully Sasuke was ignoring Rock as they had discussed that morning, Sasuke was, if anything, a loyal soldier.
As his classmates filed in, each would look team seven's way, their eyes brushing over Naruto in unfamiliarity until alighting on Sasuke or Sakura. None of them seemed to recognize him save one who came over to speak to Naruto immediately.
"Naruto," Shikamaru greeted.
"How are things, Shika?" Naruto responded.
Shikamaru groaned. "Such a drag. I want you to know that I blame you for this. Ino would have been much more tolerable if she had just stuck to obsessing over Sasuke." He sent a small smile Sasuke's way. "No offense."
"Hn."
"Did you dye your hair for the exam?" Shikamaru asked quietly.
Naruto shook his head. "I've had it for a few weeks already. I just wanted to look like an Uzumaki, you know?"
Shikamaru nodded slowly. "Sure. That makes sense. Let's stick with that for now," he said, clearly not believing Naruto.
"Thanks Shika. Where's your team?"
Shikamaru yawned. "I think they went to speak to that Kabuto guy."
"Who?"
Shikamaru frowned. "He claims that he's failed the exams seven times."
Naruto gaped. "Seven times? Where is he?" he asked, turning his head. Shikamaru pointed and Naruto's gaped narrowed into a frown. "For a guy that's failed seven times he looks very calm."
"Yeah," Shikamaru agreed. "Apparently he has these information cards on everyone trying for the chunin exams, even the guys from different villages."
Naruto's frown furthered. "Everyone?"
"That's what he claims."
Naruto eyed Kabuto wearily. Did he have information on Naruto's previous hair colour. If it had been an order from the Hokage then this Kabuto guy might be someone anbu wanted to look into. That would have to wait though seeing as there weren't any authority figures to speak to right then. He could gather some information himself though.
"Where are you going?" Sakura asked, catching his arm as he moved towards the small group gathered around Kabuto.
"To socialize," Naruto said. "Wanna come? I think Ino is there."
Sakura seemed conflicted.
"That seems like a great idea," Sasuke said jovially, clearly doing everything in his power to get away from the nagging Rock Lee.
Sakura nodded a sigh. If Sasuke was going then so was she.
Naruto pulled his teammates along, leaving behind a bored Shikamaru and a confused Rock Lee. They joined the group after some shoving.
"Hey forehead," Ino greeted Sakura. "I heard that your team has only done one C rank mission," she said smirking. "Are you sure that your team is ready for the exam?"
Sakura growled and moved to respond, but Sasuke cut her off.
"How do you know how many missions we've done?" he asked suspiciously.
Kabuto laughed uneasily. "That would be me," he said. "Sorry about that."
Naruto eyed Kabuto up and down, immediately disliking him. "You've got information on everyone here?" he asked skeptically.
Kabuto nodded. "I've failed the exams seven times so it's given me the opportunity to collect large amounts of information."
Naruto nodded. Realizing that it didn't answer how he knew about their C rank mission. "What do you have on Naruto Uzumaki?" he asked.
Kabuto blinked at him before pulling out his cards and rifling through them. "Here we go, Naruto Uzumaki, last of the Uzumaki clan, sealing prodigy. Has completed sixteen D ranks and one C rank. I don't have much else. . ." he trailed off as Naruto craned his neck to see the card.
Naruto eyed it wearily before letting out small sigh of relief when he saw the picture on the card depicted him as he was now. Apparently it wasn't a breach of security then. Now that he thought about it though, where had Kabuto gotten the information about their missions from? "I'm a sealing prodigy?" Naruto asked suddenly. "Who told you that? I barely know the basics of sealing."
Kabuto seemed to think about it for a moment. "I suppose it just means you know more than anyone else your age."
Naruto eyed him carefully before shrugging in turn. On the inside he felt sick and suspicious again. Why would Kabuto need to make a guess about his own information cards? Unless they weren't his own in which case where had he retrieved them from? "Well I think I've gotten everything I need," Naruto said to his team. "We can leave now."
Sakura turned to follow but Sasuke stood still. "Who are the people to watch out for in this exam?" he asked.
