Years Arc: Chunin Exams and Friends

The genin were woken up before the sun rose and brought to area pass the Sakura looked around and saw that a little over half the original teams had passed the first exam.

"You guys better be sure to pass. The third exam won't be any fun if there's no one worth fighting," Kankuro said as his team arrived.

Sakura smiled "same goes for you. I want a rematch with your sister, so you best make it."

Temari scoffed, "think you can put up a better fight than last time? I sure hope, so our last fight was a little bit too boring for my taste."

"Oh, trust me, the next time we fight Temari-chan, you won't be bored, I promise."

A Chunin stepped up on a temporary podium and clapped his hands "alright, you brats, listen up. You all were given a scroll, either a red koi or a white dove. You need to deliver the scroll to a tower corresponding to your scroll. The tower locations are in the other scroll, and one other thing only the first three teams to each tower will pass. You will be led to your starting points and sent on your ways."

Various Taki chunin led the teams into the woods and pointed them north before letting the exam start. Sakura's team took off and spoke as they ran, "so we should track down another team and try to strike a deal with them. It'll be easier than fighting them and taking the scroll." Sakura said as the other two fell in behind her.

Choji nodded, "sounds good to me; what about you, Ino?"

Ino nodded, "I'm good with that. I want to avoid fighting for as long as possible."

"Now, all we have to do is find another team with the dove scroll," Sakura said as they climbed higher in the trees to see if they could spot anyone.

After several minutes Sakura stopped their movement and crouched on her branch as she whispered, "twelve o'clock there's a trap up ahead."

Ino and Choji spotted the trip wires set up in the trees, "should we drop down or go around it?" Ino asked.

"Let's head west and go around. Take it slow and-" Sakura leaned back and kicked off her branch as several shurikens landed where she was standing.

Choji and Ino jumped back as several Kumo shinobi landed nearby with swords drawn. Sakura took her position between her teammates as the third Kumo shinobi landed. The center shinobi grinned "oh good; we found some Konoha punks first. I'm going to enjoy taking you lot down."

Sakura raised her hands "wait, let's talk. If we have different scrolls, we can just show them to each other and go our separate ways."

The girl on the left spoke up, "why should we make a deal with you when we can just take you out permanently."

Sakura gritted her teeth and crouched, "So you three really won't even try negotiation? Fine, we can fight it out."

The tree splintered as she pushed off, and her fist collided with the rightmost Kumo shinobi. They heard a cracking noise as his ribs broke, and Sakura sent him flying. The other Kumo shinobi looked over in surprise, giving Ino a chance to take over one of their minds as Choji used his partial expansion to smack the last one to the ground.

Ino released her jutsu as Sakura knocked him out. They tied them up and patted the group down, and found a koi scroll. Sakura huffed and tossed it over her shoulder "great; we wasted time anyway. Come on, let's go."

The team moved out and continued searching for either the tower or another team to make a deal. It didn't take long to run into Temari and her brothers, who were more than willing to show their scroll, which was luckily a dove scroll. They traded location info and went their separate ways without any incident.

"It's gonna take at least two days to get there as long as we don't run into any trouble on the way," Sakura said as they moved toward their destination.

Once it was well into the night, Sakura's team set up camp in the trees, and Sakura took the first watch. As she stood on a branch, she saw two Kumo shinobi moving through the brush. Sakura crouched and suppressed her presence even more as they passed. "You're pretty good at hiding in a tree, but that should be expected from a Konoha girl."

Sakura jumped back and pulled a kunai out as she examined the Kumo boy who stood up and waved, "don't worry, we already know where we need to go, and none of my teammates feel like fighting right now. I'm a sensor type, but I almost didn't notice you, so I just had to stop and give you props, Pinky."

Sakura huffed, "call me pinky again, and you won't make it to the tower."

"Hahaha, feisty. I hope you make it to the third exam. You seem like you'd be fun to fight."

With that, he disappeared into the forest, leaving Sakura to huff and sit back on her branch and keep watch till her turn was up. Sakura was glad the night went by without much disturbance after that. Ino tapped her shoulder, "Hey, you can go to sleep. I'll take over."

Sakura put her forehead on Ino's shoulder "ugh, thanks Ino. I had a run-in with some Kumo shinobi."

"What? Why didn't you wake us up?" Ino said, grabbing Sakura's shoulders.

"Because nothing happened. He managed to sneak up on me, but he just said he wanted to compliment me on hiding. They left without trying to fight or anything."

Ino patted her head and sighed, "you got lucky then. Get some sleep, alright." Sakura nodded and dropped down to take Ino's sleeping place.

The next day Sakura stretched and looked around "how were things during your watch Choji-kun?"

Choji shrugged, "nothing happened. It was pretty dull, which I'm glad about."

Ino stretched and got up, "we should head out quickly if we wanna make it in time."

