"Hi." = thoughts

"Hi." = talking

"Greetings." = Biju speaking

"Lightning Style: Lightning Bullet." = Jutsu

(-) = finishing to a new situation

Bye.


Weakness was a susceptibility all individuals carried. Shikamaru indisputably loathed it, the feeling of bootlessness. The inability to help his comrades.

He leaned back on his chair, ignoring the creak of his aching muscles. They whined in perpetual agony, beneath the carefully placed bandages.

His own mind echoed hollowly, his hateful presence. He was an impervious existence. Shikamaru yawned in wide despondency, pitying his large inabilities.

Languid intelligence he seldom used would be unhelpful. Especially when battling an opponent with the cunningness –and strength- of an ancient battler.

Shikamaru massaged his head with a guilty twinge. Ino and Choji's damage surpassed his by countless miles, lamenting would not be able to increase their healing speed.

He stood up, gritting his teeth, Shikamaru caressed his chin softly. The Nara stumbled through the door, wary to diverge his parents' attention towards somewhere else.

Shikamaru reached the front door, opening up the entrance, he stepped forward, ignoring the hiss inside of his arms. "Going out, then." He heard a lazy, yet gentle drawl.

"Uh, dad." Shikamaru lamely discerned, preparing for some form of disapproval, until he blinked; Shikaku disappeared instantly. "Thanks."

He exhaled in brief relief, dispersing his excuses and placations. Shikamaru rushed through Konoha's lanes, keeping his aching parts safe.

The training area bristled with a forlorn air, twirling the atmosphere into a domain of concentration. Shikamaru identified Sasuke, whose countenance was concealed.

The Uchiha's body boomed with chakra, overwhelming Shikamaru himself. Then, Sasuke coiled up his fists, shooting a punch upwards, while the clouds dispersed.

"Yo, Shikamaru!" Sasuke's skull snapped towards him, his features naturally airy. The scorch of his skin immediately dissipated. "What's up?"

"Sasuke." Shikamaru evaporated the fear playing on his lips, hauling his form in a superiorly calmer stride. "I need your help with something."

"My help?" Sasuke's face shimmered with an easy-going grin, casually standing atop the shattered soil. "Kiba and Shino, Then, you! Naruto's gonna be after, huh?"

Shikamaru indeed loathed his weakness. Sasuke was a mischievous, immature individual. Yet, the Uchiha could be a beacon of protection for his own comrades.

Coughing with an agitated rumble, Shikamaru straightened up, perhaps he was envious of Sasuke's expertise. Still, he needed to concentrate. "Please, help me train!"

"Sorry." Shikamaru's shoulders instantly slumped, gazing upon Sasuke's breezy expression. He trembled in suppressed desperation. "No. I can hook you up with someone better."

"Enter the deeper parts of the wood." The Uchiha pointed towards the concealed path, his eyes looking into the endless distance. "Someone superior can aid you in this."

Shikamaru scurried into the path. While he would prefer to be lounging in his pillows, he required guidance. "Thank you for this…" He staggered into an artificial arena.

"Another youthful buddy. Small Sasuke is sending me many boisterous comrades!"

(-)

Naruto settled upon the cracked grass, feeling the susurration of air distorting. He looked over to Sasuke: whose hand burned with energy.

"You're gonna use up too much chakra at this rate." Naruto blithely informed, observing Sasuke huff in drowsiness. "Take some water, damn."

He slung Sasuke a freshly retrieved water bottle. The Uchiha sipped it with a tint of satiation, exhaling in brief peace. "What's the occasion?"

"Nothing." Naruto shrugged with an innocent smirk, wryly laughing. Sasuke collapsed, heaving himself to stand properly. "You need to stop for a while."

Wiping his lips, Sasuke flicked the water from his chin, channelling the First-Gate into initiation, as his skin thrummed in hotness. "The sooner, the better."

He backtracked, crouching beneath Naruto's gliding hand, a balefully elated grin stamped upon his face. "The retrieval mission was boring. I need to make up for it with a battle."

The First-Gate growled in competitive warmth. Sasuke tilted his head, a rather unforgiving, yet childish smile settling immediately on his face. "Bring it on, then!"