Kabuto seemed ready for the question, proffering two cards from his sleeve almost immediately after the question left Sasuke's lips. "There are so many to watch out for, but of the newbies there are two which should catch your attention. The first is Gaara of the Hidden Sand having already completed a B rank, eight B ranks and is known for being literally unscratchable. The other is Rock Lee who is known to be extremely talented although no one's really sure in what. Besides for that everyone is as you would expect. The only village I don't have any information on is the Hidden Sound as they're new. But I doubt they're anything to worry about."
Some of the Hidden sound had apparently overheard Kabuto seeing as one of them went crazy a second later, jumping over the heads of the crowd and aiming an attack at Kabuto. The kunai missed and Kabuto managed to dodge the strike, no he didn't manage, it wasn't easy for him, his muscles having barely tensed in preparation before he was out of the way. He seemed to be moving casually, like taking a stroll. Then he was out of the way of the strike and the Sound ninja's fist fell short.
Kabuto let out a small laugh but his breath cut short as his glasses cracked, if that wasn't enough he then doubled over, throwing up on the recently cleaned classroom floor.
Naruto eyed them both worriedly, the Sound ninja because he had used sound in an attack, something that Naruto had been trying to figure out for a few months, and secondly because for all that Kabuto was being sick on the floor he hadn't seemed surprised in the least to be throwing up. He needed to speak to Shikamaru about this, he would be able to shed some light on the subject.
A number of puffs from across the room signaled the entrance of a bunch of jonin and the end of Naruto's free time. They were all given numbers at random which indicated their seat and then told to sit down and shut up before they failed. Naruto was pleased to see that he at least had a clear line of sight to both Sasuke and Sakura even though they weren't very close.
The head examiner, Ibiki Morino, whose face was covered in scars, stood at the front of the exam room eyeing everyone with a look that could kill. The other ninja that had appeared behind him, all of various levels, had fanned out across the room, eyeing Naruto's flash tags and leaving them where they were with a shrug.
"The rules of this exam are simple. It is a team exercise, and the teams with the most collective points pass. You will start off with ten points and for every question not answered you will lose a point. If you're caught cheating you will lose two points. If a single teammate loses all ten points their entire team will be disqualified. Understood? You have one hour. Begin when you receive your paper."
Before anyone could fathom what the man was saying the exam proctors were walking around the room handing out pieces of paper.
As soon as Naruto received his he almost laughed at the sheer absurdity of the questions. They were all very clearly unfair to anyone that didn't score in the top of their class in theory. Maybe the tenth mystery question was an all solve but he couldn't take that risk. Naruto suspected that even Sasuke would have a hard time answering them. Sakura on the other hand, well she was already writing her answers from what he could see. Taking off his forehead protector to wipe the sweat off his forehead he could see Sasuke in the reflection and he looked just as lost as Naruto. Sakura had unfortunately been right, they needed a way of contacting each other without letting anyone else on.
Leaning back in his seat, he looked around at the proctors, noticing that occasionally they would look someone's way then write something down. Was one of them a Hyuga? That could create some problems. But no, he could see clearly that none of them bore the distinctive Hyuga traits. In fact that was strange as a Hyuga would have been perfect for catching anyone cheating. Unless they weren't trying that hard of course.
Hinata was seated next to him and he could see that the veins near her eyes had swelled up, indicating that her byakugan was activated. Even with that clear indicator which he had no doubt the proctors would be able to spot, she hadn't failed.
"You fail," one of the proctors exclaimed suddenly, throwing a kunai onto the desk of a leaf genin.
"I didn't do anything," he protested until another kunai thunked onto his desk. With a gulp he stood up, avoiding the eyes of his teammates as they were all forced to leave.
Naruto frowned. The proctors definitely weren't biding their time but there seemed to be some leniency being given if nothing could be proved. The boy that had been disqualified for example had been clearly sneaking peaks at the person next to him, even Naruto had been able to see that.
A ghost of a smile touched on Naruto's face. He had a plan, if a little risky but what did they have to lose?
He shot Sasuke a bored look then sat back in his seat and formed the hand seals for three jutsus. He did this over and over again, never actually channeling the chakra. The purpose was clear as soon as Sakura turned her head slightly to see his hands, watching the order before turning back to her test. Naruto watched and waited until she had pulled out a pair of goggles and donned them. Naruto did the same and Sasuke automatically followed. They could only hope that the proctors wouldn't consider random actions as cheating, otherwise they were toast.