Sakura nodded as she finished off her ration bar, "let's double-time it today."

Naruto yawned as he stood across the street from another bar. This time around, he had been told to wait outside while Jiraiya talked to Tsunade and some other people he didn't recognize. He hoped Sakura and the others were doing alright on their exams.

"Hey Naruto-kun, what are you doing, ssu?"

Naruto looked up and saw Fu walking up. "Nothing just waiting for the Pervy Sage. He said I had to wait out here while he took care of business."

Fu sat next to Naruto and looked at the bar entrance "that sounds pretty boring, ssu."

Naruto nodded and suppressed a yawn "yeah, I'd prefer if we were training like he promised, but he said this stuff was important."

"You wanna train with me, ssu?"

Naruto grinned but quickly rubbed his chin in thought. "Hm, Pervy Sage did tell me to wait, and technically he didn't want the two of us to interact, but you know what? he's making me wait out here instead of training me, so hell yeah, do you know somewhere we can spar?"

Fu smiled and nodded, "yep, follow me, ssu."

She took off and led him to a clearing in trees between two training fields. "This is my personal training area ssu." she rubbed the back of her neck, "though no one actually knows I claimed this area ssu."

Naruto smiled as he looked around and said, "I had my own secret training area behind the academy back home. I'd spend so much time there trying to get the academy basics down."

"Did your Bijuu not help you?"

Naruto cocked an eyebrow "what? Why would he help me? He hates me. The only time he talks to me is when he tries to take control."

Fu seemed to deflate, "I guess not all of us have good relations with our Bijuu, huh, ssu?"

"You have a good relationship with yours?"

Fu nodded, "yep, Chōmei, the Nanabi, and I get along pretty well. He likes to say he's my lucky charm, ssu."

"Wait, do the Bijuu have names? I figured their names were just the number of tails they have."

"Yes, ssu. They don't like to tell people their names, but if you can get along with them and they trust you, they will tell you. Which one do you have, ssu?"

Naruto huffed, "Kyuubi, he's a pretty angry fox."

He looked up and saw Fu's shocked face "what? Is he weird or something?"

"Uh, well, I've talked to Chōmei a bit about the other Bijuu, and he said the only tailed beast that hates people more than the Ichibi is the Kyuubi. They're all weary and have varying relations with their host, but The Kyuubi is the most hateful towards people."

Naruto gripped his jacket and stared at the floor. "I wonder what happened to make him like that."

Fu smiled sadly, "who knows but hey, let's not get down. How about I show you something cool, ssu."

Naruto looked up with interest, "something cool? What a jutsu or something?"

Fu smiled as she took several steps back, "more like something that only I can do because I have Chōmei ssu." Naruto stared in awe as Fu sprouted a set of dragonfly wings and started to hover a few feet above the ground.

"Wow, that's... really frickin cool! Does Chōmei have wings? Or can he like make things you want?!"

Fu laughed and landed. "Chōmei has wings, and since he lets me, I'm able to manifest some of them and fly. I don't know what the other jinchūriki can do though I've never met others ssu."

Naruto nodded. "I've met one other before you. His name is Gaara, and he has Ichibi in him. He carried a gourd of sand around with him that would swirl around and protect him without him having to do anything."

"Wow, that's pretty cool, ssu."

"Yeah, but that's enough talking. Come on; let's fight. I wanna see what you can do!" Naruto said excitedly as he got ready for a sparring match.

Fu smiled and dropped into her favored taijutsu stance. "I'm ready whenever you are Naruto-kun."

Sakura, Ino, and Choji panted as they arrived at the Koi tower base and handed their scroll to the shinobi waiting for them. The woman smiled, "congratulations, you're the second team to arrive. You pass the second exam."

Ino yelled in excitement and pulled Choji and Sakura into a hug as they bounced. The shinobi guided them in and let them rest and wait for the last team to arrive. After some time, a team from Iwa showed up, and the exam was called after some exchange between the towers. Sakura's team and the Kumo shinobi she recognized from the first night and the Iwa team were brought into the tower's arena.

The same woman who had greeted them stood atop a podium "hello to the nine winners of the Koi scroll. You have all passed the second exam, and as such, you are eligible for the third exam. Though with eighteen current participants, we feel it may be too many fights for our guests to sit through, and we do wish to show them the best of the best, so in each tower, we will hold preliminary matches. One of you will be sent to the third exam without a preliminary match. We took the time to examine you all during your first and second exams, and we have decided that Azuraki from Kumogakure will skip the prelims."

Sakura looked over and grimaced as she saw the Kumo boy from her first night on watch. In the light, she managed to get a good look at him this time. He had brown eyes, and his blond hair was cut short and shaved on the sides. He waved and gave an irritating smile as he said, "wow, lucky me guess I'll just have to sit back and watch everyone else have fun today."

