Second Chances

By: FlameXFullmetal

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or make money from this piece of FICTION.

A/N: Hello! I am back and it actually does not feel like so much time has passed since I last updated the story. Apparently it has though. Anyway, I went back and fixed some spelling and grammar mistakes in the last chapter that I noticed while reminding myself of where I left off. Nothing to big but they were the ones that I noticed. I still need to do a complete overhaul of the story and fix all of the mistakes but that won't be for a while most likely. Anyway, if you made it this far you know that we usually respond to reviews here and then move on to the story. However as this reply will be long I will place it at the end of the chapter instead.

"hello" people (bijuu in human form) speaking

'hello' people (bijuu in human form) thinking/coded hand signals

"HELLO" bijuu (full demon form)/summoning/deity yelling

"hello" bijuu (full demon form)/summoning/deity talking

'hello' bijuu (full demon form)/summoning/deity thinking

hello jutsu

***********The Chunin Exams Begin********

The days preceding the chunin exams were for the most part were calm and relaxing. Especially to the exhausted genin. They hadn't realized just how much they had been worked into the ground and how tense they were until they had been given the time to relax. Needless to say, they enjoyed it. The morning of the exam, the Konoha twelve met early in front of the academy. They had agreed to enter early so that they could get a better assessment on the other examinees. Last time they had gone in blind and some of them had almost lost their life as a result. This time they wanted to be as prepared as they could be. Entering the building they made their way to the classroom completely ignoring the genjutsu and the chunin underneath it. Earning a nod of approval from their jonin they entered and took places near but not next to each other. Then they played the waiting game.

By the time that the last of the competitor's trickled in Naruto had dozed off on his desk and Sasuke was trying in vain to wake him without drawing attention to themselves. Needless to say that it wasn't working. Sighing he sat back in his chair and waited. Absentmindedly rubbing the concealed seal on his arm. Naruto had finished it the night before and in all honesty it had hurt when it was applied. Not as much as the evil sealing method that Kakashi used the first time around but it still hurt. Spotting a flash of silver, Sasuke couldn't help but snicker. They had placed themselves in such a way that the spy for Orochimaru, Kabuto, couldn't get close and offer information without drawing attention to himself. Furthermore, as they weren't making a racket this time he had no reason to approach him.

Naruto and Sasuke had both agreed that they would most likely hit the boy if he approached them which is why they chose the placement that they did. He was thankful that they had thought of that before hand instead of trying to control themselves when it happened. Leaning back in his chair he closed his eyes and stretched his senses. He never liked to put them to far but he also didn't want to make himself vulnerable either. Picking up the examiners in the room next to theirs he smirked. They were waiting for some kind of ruckus to walk into. Unfortunately, unless another team started it then they would be waiting a while.

'Seems like they got tired of waiting.' Sasuke thought to himself several minutes later just as the examiners entered the room.

"Alright maggots listen up because I will not repeat myself. My name is Morino Ibiki and I will be your first examiner for these exams. I want everyone to line up and hand in your applications one at a time and receive your assigned seat while you are at it. No talking. If you haven't turned in your applications in the next ten minutes your are disqualified do I make myself clear?" The reaction was almost instantaneous as the genin jumped up and made their way to the front of the room to do as they were told. Sasuke turned to shake Naruto one last time only to seem him half way to the front of the room.

'How does he do that?!' He thought following the Rokudaime. It didn't take long for everyone to be seated and Sasuke found himself holding back a laugh as he noticed the whole team had received their original seats. Glancing back to the front he saw Ibiki smirking at the naive genin.

"Alright then pay attention. The test consists of ten questions. The last question will be asked fifteen minutes before time is up and you will only have one hour. We will not be answering any questions. Each genin will start with a perfect score. You will have points deducted for each wrong answer. If you are caught cheating you will have points deducted from your score and if you are caught three times you and your team will be disqualified from the exam. If you receive a zero you fail the exam. If anyone on your team receives a zero the entire team fails. Now then any questions?" As a hand raised in the back the examiner's sweat dropped at the stupidity. After removing the genin and his team Ibiki looked around and nodded.

"Begin."

With the jonin...

"Sure is quiet without the genin isn't it?" Asuma said stretching out. Kakashi chuckled and glanced at the man.

"It's quiet even with them when they are training." A chuckle escaped the jonin's lips as he looked at the ceiling.

"Morino Ibiki huh? To bad that the kids won't be phased by him. Do you think that he will yell at us later for making them immune to psychological warfare?"

"Probably." Kakashi replied turning a page in his book.

"Ibiki...isn't the lead expert in T&I here in Konoha?" Zabuza asked sitting next to the two.

"Yup."

"To bad that the kids aren't that easily scarred anymore."

45 minutes later...

