Years Arc: The Chunin Exams

Sakura stood to the side of the Hokage's desk as the rest of the genin came in. Tsunade motioned for her to join them before she spoke, "This year's chunin exams have been decided. Things were hectic, so a neutral border country is going to hold them this year. Takigakure has agreed to hold them. This will be different than last time both Kumo and Iwa will be participating. Kiri may make an appearance, but it's doubtful they'll have participants. Rock Lee is still on a light workload while he gets to full strength, and the Hyuga clan has requested that Hinata-sama not participate, so Kiba Inuzuka, you'll be joining Team Guy, and Sakura Haruno you'll be joining team Ten for the exams. any complaints?"

"No, Hokage-sama!" the genin all said.

"Good, we'll be heading out in three weeks. Be on your best behavior, and do your best in the exams. Dismissed!"

Everyone went with their teams to start preparing for whatever could happen during the exams. Sakura followed Choji and Ino to their team's training ground, where Asuma was waiting. He smiled. "So the Hokage sent her own student to be on my team. I'm honored."

Sakura blushed and chuckled "please don't call me that Asuma-sensei. I'm just Sakura Haruno."

"Student of the Hokage," Ino said with a grin.

Sakura punched her arm as Asuma laughed, "don't be modest, Sakura-chan; you'll want people to know during the exams you're the Hokage's student. It'll be a good boost to your chances."

"Sounds like it's more stressful. People will go out of their way to take me out." Sakura grumbled.

Asuma laughed as he lit his cigarette. "Well, then we'll have to work on some drills and team exercises till it's time for the exams."

"Yes, sensei!" the three said before they started their training.

Once three weeks had passed, the genin and Tsunade flanked by Kakashi, Guy, Asuma, and Kurani stood by the main gate. Tsunade looked over the genin. "Listen up, brats! While you're representing our village, you behave. I know I already told you, but I need you to understand that things between Konoha and Iwa are rocky, and it's even worse with Kumo. They may try to provoke you or straight up attack you. Most of you are clan heirs, so be careful and stay in groups; no one goes anywhere alone. Understood!"

"Yes, Hokage-sama!" the group shouted.

"Good, then let's move out. Tsunade led the group out of the village and headed to Takigakure.

"Takigakure? Why are we going there?" Naruto asked as he finished off the popsicle Jiraiya got him.

Jiraiya opened a small notebook, "I have an informant there. I need to talk to, and I want to visit an old friend of mine."

Naruto scratched his chin as he chewed the stick from his popsicle "what's Takigakure like?"

"The village hidden in the waterfalls is considered one of the most well-hidden shinobi villages. They even have a Jinchūriki. They're the only ones outside the five elemental nations to have one."

Naruto's ears perked up. "There's someone like me?"

"Don't even think about it. It'll be dangerous to get involved. They stay neutral and are friendly to the other villages, but if they found out you were a Jinchūriki, and they caught you interacting with theirs, it could cause problems."

"Pft like I'd cause problems. I'm just interested in what they're like. The only other one I've met was Gaara, and we tried to kill each other most of the time."

Jiraiya smacked him on the top of his head. "Don't even try it, ya runt. When we get there, you do what I say, and you don't wander off, ya hear?"

"Yeah yeah, I hear ya pervy sage," Naruto said as they slung their bags on and moved out.

The Konoha group followed their guide through a waterfall into the village proper. The group looked around awestruck; most of them hadn't been to another shinobi village. Their guide led them to a circle of half a dozen buildings.

"This is Konoha's designated area. You may keep all your things here and rest between exams. There is a curfew for foreigners of eleven pm, but before then, you're free to enjoy everything our village has to its fullest." She bowed and left the Konoha group to get their things set up.

As the genin set up their sleeping arrangements, the jonin set up a barrier. Tsunade's eye twitched as she saw a mane of white hair followed by a shock of yellow shortly behind. "Why are they here?" she muttered.

Sakura walked over to her master. "Is everything alright, master?"

Tsunade turned her attention to her student "yes, everything is ok. Go double-check with your team and make sure you're ready for the exams they'll be starting tomorrow."

"Yes, ma'am!" Sakura ran off to make sure Choji and Ino were prepared.

Naruto groaned as Jiraiya made him stand outside a sleazy bar in a back alley. It didn't take long before Naruto got bored and was considering ditching his master when he heard a commotion around the corner and went to investigate. Naruto clenched his teeth as he saw a few shinobi harassing a girl. They pushed her around and grabbed her hair as they threw insults. Naruto's blood ran cold as they called her a demon and a monster.

Fu was surprised as a smoke bomb exploded, and a hand grabbed her, pulling her away from her attacks. Naruto landed on the roof of a building near the main square, and Fu pulled her hand away "who are you? You're not from this village, are you ssu?"

Naruto grinned, "Nah, I'm from Konoha. I saw those guys picking on you, so I figured I'd help you out."

Fu took a step back, "you here for the chunin exams?"

Naruto laughed and opened his pack showing the chunin vest. "Nope, I already got promoted. I'm traveling with my master and training. He's here to talk to some old friend, but he's taking forever."

