Chapter 19

Naruto was not happy. He was not happy at all. He should have stayed home and let Sasuke not get his chance at gaining chūnin. He knew that Sakura wouldn't have mind since she felt scared. However, she worked her butt off and wanted to try. He wasn't about to let her try without some back-up. Still, he was still very pissed off at Sasuke's attitude and at Kakashi's favoritism. God, did he want to belt Sasuke in the face. Just one good shot.

Suddenly, a hand touched his shoulder. He turned to see Hinata. She gave him a friendly smile and a worried look.

"What's wrong?" Naruto asked.

"I was about to ask you the same thing. You were leaking out small doses of killing intent. Are you angry at someone?" she asked him.

"Yeah, my dumb-ass sensei and my dumber-ass teammate. I assume that you knew about the genjutsu downstairs?" Naruto asked.

"What genjutsu?" Hinata asked with confusion.

"Exactly, the nimrod revealed it to everyone just because of his ego. He's just made our team a target." Naruto explained.

"So why did you come here?" Hinata asked.

"To watch Sakura's back and make sure that she lives. Seeing you here is a bonus." Naruto said with a smirk. Hinata giggled and blushed a little at his flirting. Sakura and Ino thought that it was cute while Neji, who looked at them from across the room, was glaring at them. The two continued to converse when Naruto heard his name. He and Hinata turned to see a young man with ash-grey hair, glasses and a card in his hand. He was facing a red-haired boy who was wearing a gourd. On the strap, was the symbol of Sunagakure (Hidden Sand).

"Uzumaki Naruto, age 13. Teammates are Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura. He has been on seven D-rank mission and one C-rank mission that was bumped up to an B-rank. It says here that he was in the middle of his graduating class, skilled in various arts. Very high chakra pool and very devious." The young man said to the red head. The boy seemed to have scoffed at the info and was making his way back to his teammates.

"So I wasn't getting paranoid. You must have been the guy that was hanging upside down from that tree that myself, my teammate and my friends were standing under. That's a pretty good skill you got there. That's almost jōnin-level stealth." Naruto said to the red head. The boy stopped and looked at Naruto with some very dangerous looking green eyes. Hinata stood behind Naruto, a little afraid at what she was feeling coming off the guy. The two would stare at each other for a while before the red head spoke.

"I am not as naïve or gullible as my brother. Such cheap tactics and trickery will not work against me." He said.

"Well, you never know for sure. It did work on your brother and those three over there." Naruto said while pointing at the Oto (Sound) shinobi. "How about you tell me your name since you were asking about me?" Naruto said.

"Sabaku no Gaara." The red head said before breaking eye contact and made his way back to his teammates. Sakura came over with Kiba, Shino and Shikamaru.

"That guy gave me the chills. What does he want with you?" Sakura asked.

"You got me but it looks like that he doesn't care about me anymore. We can relax a little." Naruto said.

"Wherever you go, you always bring trouble with you." Shikamaru said with a sigh. That's when the front of the room was engulfed in smoke. When it cleared, several men were standing in the background while one man was standing right out in front. He was wearing the same thing as the others only he was wearing a black jacket.

"Enough of your gabbing! The first stage of the Chūnin Senbatsu Shiken (Chūnin Selection Exam) is about to begin!" the man shouted.

XXX

Kakashi entered the jōnin lounge with his book in his hand. He looked up to see his fellow jōnin and waved to them. He then took a seat across from Asuma and Kurenai. He ignored the dose of killing intent that Kurenai was giving him because of the book he was reading.

"So, how do you think that your teams will do?" Kakashi asked.

"They should do well. Shikamaru is smart and resourceful. I trust him to keep the team in line." Asuma said.

"I'm not too worried myself. Kiba, Hinata and Shino work very well together. I am especially happy about Hinata because she no longer holds herself back. I must thank Naruto for helping her out of her shell. I wonder if I can teach him something, considering that things are not resolved with his team." Kurenai pointed out. That comment made Kakashi look up from his book. Asuma just sighed but had a small grin on his face.

"I do not know what you have heard Kurenai but there are no problems with my team." Kakashi said.

"So you did solve the issues among them? I am sorry about that. I only assumed things because of what Hinata told me. Apparently, Naruto has created flyers to post around the academy about your teaching habits. He really doesn't think your team will stick together and wishes to warn future genin about you. However, since you solved all issues, I guess it's a good thing that Hinata stopped him from doing that. My mistake." Kurenai said and turned to her fingers, finding them interesting. A few of the jōnin chuckled at the teasing but Kakashi was not amused. He turned back to his book but he did not enjoy it.

XXX

Everyone looked at the large man who had just spoken. Naruto got a better look at the guy and had a small smirk on his face.

"Hey Scarface, I didn't know that you were running these exams!" Naruto shouted. The man called 'Scarface' turned to Naruto and snarled.

"So it's you. This is a good sign for me. Now, I don't have to face your sister's wrath after I break you into pieces." He said to him.

"I'd like to see you try old man. Greater men have tried and failed. You ain't any different." Naruto boasted.