(-)

Shikamaru inhaled in sparse laziness. The second he arrived, Gai placed him into a small group: with Kiba and Shino, being coerced to start basic punches.

He understood quite swimmingly, Gai desired to monitor their skills, deciding which training schedule would be beneficial for them.

Shikamaru appreciated it hugely, regarding Gai in a new, more amicable brightness. Still, it was a tiresome task. Shikamaru yawned, kicking the air in a lazy stride.

"Oi, Shikamaru! Stop being a lazy bastard." Kiba growled, his fist sailing forward as he collapsed to his knees, huffing into his lips. "Gai-Sensei wanted us to complete this!"

"Kiba." Shino interrupted, fiddling with his loosened sun-glasses for a disappointed minute. Kiba sighed, sweeping his leg. "Good." The Aburame started bending his knees.

"Sasuke trains with this schedule." Kiba panted with a snap of his teeth, burying his hand in the air. "This is crazy. Now I understand where his stupid strength comes from."

"Oh, no!" Lee intervened: his lips sliding into a grin of peerless charisma, sending them an assuring thumbs-up. "Sasuke's training is more rigorous than this!"

"Huh? The-…"

A blur of indiscernibility rolled by them, as Sasuke emerged from his obscurity, humming in the heat of the Inner-Gate, he grinned uncontrollably, rushing forward.

Naruto slipped under his fist, kneeing Sasuke's leg, the Uchiha whirled above Naruto, gyrating beyond the Uzumaki's head until situating himself onto the grass.

"Good one." Naruto complimented; his facing whirling nostalgically. He heaved his leg upwards, slamming it towards Sasuke: who grabbed his shoe. "Huh, faster now."

Sasuke forced Naruto's foot back into the terrain, while the Uzumaki staggered earthwards, sighing. "That all?!" Sasuke's lips snapped upwards challengingly.

"Taunting won't work." Naruto assured blithely, he catapulted forward, his gait an aimful one. "The First-Gate increases your physical abilities."

"Yep." Sasuke confirmed, sliding towards Naruto, as he buried an unending punch into his face before disconnecting. "I won't lose this time."

(-)

Kiba's nose rasped with an impressed sound, his gaze fixed on the indistinguishable existences blurring through the atmosphere. "Definitely more rigorous."

Shino shook his head in noiseless incomprehension, his sun-glasses drooping from his eyes. "I suppose we shall simply need to surpass them." He encouraged: largely determined.

Shikamaru's silence was unheard, his fingers coiled into each-other, noticing the baleful grin of Naruto's, the immature one of Sasuke's. That type of skill. "No time to lose."

Lee shook his fist with a boisterous laugh, Sasuke was indisputably Naruto's rival. The companionship they carried was matchless. "I shall grow stronger!"

"Gai-Sensei. Neji. Ten-Ten. Sasuke. I promise!"

(-)

Naruto backpedalled from the swing of Sasuke's simmering fingers, the Uchiha heaved an endless breath, his shoulders slouching in fatigue.

"That's enough." Naruto decided, his mouth choking wryly, with Sasuke colliding into the soil, the warmth of his skin immediately dispersing. "Pretty good battle."

"Lee! Help me, please!" Sasuke gratefully nodded, as Rock-Lee steadied him up, walking him under a nearby tree, concealed from the clouds. "Damn, thanks."

"Apologies Sasuke. I must return to my cadets' training!" Lee raised his thumb, an amicable grin settling atop his features. "Your battle was incredible!"

The Uchiha grinned cheekily with a cordial gesture, slumping onto the tree-bark, as his eyes started to droop, his consciousness shattering into smithereens.

(-)

Naruto hung loosely upon a lowered tree-branch, hearing the drowsy echoes of Lee's cadets' group. He idly sipped his own bottle of water, warping his inner-energy.

Shikamaru lifted up a rather large one of Lee's weights, while his form shuddered. The Nara exerted himself, hefting his arms upwards, the weight stumbling back onto the grass.

The Uzumaki settled onto the surface, ignoring Kiba's cries. He grabbed one of the spare weights, hauling it at the branches with sparse difficulty.

"Oi, Naruto!"

Naruto slid his head towards the source of the noisy sound, noticing Kiba sauntering over, shouldering something considerably diminutive.