"Pencils down. It is time for the last question. However, before we begin there are a few more rules that we need to go over. First you may choose to take the question. If you choose not to answer the question then you will receive an automatic zero and you fail."

"Well of course we are going to take it then!" A blonde yelled from the crowd.

"However, if you take the question and get it wrong then you and your team will fail and be banned from the exams forever." Angry shouts of disbelief rang out and Ibiki couldn't help but smirk inwardly.

"Those are the rules this year deal with it! If you wish to refuse the question raise your hands now." Hand after hand began to raise as the genin dropped out refusing to be stuck at the lowest tier forever. However, Ibiki noticed that a group of twelve seemed completely unaffected as they stared at him confidently. Raising an eyebrow his eyes landed on the Hyuga heiress and the village pariah.

'Kakashi performed a miracle on these two didn't he?'

"You seem confident in your ability to pass this question. Are you sure that you can make it?"

"I'm a ninja I don't have a choice in the matter. I don't get to chose my missions just like I don't get to chose how much intel I get before accepting the mission. If the intel is wrong I can't just refuse to finish the mission because it is harder than I was told. So your scare tactics don't work on me." Naruto replied calmly.

"What about you Miss Hyuga?"

"I'm not scared. I, too, wear the headband of the hidden leaf. As the future matriarch of the Hyuga clan I will have to make decisions like this all the time and if I spend my time worrying over which decision I make and if it is the right one then the clan may fall before I have a chance to save them." Hinata countered. Ibiki nodded and looked around at the room that had emptied significantly. Glancing at the proctors they all nodded and Ibiki returned to the front of the room.

"Very well then. Everyone that stayed has passed the first exam of the chunin exams. Congratulations."

"WHAT?! WHAT ABOUT THE TENTH QUESTION?"

"That was the tenth question." Naruto replied quietly making everyone's eyes widened. It had indeed been a question. They just never thought that it would be the question.

"So then the rest of this was pointless?" A sand kunoichi yelled.

"That was to test your information gathering skills. You may not get all the intel on a mission just as you may not get any intel. You will have to gather the information necessary to make an informed decision when you lead your teams as a chunin. As blondie said chunin don't get the choice to refuse a mission just because they got wrong or no intelligence. They have to adapt and get the information themselves. Then use that information to lead their team to a successful mission with the least amount of injuries or casualties. So they weren't useless. This part of the exam tested your information gathering, ability to analyze the situation and willingness to lead your team despite the odds. Therefore everyone in here has passed the first ro..." A black blur shot through the window shattering it in the process.

"Anko you are early, again." Anko merely laughed sheepishly and looked around.

"There are still a lot of genin Ibiki. Are you going soft?"

"No. We just have a good crop this year."

"Well that won't matter because when I am done then their numbers will be cut in half. Everyone follow me I'm the second proctor of the chunin exams." As the teens shuffled out of the room Ibiki shook his head and glanced over to where the blonde had been sitting. He had been certain that the kid hadn't even picked up his pencil once and yet the test was filled out perfectly in extremely neat handwriting.

'Just how did you perform that miracle Kakashi?'

"Alright everyone welcome to training ground forty-four also known as the forest of death. This is where the second phase of the exam will take place. Each team will receive either a heaven or earth scroll before entering and your task will be to retrieve the opposite scroll and head to the tower in the center of the forest in five days. You will only pass the exams if you have both scrolls and all of your teammates alive when you enter. In order to get the other scroll you must take them from another team and everything is allowed. Even killing."

"FIVE DAYS?!" One of the genin yelled out and Anko smirked sadistically.

"Yes. Furthermore, regardless of whether or not you pass or fail you WILL spend ALL five days in the forest. Someone will come to get you when the second round is over, if we remember. Now before I send you all off to your deaths I need you to sign these forms which release Konoha and it's nin of any responsibility for your deaths should they occur in the exam. Wouldn't want to start a war over this now would we? Anyway when your team has signed them, have a representative of the team bring them over there and turn them in for your scroll. The exam will begin in one hour."

"The longest hour of our lives." Ino whispered to her team. Even though they had done immense training for this she was still concerned about this round. After all if what Sasuke and Naruto said was true then they were going to be attacked by a sanin in there.

"Perhaps." Shikamaru replied.

The hour passed quickly, almost to quickly for some of the genin and before they knew it they were all standing in front of one of the gates. Sasuke took a deep breathe and nodded to Naruto who returned it. As soon as the gates opened and the timer started they disappeared from sight flying through the forest. They had developed a game plan for this. The first step was to ambush another team and get the scroll they needed as fast as possible. From there they were going to hide both scrolls and gather another set that, if things went exactly like last time, would be destroyed by Orochimaru. As soon as Orochimaru had left the vicinity, Sasuke would drop the act and make their way to the tower as fast as possible. They wanted to have as much time as possible to prepare their strategy for the next round.

