Chunin Exams Arc: The Exams start

They checked their affinities, and unsurprisingly Sasuke had a Katon affinity while Naruto had a Futon and Sakura a Doton affinity. Kakashi gives them a handful of low-level jutsu to study and learn. The week of training goes by fast, and Sakura almost doesn't notice Ino spending most of the nights at her house where they talk about their preparation for the exams and theorize what they'll be like.

The night before the exams, Sakura put the last of the dishes away "alright, Ino, what's up with you staying here so much? This isn't the first time I've been home alone, you know I'll be fine, and besides, I know this had to be cutting into your clan training."

Ino shifted under Sakura's glare "what? No, it's not. I put in some extra time in the morning before team training to make up for any lost time here, and besides, I just wanted to hang out with you. You know the escort mission you took had you gone for a few months. I just wanted to spend time with my best friend before either of us went off on a long mission like that again."

Sakura rolled her eyes as her face softened. "You aren't getting all mushy on me, are you? We're shinobi now, you know we gotta be tough."

Ino laughed and bumped shoulders with her as they moved to the living room to go over the books again. "Come on, let's make sure we understand this nonsense, so we don't mess up in the field."

The next day Sakura met up with her teammates outside the academy where they would be dropping off their submission forms. She nodded to them, "ready to do this?"

Naruto grinned and cheered while Sasuke gave his usual confident nod. Sakura fell in line a step behind the two of them as they made their way inside. She noticed it right away when they had started pushing their way through the crowd to see what was going on. Someone had put an area of effect genjutsu upon this floor.

They stopped as some Konoha shinobi kicked another to the ground. Other than his bowl-cut hair, Sakura noticed that the fellow genin on the floor was wearing a green jumpsuit. He looked to be at least a year older than her team. Sasuke looked unimpressed, "seriously? Is this the best they can do to try and stop us from signing up?"

he pushed forwards as the genin at the door sneered at him. "Oh, you want to try your luck at getting past us?"

"Psh, why would we waste our time here? Come on, did no one else notice it? Sakura educate these idiots."

Sakura blinked 'is he trying to show off in front of the competition? Best go along with it.'

She tossed her hair over her shoulder and smiled "Of course. These two put a genjutsu on this floor. We're on the second, not the third. It was painfully obvious to see."

Naruto did his best job of not looking lost as the genjutsu was released. "Oh, so you saw through that, but let's see if you can handle this!"

He went in for a kick that Sasuke, of course, felt the need to match, but before either could connect, the guy from the floor was between them blocking both hits. "Please, there is no need for fighting at this time." Sasuke and the other genin retracted their legs and backed off.

"Lee, didn't you say you wanted to keep a low profile? What was that?"

Sakura looked as Lee's teammates approached, and she realized they were trying to make him out to be the leader of their group, but his teammate is a Hyuga. Sakura really doubted someone from that clan would fall in line with someone who looked like Lee. her attention came back to Lee as he stared at her "your name is Sakura-chan correct?"

She grimaced, "yes, it is, and you're Lee-Kun, I suppose."

He nodded and got far too close, "would you like to go out with me?!"

She took a step back and elbowed Naruto, who was trying not to laugh. "I'll make this as clear as can be... No, and don't ask again. I hate it when people don't get it the first time."

She felt kind of bad at how crestfallen he seemed, but he quickly looked at Sasuke, "You're the Uchiha that I've heard about."

It was Sasuke's turn to take a step back, "you're not going to ask me out as well are you?"

The girl standing behind Lee tried to cover her laugh as the Huyga smirked. Lee shook his head "No, I wish to fight you."

Sakura grinned. "Oh, you think you can take on an Uchiha. Fine by me, then let's fight."

The girl behind Lee and Sakura both rolled their eyes at the same time. The girl patted Lee's shoulder "Don't be late to sign up Neji and I are gonna go on ahead."

Lee nodded, "Thank you, Tenten. I will not be late." he turned back to Sasuke, "lead the way to wherever you wish to fight."

Sakura and Naruto followed Lee and Sasuke to one of the enclosed sparring rooms. As the two fighters went to the ground floor, Sakura and Naruto leaned on the railing, "Do you think Sasuke can win?"

Naruto nodded with his usual grin plastered on his face "of course, he's our teammate. Don't tell him I said this, but he is strong."

The fight did not go like they thought it would. Sasuke would see an attack and guard against it only to be hit anyways. Every time he went in for a punch or kick, Lee wouldn't be there anymore, and he would send Sasuke flying. Even when Sasuke activated his Sharingan, he couldn't match Lee's speed and strength. Sasuke was painting now bleeding from a split lip "what the hell are you using? This has to be some kind of Ninjutsu or Genjutsu involved."