"Damn." Naruto dryly mumbled, striding back into the path, slipping his hands into his pockets with an arid susurration. "I'm going, now!"

"Stay safe!" Gai echoed unmindfully, whirling to the side as Shino's form flew forward. Crashing a punch into his face, Gai's grin shimmered in assurance. "Come on, now!"

(-)

Kakashi idly flickered nearby to Sasuke's slumbering existence, humming a casual tune on his lips. His book crinkled to another, libidinous page.

"Oh, Sasuke." He urged, flicking his irises along the page's erotic sources of literature, laughing quietly to himself with a pleased slouch. "Wake up."

"Wha-?" Sasuke cradled his cheek in a confused daze, comforting his eyes out of drowsiness. "Kakashi-Sensei? I need some peace."

"You?" Kakashi challenged: Sasuke tapped his face, slumping in confirming realization, chuckling leisurely, he leaned onto the tree-back. "We got some news."

Sasuke's ears perked up exponentially, he hauled his irises over to the artificial training area. Kurenai and Asuma were gathering their teams, as Shino and Kiba rolled to the path.

"News, then?"

"We need Naruto." Kakashi lazily retorted, scanning the sector in an immediate second. His book snapped acerbically, shutting. "Where is he, now?"

"Pretty sure he left after our battle." Sasuke connected his fingers onto a tree-branch, swinging on it with a childish smirk, something brewing in his expression. "I won."

"I'm certain." Kakashi's eye curved up in placation, sliding his hands into his uniform's pouches. "You wanna guess what this news is about, please?"

"Okay…" Sasuke enunciated with a wary twinge, Kakashi comfortably nodded, opening his book, his eye curving upwards extremely. "You're obsessed with that creature."

"It's a book, Sasuke, a pervy one, but still a book."

The Uchiha grinned unapologetically, settling atop the tree-branch with an inspective gaze, waiting for Naruto's arrival. "We need to look for him."

"No worries, I sent that sarcastic, little-…" Kakashi coughed with a baleful rumble, sloppily fixing up his head-band. "A message. I was making conversation."

"Message heard." Naruto reformed onto the cracked soil, slanting his head indolently. His lips slipped into a signature smirk of bland humour. "Oh, sorry about the literature."

Kakashi granted Naruto a largely wary glare, catapulting the book back into his pouch, as the Uzumaki susurrated in wryness. "You burned them all!"

"Took Sasuke a while." Naruto idly remarked, eyeing a scroll connected to his belt with a casual attitude, lowering his lips. "Seriously. What's the message?"

"You were a-part of this, too!"

"I shall never teach you anything!"

"You never bothered to teach us anything."

"Yep." Naruto concurred; laughing sarcastically. He sauntered nearer to his team with an incurious shimmer on his features. "Message, please. I'm on a schedule."

"The Chunin Exams." Kakashi informed lamely, his shoulders endlessly slouched, patting his book pouch with an airy curve of the eye. "Which you won't be participating in!"

"Huh?" Sasuke enunciated in unheard uncertainty, losing his grasp of the tree-branch, as he hauled himself back onto the surface. "Wait, seriously?"

"Seriously!" Kakashi assured with a smooth clap, it hummed with an authoritative echo, straightening up Naruto and Sasuke's nonchalance. "You're complacent, now."

"Wait a second. I'm working on my skills." Sasuke argued back, his eye-brows buried in dubiety, while Kakashi thrummed in innocence. "I'm confused."

"Perhaps I was being unfair. Sasuke, you mastered the First-Gate? Naruto, you're working on controlling your…inner-monster's energy?"

"I suppose."

"Yep!"

"Okay." Kakashi clicked his fingers, flickering and perching onto the tree-branch, collapsing onto it with a lazy eye-curve. "Assail me. Use any techniques."

Sasuke bounced upon Kakashi's stomach, whirling as he slammed his hand into the Hatake's abdomen, only for Kakashi to blur behind Naruto, who stepped to the side.

"Techniques. Not Taijutsu, but the skill of Ninjutsu is the ability Sasuke's lacking." Kakashi brushed his chin in peerless contemplation. "Naruto, now."