"You're a chunin ssu?" Fu said as she raised an eyebrow.

Naruto zipped his pack up. "Oi, you sound like you don't believe me."

"I didn't say that. I'm just saying you're kinda young ssu."

Naruto sat down and scoffed "you don't look much older than I am. I worked hard y' know. Even though they call me a monster."

Fu sat down nearby "they think you're a monster ssu?"

Naruto smiled sadly, "yeah, for as long as I can remember, I was hated called a demon and a monster."

"I've been called a monster since I was born as well, ssu."

"It's hard being like us," Naruto said as he looked over at her.

Fu eyed him. "I doubt we're in the exact same position, ssu."

Naruto lifted his jacket and circulated chakra through his stomach, making the seal appear. "You sure about that?"

Fu sucked in her breath. "They let you out of your village?"

Naruto nodded "yeah, I've gone on missions and left the village. This isn't even my first time leaving the Land of Fire."

Fu looked down at the village with sadness, "you're lucky. I'm stuck here almost all the time. Even if I do get to leave the village, I always have escorts who keep me from doing anything fun. I wanted to join the chunin exams this year, but the village leader said no ssu."

Sakura and the other genin were being led to the first exam, and she looked up and nearly tripped over her own feet as they came to a stop while their guide talked to a messenger that had shown up. Ino looked at her, "you ok?"

Sakura pointed up, "good thing Hinata's not here. That'd be a hit to her confidence."

The group looked up and saw Naruto talking to some girl with green hair. Ino groaned and rubbed her face, "what is he even doing here?"

"Naruto! What are you going here?!" Sakura yelled.

Naruto stopped laughing and looked down at them before grinning. He looked over to the girl he was sitting next to and talked to her before jumping down to the group. "Yo, everyone y'all here for the exams?"

"Yeah, what are you doing here? Other than hitting on some girl?" Kiba said with a grin.

Naruto blushed and waved his hand "no, no, not like that. I just helped her out, and we were talking about being shinobi gosh." he looked around. "Hinata and Busy Brows not here?"

Sakura shook her head "no, the Hyuga clan said she wouldn't be participating, and Lee is still technically recovering and getting back to full strength, so Tsunade-sama figured it would be best if he didn't participate."

Naruto frowned, "that's too bad; it would have been great to see everyone."

Ino smiled, "you sure you really missed all of us and not just one of us, particularly?"

Naruto blushed and waved his hands "it's not like that."

They weren't given much time to talk as their guide finished their discussion and led them in a new direction. "My apologies there was an issue with where the first exams would happen. If you'll follow me."

The genin were led to a large building and divided into groups. Sakura noticed that all the teams had been separated. They were led into various rooms full of other shinobi, and Sakura saw the Kumo shinobi glaring, especially hard at her and Neji. "Tenten and Ino got sent to their own room, and Kiba and Choji as well," Sakura whispered.

Neji nodded. "It looks like they don't want us working with our teams but don't mind if we're with fellow village members."

"Could be a written test like last year or maybe something where you can't be sure if your fellow comrade could be trusted."

Neji looked over the crowd, "we'll have to be on our toes."

A Taki chunin walked in. "Hello everyone, welcome to room three. I'll be your proctor for the first exam. Form a line, and we'll give you a number and take the seat corresponding to your number."

Everyone shuffled into place, and after a few minutes, everyone was seated, and several chunin passed out a sheet of paper. Sakura looked it over and realized it was one part of a code. The proctor cleared his throat "the first exam is a two-part exam. It's pretty straightforward. First, decode it, then meet up with your team in the main lobby. You have one hour to decode it. If you're caught looking at anyone else's progress, you and your team will be disqualified. Good luck."

Sakura glanced at Neji before they started. She scratched her head as she worked on the code. She was decent but not the best at code-breaking, and this was obviously well made. Time ticked on, and several people were caught cheating and dismissed. 'This doesn't feel like the last exams. I think we actually have to solve it ourselves.'

After forty-five minutes, she cracked the code, and it came out to be a string of letters and numbers. 'Ah, shit, is it double coded?'

Sakura's thoughts stopped as a chunin put a hand on her shoulder "you've done your part; you can go wait for your team."

Sakura slipped her paper into her pocket and left the room. She looked around the lobby and saw she was the only Konoha shinobi who had finished. Sakura spotted a familiar set of shinobi and walked over, "oh, hey, it's been a while."

Temari and Kankuro looked over, and Kankuro smirked, "look, it's pinky. How's it been going?"

Sakura huffed, "call me pinky again and see what happens."

Temari pulled her brother back before he could try to provoke Sakura "don't start a fight, Kankuro; it'll be embarrassing if you lose."

Sakura tried not to look smug as she said, "I think you mean when he loses."

Kankuro smiled. "Oh, you sound a lot more sure of yourself than the last exams."

"I've been training a lot with Lady Tsunade."

Kankuro smirked, "oh, so the rumors about her taking on a student that no one had heard of are true."

"No one's heard of me yet, but they will after I beat you and anyone else who comes at me."

Temari laughed, "oh, please beat up my brother; he's been getting a big head recently.

"Temari, aren't you supposed to support your family over some random chick."