Sakura's brow furrowed; she didn't see anything that would reveal a genjutsu, but it could always be something affecting only Sasuke. She didn't think it was a form of Ninjutsu since there was no way a genin could perform something with these effects without using hand signs.

"It is nothing but Taijutsu. I cannot perform the other two. I have worked every day for my whole life to show that hard work overcomes the natural-born genesis like you. Now, will you yield, or will you continue to try and prove yourself?"

Sasuke gritted his teeth and charged in. Neither Naruto nor Sakura is sure how Sasuke ended up in the air with Lee below him. Before anything else could happen, Lee was yanked by his arm wrappings out the air, and Sasuke hit the ground with an unceremonious thud.

Sakura ran over to check on him while Naruto stared at who had interrupted their fight. Lee was getting chewed out by a turtle while Sakura pulled out some supplies and cleaned Sasuke's cut lip, "You got beat."

He winced as she dabbed at the cut, "It won't happen again."

Lee turned to face them. "Sasuke-Kun, you have a lot to improve on, but I'm sure with enough hard work, you can make it, and when you do, I look forward to fighting you again."

Sasuke just grunted as Lee bowed and left. Naruto looked back at them "you guys saw the turtle, right?"

Sakura helped Sasuke up and said, "Yes, we did now we're gonna be late if we don't hurry."

The team hurried back up to the third floor and found the correct room as they approached Kakashi appeared and smiled, "alright, you three you ready to do this?"

They all nodded an affirmative "good there's gonna be a lot of tough competition most of these genin have years more experience in the field than you, but I wouldn't have recommended you for this if I didn't think you stood a chance at this, so do your best and try not to die."

With that said, he vanished, and they stepped into the room. Sakura almost tripped when she saw the number of people glaring at them as they walked in. All of them looked older than her and her fellow rookie genin, who were making their way over to them.

"Wow, I can't believe Team Seven actually got recommended for this. Are you sure you're ready for something so challenging, Sasuke?" Kiba asked, grinning with more smugness than he deserved.

Sasuke grinned "This is going to be easy. I'm more worried about you slowing your team down, mutt."

Sakura ignored them as they started their boasting match, and Hinata failed to reign in her teammate. Shino didn't help much as he was distracted, keeping a beetle from being stomped on.

Ino bumped shoulders with Sakura, "you nervous?"

Sakura sighed, "unbelievably so, but I've got good teammates, so I'm sure we'll be fine. What about you?'

Ino sighed and looked at her teammates. "Choji is stress eating, so he goes through twice the amount of food now. I think last night we used up Asuma-sensei's paycheck for the next two weeks. Shikamaru hasn't taken this seriously at all. I honestly think he's trained less since hearing about us entering this, so I'll just have to carry my team to victory." Ino finished her rant by flipping her hair over her shoulder.

Sakura laughed "I'm sure you will. Good luck."

Ino nodded and returned the statement as a leaf shinobi approached "hey rookie nine, you might want to tone it down. You're drawing some unwanted attention."

The nine looked at the newcomer, and Kiba spoke first, "oh, and who the hell are you to tell us that?"

The stranger held his hands up in surrender before adjusting his glasses "I'm just a fellow genin. I've taken this test a few times with my team, but sadly as you can see, we haven't been able to pass yet. My name's Kabuto, and I've got some information I'm willing to share with a fellow Konoha shinobi if you keep quiet."

They all looked at each other, and Sasuke spoke first, "alright, why don't you show us what you have then."

"Of course." Kabuto went about revealing which villages sent shinobi and how many teams were sent along with the general level of these teams. Sasuke had him go into more detail about a few specific people like Lee and Gaara. While they were talking, Sakura let her eyes wander over the crowd most weren't obviously listening in, but she was sure everyone was trying to learn something. She looked at a shinobi from Otogakure and blinked to see he had disappeared.

The sound shinobi appeared in front of Kabuto, who had just mentioned their village. "So you think you can underestimate us? Why don't I teach you why that can be fatal!"

He threw an impressive right hook, but Kabuto dodged it easily; at least that's what they all thought until his glasses shattered and he fell to the ground vomiting. Naruto and Sakura went over to check on him while Sasuke and Kiba reached for their kunai pouches, and the rest of the rookies shifted in case a fight broke out.