The Uzumaki heaved a deep, matchless breath, cycling through his reservoir of Ninjutsu: None. Which would be problematic. "I got none."

"Sasuke. You can simply use Fire-Ball and Fire-Bullets, then?" Kakashi rolled up his shoulders, while he hung his head high: humming in patience. "Okay, okay."

"Naruto, you're lacking in this department completely."

"I guess." Naruto shrugged blithely, unbothered. His concentration was always upon controlling his chakra, or strategies to battle. "It was never on my list to learn."

"It's my responsibility." Kakashi immediately settled into a stance, flicking up his head-band with a challenging shimmer, his Sharingan crinkling. "Taijutsu and Ninjutsu combined."

"You battle as one. Not alone. Those who can't work in a team are meaningless."

"Tag-team!" Sasuke and Naruto fist-bumped with a grin and smile: one cheeky, another wry, yet wicked, chakra growled inside them all. "Been a while!"

"Indisputably." Naruto disconnected his hand from Sasuke's, cracking his neck with a canalization of chakra into his legs and fingers, laughing unsparingly. "Rules, then?"

"You can use all skills. I shall be using my 1-Tomoe Sharingan for this. No lazing around this time."

(-)

Gai chuckled merrily; noticing Kakashi's obscurity slam into his students' stomachs, steering them into the shattered soil, almost burying them into the earth.

"Okay! The Chunin-Exams are coming up!" He boisterously echoed, pressing his hands to his hips with a grin of everlastingness. "This time, you're going!"

"My youthfulness shall burn!" Lee promised, shaking his coiled up hand with a resolute thumbs-up, shuddering in certainty. "Burn my competitors!"

"You're quite passionate." Neji dryly remarked, folding his arms with the signature, grouchy countenance: His gaze stony, yet curious. "When is it, then?"

"3 weeks." Ten-Ten crumpled up the paper into her side-bag, fiddling with a seldom sharpened weapon. "We got enough time…"

"I'm certain we shall prevail." Neji groused to himself, glancing over to Sasuke: who flew back into the tree-bark with a callous bellow. "Are they participating?"

"No." Gai woefully sighed, wiping his eyes as tears moistened up his cheeks, he dried his dampened face. "Kakashi. The hipster he is, won't recommend his team."

"Oh, Sasuke! I shall become Chunin!" Lee cheered, lifting his fist with a shudder of promise, grinning ebulliently up at the clouds. "No- I must battle with Sasuke at the exams!"

"I'm sorry, Lee. It's Kakashi's decision."

(-)

"Chunin Exams?!" Kiba grinned ecstatically, growling with a wild noise in restlessness. He straightened back up, laughing apologetically. "What else?"

"It's in 1 week. While Gai trained you up, he shall be helping his team exclusively, now."

"Oh, damn."

"Mentor." Shino fiddled with his sun-glasses, a rather large inquisitive shimmer inside his concealed irises. "What type of training shall we participate in?"

Hinata noiselessly listened, glancing towards an entertained Kurenai: who simply nodded in affirmation. "We shall be working on dispelling illusions."

Kiba's lips snapped into an anticipatory smirk, hanging an arm upwards. Hinata smiled amicably, fixing her neck-band, while Shino hummed with softness, fantasizing.

(-)

Shikamaru stared upon Asuma's mid-section with a conflicted gaze, lifting –and lowering- his hand: carrying the weights granted him a certain muscle-memory.

Asuma chuckled throatily, noticing Shikamaru's eyes looking towards his bandages. Patting himself, Asuma chewed on his lollipop. "I'm good, no need for worry."

Ino groaned as her arms cracked beneath their bandages, she hefted herself to stand up properly, leaning onto Choji's shoulder with a contortion of suppressed agony.

"The Chunin Exams." Asuma grimly raised his hand, silencing his students' lips. He sucked on his lollipop with a dry sound from the nose. "You shall be allowed to participate."

"Sensei!" Choji complainingly murmured, acclimating to his aching muscles, while Ino hissed in another agonizing groan. "We still need to heal."

"Oh, you shall." Asuma snapped his fingers, as Shikamaru clenched his chin, thinning his lips. "My personal doctor is being assigned."

"He's quite infamous in the medic work-place. His patients are always, or sometimes, assigned by Lord Orochimaru personally."