Sakura huffed, "some random chick? And here I thought we were friends nowadays. I spare your lives; you save my friends' lives that makes us friends."

The Suna siblings looked at each other, surprised by the statement. Sakura looked over and smiled, "wow, Ino, that took you a while. Your dad's gonna make you spend time in T&I if he hears about this."

Ino punched her shoulder, "not a word out of you. I'll buy whatever you want to keep you quiet."

Sakura smiled. "Hm, I'll think about it."

"You're the best friend ever, you know."

"Yeah, I know."

The group stood around talking, and eventually, Gaara showed up and stood near his siblings. The rest of the Konoha shinobi came out as well, and Kiba said, "I noticed something weird while I was doing the code thing."

The others perked up and looked over as he spoke, "They called you out on cheating but as long as it wasn't obvious, you could work with people from your village. Choji and I worked together to crack our codes; they're also different."

Everyone looked over the codes they had deciphered and saw they were all different. Sakura rubbed her chin, "wonder what we'll have to do with this now."

As the last participants to pass entered the lobby, a new chunin showed up and stood on a reception desk "alrighty, you all have passed the first part of the first exam. You now have five hours to crack the team's code and find the lockbox. Bring it back to this location, and you will pass the first exam. Your time starts now!"

"Let's get away from the other teams for now," Sakura said, leading the others out of the lobby.

Once they were on a roof away from the others, they pulled out their paper and looked over the numbers and letters. Sakura scratched her head "they probably have to be in order... what room were you in Choji?"

"Room one."

"I was in room two," Ino said as Sakura put the pieces of paper in order.

"I was in room three, so if we line them up, this should be the complete code. Now, all we have to do is decode the whole thing," Sakura said.

Hours passed, and Sakura cursed and grabbed a fist full of chips that Choji had been eating out of. "This is hard. A lot harder than the other one was."

Neji's team appeared, and he asked, "are you struggling with the code?"

Sakura huffed. "Yeah, are you guys having any better luck?"

Tenten shook her head, "no, we haven't figured it out either."

"Should we work together to crack it then?" Ino asked as she looked over the two sets of code.

Kiba groaned and scratched his head "this stuff makes no sense to me."

Another thirty minutes passed before Ino tapped Sakura's shoulder and pointed to a sign above a restaurant. "Don't the numbers above the sign look like the code?"

Sakura looked at the sign seeing a string of numbers and letters. Other signs also had them. The third sign she saw matched her third of the code "the signs have something to do with the code... everyone scatter and find your part of the code write it down, then we'll meet up here and get to work."

The six of them scattered to find their parts. Sakura wrote down the part of the sign that had her code on it. She tensed when she felt three people land nearby. Sakura turned as she grabbed a kunai from her pouch but stopped when she saw the Suna Siblings. "Oh, it's just you three."

Temari looked around, "where's your team?"

"Working on breaking the code. I could tell you what we learned, but it'll cost you."

Kankuro huffed, "oh, what are you asking for?"

Sakura grinned, "I want samples of your poison, and in exchange, I'll tell you what we figured out."

"Wha- why should I give you that?"

Sakura shrugged, "You don't have to. I won't give you the info I have unless you do. It's your choice to make puppet boy."

Temari stifled a laugh as Kankuro grumbled. "Give her the poison Kankuro, it's the fastest way to get the info," Gaara said from the back of the group.

Kankuro tensed but sighed, "alright, fine."

Sakura smiled happily as she collected her samples and told them what her team found. They left with Kankuro grumbling about it not being worth it. Ino and the others showed up a few minutes later, and Ino asked, "what are you smiling about?"

"I'll tell ya about it later. Let's get to work; we've got a few hours left."

After some time, they pieced together that the numbers correspond to the letter in the alphabet. The letters in the code matched to address numbers of the signs. "Looks like it's an address. Alright, let's head out." Sakura said as her team took off to their location.

They found the address in the warehouse district, and the team split up, found the box quickly, brought it back to where the exam had started, and handed over the lockbox. The woman at the counter smiled and pulled out a key, and unlocked the box. She pulled out a red scroll with black koi along the edges. "Ah, you've got the red koi scroll. Hold onto it; you'll need it for the second exam. Congratulations on your passing of the first exam."

Sakura took the scroll and tucked it into her weapon pouch and bowed, "thank you very much."

They left and headed back to the Konoha temporary housing, where the other team was already waiting. Kiba grinned, "Took you guys long enough."

Tenten rolled her eyes "don't try to act like we blasted through that Kiba-kun. We just got lucky with our lockbox being close to the start point."

Ino groaned, "I knew I should have paid more attention to code-breaking when dad went over it."

Sakura sat next to her "we all should probably work on our code-breaking when we get back to the village. For now, does anyone have ideas about the second exam?"

Neji patted his weapon pouch "we'll probably have to deliver the scroll from the box or retrieve another scroll like the last exam."

"Yay, more survival training." Ino groaned.

Sakura laughed, "We all survived last year's survival portion, so we should be fine this time around."

The genin sat around for several hours, discussing and strategizing for possible exams that will happen tomorrow.