An explosion of smoke at the front of the classroom caught everyone's attention as several people appeared. The man in front decked out in a black trench coat, gloves and a bandana with his hitai-ate on it spoke "Alright genin calm down and listen up. I am Ibiki Morino. I'll be your proctor for the first stage of the Chunin Exams. Form a line and turn in your application once it's turned in; you'll get a number and sit in the corresponding seat, and then we'll get started!"

It took several minutes, but once they were seated, Sakura glanced around and noticed that no one was sitting by their teammates. In fact, they were all spread out reasonably well.

Ibiki started to explain the test while the chunin with him passed out a test for everyone and then took their seats. The whole time Sakura stared at Naruto, knowing he was going to struggle with this and that with their positions, she was in the best spot to help him.

As the test started, she looked over the questions before trying to answer any. The tenth was something that would be given after some time had passed. The available ones were hard to put lightly; she knew she could get them answered, but it confirmed Naruto probably wouldn't be able to answer any, especially with how the questions were written.

She bit her lip and glanced around, making sure the chunin wasn't looking directly at her as she pulled out a slip of paper used for messenger hawks out of her sleeve along with a small pencil.

She settled into a position that kept her cheat sheet covered and started to answer questions while copying down the answer with her other hand. Once she had about seven problems answered, she felt the chakra enter her system, and she blacked out for only a few seconds. As she came back, Sakura looked over her test and cheat sheet she was making, where she found the note she knew would be left behind. 'Thanks for the answers, bestie.'

Sakura rolled her eyes and erased it before folding the paper and slipping it into her sleeve. She took several deep breaths and started to put her control exercises to use by having the paper stick to herself and slide along her body down to her foot. Sakura prayed she would be able to throw it right like this and with a swift movement of her foot sent the paper flying along the ground where it floated up and stuck into Naruto's shoe by his ankle 'come on idiot notice it.'

Sakura sighed in relief as Naruto reached down and scratched his ankle. He paused for a second and glanced around, looking for who put the paper in his shoe before as subtly as he could manage to pull the paper up and look at it.

Once forty-five minutes passed, Ibiki started going over the tenth question, and Sakura's stomach dropped 'Naruto would never chicken out, but if we don't get this, then we won't ever be able to do the Exams again.'

People started dropping out one after the other, and by the time it had stopped, almost half the room was empty. Sakura nearly choked as Naruto raised his hand only to slam it down and proudly declare he wouldn't back down for anything. Ibiki smiled, "congratulations, you've all passed the tenth question."

At that moment, the window shattered, and a tarp was secured to the ceiling by two kunai thrown by the woman who landed in front of it. Sakura noted her outfit consisted of a jacket, boots, a short skirt, and the typical mesh under armor that almost all shinobi wore.

The woman grinned. "Hello everybody, I'm Anko Mitarashi, and I'll be the proctor for the second stage!" she looked around the room and laughed as Ibiki stepped out from behind the tarp "why so many left Ibiki? Are you going soft on me?"

Ibiki sighed as the genin starred on in shocked silence. "Anko, please. I didn't even get a chance to explain what I was testing for with this exam."

Anko shrugged, "If they passed but didn't figure out you were testing their ability to gather intel in a hostile environment, then maybe you need to rework your test." Anko turned her attention back to the genin who were recovering from her entrance. "Alright squirts. You lot go find your Jonin leader; they'll direct you to the next area."

She climbed onto the window seal and grinned. "I doubt it will happen, but let's pray at least half of you actually pass my test. We wouldn't want the third round to be over too quickly." She jumped from the window and skipped across the roofs.

As everyone filtered out, Sakura breathed a sigh of relief, "I'm so glad we made it out of that."

The other two nodded along, and Sasuke said, "How long did it take you two to figure out we needed to cheat?"

Sakura smiled "I didn't have to, I just answered the questions."

She grinned wider at their baffled looks. Naruto laughed, "of course we were supposed to cheat... I figured it out pretty quickly."

"You didn't realize it until I said something, didn't you Dead Last?" Sasuke said.

"Wha- No! I definitely figured it out before that!"

Sakura rubbed her face "I'm just glad you saw my note and took it."

Naruto stopped "oh, you sent that? I didn't use it."

His teammates stopped dead in their tracks, and Sakura groaned, "Naruto, did you answer any of the questions?"

He shook his head, "Nope, I thought the note was a trap, so I didn't use it and just waited for the last question."

Sasuke and Sakura looked at each other baffled, and Sasuke shook his head "Only Naruto could do that."

She nodded and started walking again, "come on, let's go find Sensei so he can tell us where to go."