"Still." Asuma mused with a mirthful chortle, flicking his lollipop deeper into his mouth. "It's your decision to participate." He smirked encouragingly before dispersing.

A certain feeling of determination cascaded into Shikamaru's lazy, unconcerned features. He needed to assess his graduating class-mates skills; to keep them safe.

"Choji. Ino. Please listen."

(-)

2 weeks later:

Kakashi Hatake was a rather idle, lazy individual. He was always late with hugely lame excuses; others perceived some humour in them, either exasperated, or entertained.

Still, when he was assigned Naruto Uzumaki: A sardonic, bitter, ungracious, child, Kakashi compared him to Minato automatically. The differences were large, quite unpredicted.

Then, Orochimaru placed Sasuke under his languid mentorship. Sasuke Uchiha: A cheeky, childish, mischievous kid. Always the centre of problems.

Naruto and Sasuke were indisputably good buddies. The Uchiha was a noisy presence, while the Uzumaki was a sarcastic one. "An infamous duo."

He proposed the idea as a source of amusement, but then… Kakashi became reminded of Obito, the boisterous, charismatic individual.

Perhaps they carried the capability to be a duo, or trio if he included Rin, the Hatake banished those names, a twinge of agony swelling up at the titles.

Naruto and Sasuke; while endlessly different, would work with one another when the circumstances called upon, well, team-work. Something Kakashi learned too late.

"No third one…"

It wasn't unheard of for a two-Shinobi team, but typically uncommon. Kakashi wasn't particularly bothered. Naruto and Sasuke were problematic enough.

He crouched below Sasuke's leg, as Naruto connected a Kunai-wire beneath the Uchiha's shoulder, hauling him back from Kakashi's kicking proximities.

"Fire-Ball!"

He whirled to the side, ignoring the sizzling warmth bristling inches from his concealed face. They worked similarly to a team. That's all Kakashi needed.

"Okay, stop." He clapped with his signature, lazy drawl, his book fluttering onto another, widely erotic page. "Your skills are good enough. Naruto work on that technique."

"Sasuke, your new technique takes up too many hand-signs. Use it when time is available."

Curving his eye up, Kakashi hummed in deliberate innocence, quasi-contemplating. "You are allowed to participate." His students would certainly surpass his team.

"That took a while." Sasuke huffed inwards, comforting the bottom of his stinging shoulder from the grasp of the disconnected wires. "Thanks, for the permission."

(-)

1 week later:

Gaara and Suigetsu dispelled their Transformation, gazing upon the sight of Konoha from Orochimaru's rigid stone face. Suigetsu thrummed with an impressed sound.

"Damn, Gaara." Suigetsu mumbled, his eyes gyrating along the uncountable, commuting citizens, the shinobi dissipating, or reforming. "This place's sick."

"Then I can rest assured." A throaty, yet scientific tone echoed. Orochimaru flickered onto his stone face with his tongue grown. "Welcome. Gaara of the Sand."

"Lord Orochimaru."

"Yo, Gaara. Who's Mr. Tongue?"

"Suigetsu." Gaara hissed frostily, kneeling upon the existence of the Sannin: who chortled in endless, foreboding humour. "It's a pleasure."

"I'm Suigetsu." The Hozuki airily grinned, collapsing onto the mountainous terrain on his back with a refreshed inhalation. "Are we living in this village for good?"

"That was the agreement, certainly." Orochimaru snapped his fingers, as an Anbu reshaped in a courteous bow. "Procedure 7. Include identification."

"Lord Hokage!"

The Anbu flickered to the Hokage's office bottom stair-case. Where identification for newly-arrived individuals was placed. Orochimaru clapped with an acerbic noise.

Another Anbu sank to his knees, prostrating as Orochimaru hauled a forlorn gaze towards the still bowing Gaara. The Anbu rumbled. "I shall listen to you! Lord Hokage."

"Send them to the apartment complex I registered. The key's in your pockets."

The Anbu rummaged through his pockets, as two identical keys emerged from his buried fingers, hefting them towards Gaara and Suigetsu, the Anbu grabbed them, dissipating.

"Naruto shall be quite inclined to be mad."