Finding the scrolls that they needed was easier than they thought. It was that fact alone that made them realize just how underprepared they had been the first time around. Slowing their pace at the same place that they were attacked Naruto motioned for Hinata to brace herself as they were almost instantly assailed by a massive wind jutsu. Like the last time, Naruto allowed himself to be carried away by the wind. Landing on his feet he quickly side stepped the snake that lunged at him and drew a sword from inside one of his many storage seals. Funneling his wind chakra he quickly severed the snake's head and then spun as he heard clapping.

"Here we thought that you were the weakest of your class. Oh well this should be fun." One of Orochimaru's men said as they lunged at the blonde.

'This didn't happen last time. Or was it supposed to if I had managed to escape the snake and not get eaten?' Naruto thought to himself. He was worried that to much of his skill would be revealed and just how much had been changed. Last time he had fought Kiba and just barely won thanks to the five pronged seal. Ino had been knocked out of the tournament in a tie with Sakura but that would not happen now. Sakura wasn't even in the exams and Ino had actually been trained. Coming back to the fight he sighed as he realized that his body had been on auto pilot the entire time. Cleaning his blade he sealed it and headed in the direction that he knew Sasuke would be in.

Sasuke on the other hand was growling. It was getting harder and harder to keep from deviating from the way that the fight went last time with a few key differences. This time he didn't freak out and he kept his wit about him. Plus he was fighting a little more strategically. However, the urge to just kill the snake and be done with it was almost to much. Thankfully he didn't have to fight the urge for to much longer as Orochimaru decided to stop playing games.

"Very good Sasuke. You are indeed strong and to think that you already have a fully matured sharingan as well. You may just be as good as Itachi after all. I think that I shall leave you with a present."

'Just shut up and get it over with already...' Sasuke groaned mentally. He never realized just how much Orochimaru liked to talk. Just as Sasuke felt Orochimaru's fangs pierce his skin he thoughts went back to the way that the exam played out the first time.

'Karin! I forgot about her! We'll have to leave a clone behind to save her before we enter the tower.' He thought as Orochimaru pulled back and Naruto dropped next to him.

"What did you do to the Teme?" Naruto demanded making Sasuke groan. Falling into the act of the seal taking root he actually had to force himself to start blacking out. Thankfully, the snake sanin left before he actually had to.

"He's gone Sasuke. Shall we?"

"Someone needs to leave a clone behind. Do you remember Karin?"

"Yeah."

"After I came to the first time around and we were struggling to find another scroll I saved her life from a bear. If someone doesn't intervene she will die this time."

"Okay...about where in the forest did you run into her?" After getting the location Naruto sent a transformed shadow clone to look for the red head and then they ran for the tower at top speed. Due to their training it didn't take long for them to arrive. Opening the scrolls they laughed at Iruka's face. The poor chunin had yet to recover from their "mild" sparring session a few days ago.

"Hello! Tell the old man that Orochimaru is in the forest kay? I ran into one of his snakes." Naruto chirped as soon as they got the go ahead to leave. Iruka shook his head and ran off to talk to the Hokage.

"Now what dobe?"

"Now we wait for the summons to talk to the old bastard."

"But what do we tell him about the seal?"

"There is a seal that I found in the clan scrolls we retrieved from Gato's place that is isolating the seal and it's effects making you immune...or something like that."

"You are an idiot sometimes."

"Up yours." The summons from the Hokage didn't take to long and when they arrived they found a rather bruised Anko in the room.

"Did you truly run into Orochimaru?"

"I ran into one of his snake summons and I got a glance of him before he ran off to god knows where." Naruto chirped making the Sandaime groan.

"What about the two of you?"

"You mean the man that gave me this hickey?" Sasuke said as obliviously as he could showing the cursed seal.

"Yes.."

"Then yes I ran into the pedophile."

"I doubt that Orochimaru is a pedophile in addition to being a traitor..." Hiruzen said trailing off at the end due to the expressions on the genin's face.

"Ano...he did stalk a thirteen year old boy in a dark forest and force himself on him, even if it was just his teeth...and he left a hickey behind. I think that would qualify right?" Hinata squeaked making the room freeze.

"Well when you put it that way..." Anko said trailing off turning a little pale at all the things that she didn't remember.

"Be that as it may, we need to seal that mark immediately."

"Why?"

"Because Sasuke Orochimaru can influence you with it and we really don't want that to happen. Plus I can not allow you to use it's power."

"Really? It's just that outside of the initial sting of the bite there hasn't been any pain or anything. I think that he messed up or something." Hiruzen's eyes nearly came out of his head as he looked at the boy in front of him.