Everyone took their places and watched as the first match started. By the end of the day, Sakura, Ino, Nida, one of the Iwa shinobi, Neji, Tenten, Kirisu, one of Azuraki's teammates, and the Suna siblings had all passed the prelims. The matches were set Tenten vs. Temari, Nida vs. Kankuro, Gaara vs. Neji, Azuraki vs. Sakura, and Ino vs. Kirisu.

Naruto was sitting around Konoha's designated area as the rest of the genin approached. He waves, "Hey guys, I'm heading out, so I figured I'd stop by and say goodbye before Pervy Sage and I leave. How'd the second exam and prelims go?"

Ino smirked, "Kiba-kun and Choji sadly lost other than that, we're all headed to the third exam."

Naruto laughed and patted Kiba on the shoulder, "always next year."

Kiba brushed him off and huffed, "Yeah yeah, whatever. I'll make up for it by getting to Jonin before any of you."

The group laughed and chatted until Jiraiya showed up, and he and Naruto left. On their way out of the village, Fu ran up and gave Naruto a quick hug "be safe out there, and don't let the fox talk smack to you ssu."

Naruto grinned, "I'll do my best, and you should be careful too. Remember to look out for those guys I mentioned. They were interested in me, so there's a chance they might take an interest in you too."

Fu nodded, "I'll keep an eye out. Though I'm sure Chōmei and I could handle them ssu."

With their goodbyes said, the two of them split at the front gate, and once Naruto was out of the village, Jiraiya smacked him upside the head. "You little brat, I told you not to interact with her, and what did you do? You went and made friends and warned her about the Akatsuki."

Naruto grumbled but stopped when Jiraiya patted him on the back and smiled, "good job, kid."

Naruto grinned and rubbed the back of his head. "She's in the same situation as me. I can't just sit back and do nothing y' know."

Ino nudged Sakura, "Hey, you wanna go get something to eat? See if they have anything good around here?"

Sakura sat up in her cot and shrugged, "yeah. Hey guys, you wanna come with?!"

Ino deflated a bit as the others decided to join in, and the six of them informed Kakashi before leaving in search of food. The six of them walked the streets of Taki and eventually found an open-air cafe and sat down to eat and talk about the exams. Ino smiled. "Is it me, or do these exams feel easier than last year?"

Sakura scoffed, "says the girl who was complaining about the first exam."

She let Ino punch her shoulder and laughed before standing. "I'm gonna get some more dango. You guys want anything?"

Sakura took Choji and Tenten's orders before moving through the small crowd back to the counter to order. She smiled, placed her order, and stepped to the side to wait as she stood there, she felt a presence run up behind her. Sakura turned, pushing the hand clutching a kunai towards the ground and punching the would-be attack in the chest, sending him flying back.

The chatter stopped immediately, and everyone looked at Sakura and the Kumo genin, trying to catch his breath on the floor. Sakura sighed, "you're from the second exam. We ran into each other on the first day."

His teammates showed up and helped him up, the three of them glaring at her. The middle one caught his breath and said, "it's your fault we lost. You tossed our scroll away and left us tied up."

Sakura glanced over and saw several of her friends had disappeared, probably to come up from behind if a fight broke out. "Yeah, I did. We could have left you in a much worse way. Instead of attacking me out in the open, you really should have waited for a better time, like if I strayed from the group."

She could tell she was getting on their nerves, but they attacked her, so she didn't care about what they felt. The kunoichi of the group glared "don't act so high and mighty just because you won on a surprise attack-"

"We're shinobi, we should always be alert and ready for anything, and we cover our bases. Only one of you attacked me, and the three of you have been so distracted glaring at me you didn't notice my comrades have you surrounded, so if you want to fight me, you'll have to fight all of us." Sakura said as Neji, Kiba, and Tenten made themselves known behind the Kumo shinobi. Ino and Choji walked up to flank Sakura as well.

The three shinobi looked between themselves before leaving and throwing some choice words at the six of them. Sakura collected her order, and the group sat down as the cafe started to go about its business.

After a few moments of silence, Ino said, "so do we need to tell anyone about that?"

"It would probably be a good idea," Tenten said as she sipped her tea.

Sakura shrugged, "I'm sure we should, but nothing happened, so I think we can just let it go this time."

"And if they try again?" Neji asked

"Then I'll actually punch them. My team beat them once we can do it again."

With that excitement over, the group finished eating and headed back to their area and told Tsunade about what happened. She sighed and looked over her genin "you lot get into trouble everywhere you go."

Sakura bowed, "We're sorry, Tsunade-sama. I hope this won't cause any issues for the exams."

Tsunade patted her shoulder. "Don't worry, you were attacked, and you didn't rough them up much, so Kumo won't dare press the issue." Sakura saw the tension in her master's shoulders as she walked over to talk to the jonin.

After some hushed discussion, Tsunade turned, "alright, you brats, you need to get ready for the third exam tomorrow, go rest up and strategize."