(-)

Sasuke's scattered existence snapped back into shape, as his body settled atop the path with minuscule ridges in them. He scanned the teams flooding the entrance.

Rolling up his shoulders in a rambunctious stride, Sasuke smirked with a sting of cheekiness, walking through the door in soundless steps, eyeing the competition surreptitiously.

"You made it on time." Naruto indolently gestured a hand with an easy-going countenance, leaning back onto another door. "Come on, it starts in the spare one."

"Spare?" Sasuke lifted up his eye-brows in unconcerned curiosity, strolling behind Naruto: whose lips snapped upwards with unexpressed mirth. "Oh…"

The Uzumaki pointed into a rather large room, chairs and desks scattered along the sector. Kabuto's Shadow-Clone leisurely hummed, reading a book.

"We got some time until it officially starts-…"

"Yo! You came?!" Kiba's wild, yet snarky bellow thrummed, the yipping of Akamaru alongside it, the Inuzuka smirked with a haughty shimmer. "Good."

"Ah, Sasuke." Shino amicably lowered his sun-glasses, his available hand burying itself into one of his pockets in a grateful signal. "I thank you for Gai-Sensei's guidance."

Hinata tilted her head with a soft smile, content on simply nodding. "You won't be disappointed." Her intonation echoed straight-forwardly.

"Oh, I'm certain." Sasuke granted them his signature grin of mischief, clasping his hands with a plotting whirl upon his innocent features. "You got no idea…"

Shikamaru stepped into the room, his gait lazy and aimless, as his eyes flicked through each individual lounging in the room, identifying his graduated class-mates.

Choji and Ino flanked him, lacking their rippling bandages, the former consumed a wide bag of chips with a nervous posture, wary to an immeasurable degree.

"Sasuke?!" Lee blurred near to the Uchiha with his determined, boisterous grin, quasi-shocked, yet relieved. "You are participating!"

"Yep." Sasuke slanted his skull with a cheeky smirk, as Lee gushed in impervious ebullience, cheering brightly. "I'm gonna win if we battle, Lee."

Lee's charisma dimmed into a cordial challenge, he raised his hands for a resolute –and accepting- thumbs-up. "My Inner-Gates training shall assure a good match!"

(-)

Naruto's sapphire lazily eyed the Genin of his graduated class, he was never particularly amicable, nor hostile to either of them. Still, it was widely awkward.

"Good battling." He shrugged blithely, his irises scintillating in an interested twinge. Perhaps their growth would be rather impressive. "I guess…"

Shikamaru's languid countenance whirled wistfully. He signalled for Ino and Choji: the two starting to follow him with muffled up complaints.

"I'm beating your ass!" Kiba growled, unnerved by Naruto's latterly blossomed grin of balefulness. The Inuzuka strode forward, humming haughtily. "Come on, team!"

The Uzumaki's lips immediately lowered, he walked towards Sasuke: whose exuberant conversation with Lee faded, the Uchiha sank into a chair, smiling in impatience.

"You prepared?" Sasuke intertwined his fingers, gazing upon Kabuto with a perpetually cheeky expression. "I'm planning on going into history!"

"Indisputably." Naruto aridly retorted, his features twinkling in affirmation. His azure irises glistened into an uncontrollable crimson for a brief second. "You?"

"Always!"

A deep, foreboding rumble slit the peaceable atmosphere. Kabuto creaked with another, attention-garnering cough. "Welcome to the Chunin-Exams."

"Now, the rules are simple. You simply survive. Stay soundless, and no speaking."

He lifted a finger, pointing towards a pathetically concealed Sand-Shinobi: who stood up, lowering his form back onto his chair in a confused daze. "Huh?"

"The first part of the exams ensures for all of you to pass. If you can create a sound strategy for these named circumstances."

"You are faced with an S-Rank Shinobi, someone who outclasses you completely. You are situated in an empty arena with a few boulders and chakra wire only."

Kabuto connected his hands, grinning with a scientific monstrousness, a small thrum of laughter escaping his lips. "The strategy to escape. It's starting."

(-)

Shikamaru's eye-brows scurried upwards in sparse remembrance. Sasuke, himself, proposed these circumstances for advice.