'Did Itachi do something to protect him from Orochimaru that night? Or is it something else entirely? I wonder if it has anything to do with their change in behavior?'

"Just to be on the safe side. Kakashi do the sealing."

"Yes sir. Come along Sasuke." Nodding to his jonin Sasuke left the room and Naruto looked at the Hokage and tilted his head.

"Can Hinata and I leave now?"

"I don't want you to tell anyone what happened in the forest alright?"

"Yes sir, Hokage-sama." They chorused before being dismissed. Shaking his head Hiruzen looked out the window in deep thought. 'Just what is going on anymore?'

The remaining days flew by quickly for the genin as each team began to trickle into the hall. Naruto nodded at the familiar faces and continued to explore. Sasuke and him had decided that they would only use what was necessary for them to win their matches. Unless they went against one of Orochimaru's men from sound. They would have gladly dealt with Kabuto and his team right away but they didn't want to draw to much attention to themselves and killing Konoha nin would do just that. As the genin gathered in the arena at the end of the exams Naruto tuned out the speech that the Sandaime was giving.

"Now then if there is anyone that wishes to forfeit do so now." Like the last time Kabuto dropped out and everyone glanced up at the board in front of them. This was the moment of truth to see just how much things had changed. They prayed that they didn't have to many issues or changes in the matches as that would make it impossible to determine when the invasion was going to begin.

"The first match will be..."

********************T.B.C.***************

A/N: There was something that was brought up and I thought that I should clarify on some things. This will be long.

Zabuza is not a jonin of Konoha, as you said he is indeed a jonin of Uzu. However, he is "on loan" if you will to Konoha to act as one of their jonin as Uzu is in ruins. Most of the negotiating and discussions about this happened behind the scenes as I felt that it would have been to boring. Technically only Shino is a Konoha shinobi. Sarutobi approved of this placement to keep an eye on the former nuke nin. I'm honestly not sure if that helped to clear out any confusion about this.

While Kakashi may seem to trusting he is still a ninja. While it may sound impossible he has to take in to account the fact that the genin did change drastically seemingly overnight and he was ordered to observe them to ascertain if they were a threat or not. While doing that he was told by the two that were acting differently of at least one believable threat to the village. While he was observing the two their actions and knowledge slowly began to lend credibility to the story that they told. He isn't completely convinced at this point but he does have enough reason to believe that at the very least the village is in danger during the chunin exams. Furthermore, by acting as if he believes them he is being allowed to observe them more closely. Plus, even in canon Naruto had a personality that just made you want to trust him and while he was prankster he never pranked anyone about such serious thing. As for the genin trusting a prankster, as I said above he never, ever pranked anyone to such a scale or about such a serious thing before.

As for telling so many people about the events that transpired, it was indeed a potential tactical error. They took a calculated risk based off of what they knew about their friends. However, they did tell them everything in private. If they reacted negatively and refused to believe them or insisted that they needed psychological help they could have just wiped their memory of the whole thing or used a jutsu to prevent them from discussing what they heard until they could be proved right. Don't forget that Naruto was indeed the Hokage he would have to consider these things in advance. The decision was not made lightly however, he knew that they could not accomplish the task before them on their own.

As for Sakura, Kiba and Kurenai being dismissed it wasn't solely because I didn't like them. Sakura does have superb chakra control..only because she has so little chakra. The only reason that she decided to approach Tsunade and ask her for training was because Sasuke left and she didn't want to be helpless the next time she saw him. Since Sasuke isn't leaving she won't have that epiphany. In all honesty Sakura wasn't even on Tsunade's radar until Sakura approached her. Even after learning Tsunade's prized technique she showed no restraint and little care for the safety of the people around her when using it. Her first response is always to lash out first and think second. This is true even after she has a child. I just felt that while she did take to Tsunade's training she never showed the maturity to use it properly and didn't learn it for the right reasons.

For the most part the same is the case with Kiba. He rarely ever pushes himself just to better himself as a ninja but rather only because someone beat him. He should have that drive all the time. Most of his character development also came from the Sasuke retrieval arc when he almost lost Akamaru, again something that will not be happening. So that development won't be there. I may bring them back in the future but for now I have no plans for that. As for Kurenai, she had so many opportunities to help Hinata and try to help her overcome her confidence issues but it never happened. I truly don't think that she had the right qualifications as a jonin or someone that should be in charge of growing genin. She may change down the road but again not now.

A lot of Naruto's character came from the fact that the adults around him never tried to teach him why he needed to be more serious so he never had a need to slowly let go of his childish side, having basically raised himself he saw no need to. Plus...Jiraiya is the last person that you would think capable of teaching maturity. I hope that clarified things for those that needed it. If not, let me know! Ja ne!