There were three flashes, then Naruto was sitting in Sakura's seat, henged to look like Sakura without goggles. A glance back at his seat showed a perfect replica of himself sitting without goggles and writing the answers to the test in a hurried scrawl. When she was finished there were another three flashes and they were both in their seats again.
Naruto waited for a proctor to shout out their failure but there was none of that, instead most of the proctors just seemed confused and disgruntled, rubbing their eyes. They were on guard however and it wouldn't do to be caught now. They would wait another fifteen minutes and Sasuke and Sakura would pull the same trick. The best part of the trick was that Sakura would most likely be the only one losing points seeing as she was the only one actually doing the cheating. All Naruto had done was activate a few flash tag and use a henge. She had used the kawarimi to switch places, so essentially she was the one cheating and she most likely had the points to spend.
Fifteen minutes later Naruto activated three flash tag and he watched his teammates switch places while everyone else was still blinking hazily. He had used a henge before activating the tags to make it harder for anyone to spot his use of chakra and it seemed that save for Hinata and Neji none of the proctors had noticed. The best part was that they could start walking around the exam room and taking down the flash tags as that would distract them from their current job and allow others to cheat.
"If I find out who's been setting those off I'm going to fail you immediately," the head proctor announced angrily, his scars crinkling into a frown.
Almost like he was asking for trouble, five more tags were set off and a snarl from Ibiki was the only sound most of the students could hear. Naruto had removed his goggles for the last set, just to look the part and the disorientation hit him hard making him nauseous. On the plus side the head proctor's eyes filed over him without any reaction. So he probably hadn't noticed. Both Sakura and Sasuke were acting lazily, Sakura playing with her pink hair and Sasuke with his head down on his desk. Code for success. And none of the proctors had failed them. Naruto smiled. Everything was working out just fine.
Until the last fifteen minutes dozens of teams were disqualified. Some it was clear to see why, others not so much. One of the failures had tried arguing with the proctors then had been physically removed. For a written test it was brutal and Naruto wasn't entirely sure what they were supposed to be testing. There was no chance it was about their knowledge seeing as the questions were ridiculously high level things that nobody in the academy knew. The only reason Sakura knew them was because she read books in her free time due to her desire to be Hokage.
"Now for the tenth question," the head proctor started as the clock reached the pivotal last fifteen minutes, an ugly smile on his face. "You will receive it in a minute, however this question is special. If you fail to answer this question it won't matter how many points you received on this exam you will fail and will never be allowed to take the chunin exams again. I'll wait five minutes, if anyone wants to back out, now is the time, otherwise I can't guarantee anything." The entire exam room watched him with bated breath as he sat back in his chair and tried not to look like he was enjoying himself.
A question that would prevent them from ever taking the exam again. That was interesting. The type of question would have to be something like a psyche evaluation proving that they weren't fit for missions, otherwise it wouldn't make sense to disqualify them forever, after all the village did need someone to do missions. Or it could have been a bluff, Ibiki Morino looked like someone that liked gambling. It was Sakura and Sasuke that had wanted to take the exam, so be it upon them to suffer if they had to remain genin forever. Besides, Jiraiya of the Sannin was a genin so it wasn't the worst thing in the world. While Naruto thought the problem over several genin left, unable to take the heat. Just when the tension seemed to reach its max Naruto let out a loud yawn, signaling to his teammates that he was confident. This also drew the attention of everyone still in the room as Naruto did his best to look absolutely bored with the state of affairs. Even the head proctor glared at him as he stretched.
Ibiki grumbled but stood after five minutes. "Last chance," he said, meeting each and every one of their eyes. Naruto's yawn had seemed to inspire some level of confidence however and nobody moved. "Fine you all pass, good job. The seventy eight of you will pass onto the next round of the exams.
Naruto gave himself a congratulatory smile. It had totally been a bluff. It was so obvious.
"Wait, but what about the tenth question?" Sakura asked.
Naruto sent a glare her way. Was she serious? It was so obviously a bluff.
"That was the tenth question," Ibiki explained patiently. "What are you willing to do to be a chunin? The other nine questions in the meantime all tested your ability to gather information while under pressure and while separated from your teammates. As you can all see, most ninja don't make the cut."
Naruto nodded. It made sense. Thankfully they passed. Grinning, he stood up and started collecting his flash tags before remembering the head proctor's threat. Glancing over his shoulder he saw the head proctor sending him a glare that could've killed puppies. Naruto grinned back sheepishly and carried on.