Kabuto's one was exponentially more challenging, his mind worked in an endless pedal, creating an automatic strategy to succeed for this hurdle.

"Use the chakra to slash at the spare boulders. Then, when the enemy is checking that out, escape."

The Nara's ears shuddered upon hearing the uncountable strategies, many participants banned from the exams. His eyes obscured, unable to distinguish reality.

(-)

The soundless growl of the Sharingan's activation clicked Sasuke back into consciousness, his chakra humming into the illusion's dissipation.

Naruto's cyanic irises glistened briefly in firebrick, a monstrosity of chakra dispelling the hallucination coerced upon his visage. "You good?"

"Yep." Sasuke drawled, his Sharingan whirling as it dispersed the Genjutsu, the Uchiha scanned his immediate-sector in confused curiosity. "The forest of death?"

"This place?" Choji complainingly moped, while Shikamaru patted his back with a lazy glare at the forest's entrance. "And my chip's disappeared!"

"Enough whining!" A hoarse, dry order susurrated, Ibiki blinked atop the fence, arms burying into the other gruffly. "Kabuto picked all of you, meaning you were worthy of passing!"

"I shall not be idle. Or waste time. You shall be granted an Earth or Heaven scroll. Get to the tower in under a week! The two stations shall randomize the scroll you gain."

"Both are needed once you are at the tower, too!"

"That was straight-forward." Naruto mused, Sasuke and he sauntering through a curtain, flapping it open with a protected scan. "No-one's looking."

The Uchiha snatched the scroll with an easy-going grin, striding back into the wilderness, soft laughter echoing in his inward neck. "This is gonna be good, eh?!"

"Definitely." Naruto concurred, a wry smirk growing onto his bland, still baleful features. He decided to comply too Kakashi's languid advice. "The gates are opening."

"YOUTH!"

"Someone's rather boisterous."

(-)

Naruto and Sasuke bounded through the trees, the former deciding to sprint along the grass beneath the Uchiha's unstoppably blurring shape.

His own body obscured, Naruto flitted his eyes over in each path- identifying all details in his sight- the Uzumaki cracked his neck, hearing a crack in the bushes.

It sounded hurried, resolute to arrive towards them. His muscles bulged, as Naruto wrestled his grasp against the wildly grinning Kiba: whose nose rasped.

"You're only a two team?"

Kiba kneed Naruto in the abdomen, until his leg banged in endless agony. Smirking idly, the Uzumaki clenched his fingers, as Kiba groaned.

"And you're alone." Naruto's mouth rasped with an unentertained noise, he swept a smooth leg beneath Kiba, coercing him to collapse. "Too bad."

Naruto blurred up at the gargantuan branches, grabbing the sandwich Sasuke brought along with him. His teeth snapped onto it, appreciating the texture.

"The first two parts of the exam are a sham." Sasuke conversationally decided, wiping his chin of excess crumbs. "Oh, and why the hell would Kiba wrestle you?!"

"Transformation." Naruto rolled up his sleeves, massaging the creaking sting between his softened muscles. "My nine-tail's chakra is still psychotic."

"Suppress it, then." Sasuke suggested with a cheeky grin, fiddling with a few, unmindful hand-signs, tilting his head; humming boredly. "Now, let's work!"

The Uchiha situated his hands onto his legs, bending them until chakra roared into him, flicking his cheek, Sasuke blurred forward.

Naruto blithely observed Sasuke obscure, double-checking his storage-scroll, the Earth one sealed inside. It was a rather ingenious plan. A scroll in a scroll.

"Convene at the tower!"

"Affirmative, sir Sasuke!"

"I could become used to that title!"

(-)

Kankuro's nose thrummed in dry humour, his strings snapping a-part the Genin's skull, blood splattering onto his cheek. Rumbling, Kankuro flicked it at the air.

"Oi, Kimimaro." He mumbled with an unsparing smirk, feeling the earth shudder until protruding with a ridged bone, stabbing into the honking Genin's face. "Good."

Temari casually swiped her fan, creating a thrum of wind as the Kusakagure-Shinobi shrieked in unhinged fear, his body rippling into countless gashes.

"Check their belongings." She instructed with a stoic countenance, a twinkle of boredom upon her officious features. "Earth scroll, remember."