"We'll see." He said. He turned his attention back to the room. "My name is Morino Ibiki and I am the examiner of the first stage. Everyone has sixty seconds to get to your assigned seats." Everyone looked at him like he was crazy. Naruto quickly made his way to his seat. "Did you not hear me? GET TO YOUR SEATS NOW OR BE DISQUALIFIED!" Everyone began a mad dash to their seats. Naruto found his seat and waited. Joining him was a random genin and Hinata. They said their hellos and waited for Ibiki to start the test. Once everyone was in their seat, Ibiki looked at them.

"There are certain rules that you will abide by while you are in this room. I will answer no question." Ibiki said.

"But," Sakura began.

"I SAID NO QUESTIONS!" he shouted. Sakura bulked and shut her mouth. "The first phase of the test will be a written test." Naruto bulked at that, which made Ibiki smile. "There are ten questions on the exam, which mean that you have ten points to get. If you are caught cheating, you will lose a point. If your teammates get caught cheating, you will lose two points. If you get caught a total of five times, you and you and your team are disqualified." Ibiki explained.

"That's not fair!" someone shouted.

"Tough, you all have had the unfortunate pleasure of me being the examiner. These will not some simple test that you can pass. My word is law and I am Kami in this room." Ibiki said with some oppressive chakra that made everyone flinch. "You all will have forty-five minutes to answer the nine questions on the sheet. After that, you all will be given the tenth question. You may begin your test, now!" With that, everyone began to look at the test.

Naruto looked at the questions and silently growled. He was never that good of a test taker. He was a man of action. He did enough to pass the exams so that he would not be labeled the dead-last. These questions however were impossible. These were some pretty hard questions and there was no way that he could answer them. He then saw several teams get caught cheating. That was pretty quick in his mind. He was frustrated until he turned to see Hinata. He was a little confused as she had her Byakugan activated. Didn't she know that she would get caught if she was seen? It was pretty easy to see that she was cheating. Yet, not of the examiners were doing anything about it. Was this the point of the exam?

He carefully looked around the room and saw that everyone he knew was cheating. Kiba was using his dog, Shino was using his bugs very discreetly and Ino was slumped over, which meant that she had used her clan's jutsu. So that was the point of the test, to cheat and to cheat well. Well, if they wanted him to cheat, he was going to do a great job of doing it. He had a foxy grin as a plan formulated in head. When he had something, he decided to put it into action.

"Hey sensei, can you come over here for a second?" Naruto asked. The guy walked over to him and gave him his attention.

"What is it kid?" he asked.

"Punch in the nuts!" Naruto exclaimed. A quick jab in the nuts sent the man to the ground in the fetal position. Everyone looked at the move with shock and awe. Ibiki looked at Naruto with rage.

"What the hell are you thinking Uzumaki?" Ibiki roared.

"Bitch was looking at me funny." Naruto answered with a tone. Ibiki came at him and lifted him by his throat.

"Anko should have taught you better. You don't mess with me punk." Ibiki snarled.

"You don't scare me." Naruto said with a grin. Ibiki just growled and threw Naruto back down into his seat. He made his way back to the front of the room. Naruto still had that grin on his face, which confused everyone. Naruto suddenly took his paper and erased something. He then wrote his name and sat back with his feet on the table. Ibiki looked at him with confusion. He continued to look at him until he realized what he did.

'That whole incident was a diversion! He managed to steal someone's test. But whose and how?' Ibiki wondered. He looked around the room but did not see anything wrong.

"Taichou, may I be excused?" asked one of the examiners. Ibiki looked and saw a female chūnin who was dressed in very tight clothing. It highlighted her curves and caught the attention of everyone in the room.

"Yeah, get the hell out of here." Ibiki said. She smiled and walked away with a sway in her hips that caught every males' attention and every females' ire. She left and the test continued. Ibiki was still trying to figure out what that brat did. However, the time was up and he had to continue the test.

"Alright, pencils down. It is time for the tenth question. Before this question is asked, I must tell you all about one more rule. If you do not answer this question correctly, no matter if you answered each question right, you and your teammates will fail and you will remain a genin for the rest of your life." Ibiki said.

"What? You don't have the authority to do something like that!" Kiba shouted.

"What did I say before kid? You got a bad hand when I was chosen for the first stage. It's my rules and my world. You don't like, then quit." Ibiki said. Everyone looked very nervous at the rules that Ibiki laid on the line. One by one, several people stood up and submitted. They were too scared to take the question and they did not want their teammates to suffer. Sakura looked scared as well and she was about to raise her hand as well. That's when she was hit by something. It was a piece of paper. She opened it and began to read it.

"Hey, I'm with you if you want to quit but I think it would be a shame that you let this guy scare you. You're much stronger than this and I believe in you. You can do this and I have your back." The note said. Sakura looked in the direction that she was hit and saw Naruto. He gave her a grin and she felt at ease by it. She took a deep breath and relaxed. Ibiki saw this and just smirked at the group. He waited a few more minutes before speaking again.

"Are the rest of you sure about this?" Ibiki asked the group. The remaining teams looked at him with unwavering gazes. He them smiled and looked at the group. "Congratulations, you have all just passed the first stage." Everyone looked at the man with wide eyes.

XXXXX

Authors' Notes: Sorry that this is late but I was busy with my classes. Learning how to use Adobe Flash Professional is a bitch. Anyway, a fan of the story gave me an idea to add to the re-write of this story. I decided to put up a poll for everyone to make their votes, so look out for it. Anyway, enjoy the new chapter.