"Sure. Sure." Kankuro dismissed; chuckling in a gruffness of concurrence, he crouched, pedalling through their pockets and bags. "Damn, another heaven scroll."

"Ah." Temari disappointedly shook her head, gathering another throb of winds as the belongings immediately scattered. "Now, for newer targets."

Kankuro smirked with a sinister twinge, chortling into his lips, chakra strings formed onto the branches, functioning to trip up the other, restless competitors.

(-)

Sasuke patted his shoulder-blade in self-confirmation, staring upon the lacerated branch with a perplexed crinkle to his mischievous irises. "Claw marks."

He leaped back onto the grass, rolling into a bush as a group of hurried-pace Genin rushed by him, ignoring the gashed earth beneath their shoes.

The Uchiha hefted his storage-scroll, unsealing a kunai wire. His eyes gyrated, while shimmering with an endless childishness. "Set the trap up."

Sasuke connected the Kunai around the tree-branch itself, placing it onto another Kunai stabbed into the terrain, wrapping the wire upon its edge.

"Good!"

(-)

Kiba –real- and Shino, including Hinata, sprinted onto an alienated branch. Akamaru yipped, bounding towards an alluring fragrance.

"Oi, Akamaru!" Unhesitant, the Inuzuka whizzed after his escaping partner, hearing the exasperated sigh of Shino: who raced behind him noiselessly. "Where are you going?!"

Hinata tapped her fingers, her face contorting into the Byakugan, a bulge protruding from the side of her head. "Sasuke's setting up a trap."

Shino lifted his eye-brows in a scheming shimmer, burying his hands into his trench-coat's pockets with a grim murmur. "He's using a smell that's attracting Akamaru, then."

"Kiba's not planning to stop." Hinata wryly noted, dispersing her Byakugan as the bulge faded back into her skull. Kiba unintelligibly growled in the distance. "What now?"

"We were too late." Shino sighed shamelessly, bouncing back onto the forlorn grass; his sun-glasses obstructing his eyes. "He's trapped…"

"Indeed, he is." Sasuke agreed unmindfully, humming to himself in unconscious innocence. He grinned uncontrollably, snapping his lips upwards. "Welcome."

Shino and Hinata instantly backtracked, scattering from each-other in the rather empty sector. Sasuke stood still, unconcerned. "Good acrobatics."

"Still." He gestured towards Kiba, squirming inside the shackles of the Kunai-Wires, while twirling the Heaven scroll in between his fingers with an amicable laugh. "I win!"

"No." Shino nodded sparsely to Hinata: whose Byakugan bulged back up, Sasuke's Sharingan whirled in restless initiation. "Hinata, you take care of him."

Sasuke leaned back innocently onto the tree-branch, predicting Hinata's callous smack upon his face, flipping above her, the Uchiha bowed in cheekiness.

"Thank you, thank you for the applause!" Sasuke gratefully echoed, wiping his cheek in mock-worry. "I suppose Kakashi-Sensei's advice worked!"

"Naruto, Sasuke. No restricting your abilities. Sasuke, it's in your nature to play, frolic. Naruto's, your nature is to be calculated, mocking in your fighting style."

"Frolic." It hummed inside Sasuke's mind, brimming with unmanageable immaturity. His grin glistened in ecstasy, extremely elated. "This is too much fun!"

His hands boiled up, as Sasuke blurred towards Hinata: who flew back into the earth, rolling in it for a fleeting second. Dispelling his chakra, he dispersed.

(-)

Naruto cracked his neck; a rough sound playing in his ears. He coiled his fingers into each-other, smiling with a twinge of frosty ebullience, cyanic irises scintillating; mirthful.

Kankuro's features whirled into a baleful smirk, chakra strings bulging in all paths enveloping Naruto. The Uzumaki choked languidly, entertained.

Temari tip-toed behind him, perched upon another rather wide branch, settling her fan into it with a wary stride, listening to Naruto's unsettling laughter.

"Mocking…"

"Oi, fox. Screw your game!"

The Uzumaki gritted his teeth, sharpening his nails immediately. His whiskers thickened in alarm, as Naruto grinned almost psychotically.

(-)

The Uzumaki hurried.

(-)

Sadness.


A/N: Bye.