A Lion's Roar

by swagmoney5

Being reincarnated is an interesting life story, when a child from our world is reborn as Hinata Hyuga, she decided to get off of her ass and give her shot at being a hero. When you have too much knowledge and too much time, the only option is to train and become stronger and to make those around her stronger as well. Survival of the fittest and she wants to help everyone survive.

10. Aiming for the top

(3d POV) During the Chunin Exam Nominations

All of the Jonin, except Kakashi, as well as the Chunin academy instructors were gathered in a meeting hall, ordered by the Hokage. Everyone was idly chatting with one another when the final member decided to show up. With his flashy as ever entrance, and cocky yet laid back attitude, the silver haired Kakashi poofed in the middle of the room. All of the eyes turned to him, many rolling their eyes up to heaven at his annoying act of being late to everything. The Hokage decided to start the meeting, brushing off Kakashi's lateness by commanding him to join the other Jounin instructors.

"The Chunin exams are being held in Konoha this year, there are many promising genin, Jounin Senseis, who would you like to nominate for the Chunin exams this year? Speak now." Gai, clad in his green spandex was the first to step forward. With his trademark pose, he shouted his nomination of his three youthful Genin: Neji, Tenten, and Lee. Nobody had any qualms at this nomination, each of the Genin were respected enough in their skills, and even if the other ninja believe Gai is a nutcase, they all know his strength is not to be messed with, same goes for his Genin. A few other Jonin nominated their Genin with no questions or concerns. That was until the three rookie instructors decided to nominate their Genin, making them the first rookie teams in over 5 years.

"I Asuma Sarutobi nominate Team 10 Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Choji Akimichi for the Chunin exams."

"I Kruenai Yuhi nominate Team 8 Shino Aburame, Kiba Inuzuka, and Sakura Haruno for the Chunin exams."

"I Kakashi Hatake nominate Team 7 Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki, and Hinata Hyuuga for the Chunin exams." Iruka was shocked after each nomination, his eyes growing wider after each of his rookie students were nominated. The final straw came at Kakashi's nomination.

"Kakashi-sama are you crazy, I know my students, Naruto... the rookies are not ready for this kind of thing. Are you trying to break them?" Iruka shouted infuriated at the Jounin. How could he try to nominate a dead last like Naruto, a son figure, to be in something as dangerous as the Chunin exams. Kakashi sent a glare to Iruka, everyone in the meeting could feel the tenseness of the situation, but couldn't step in, this is their issue to resolve. Many of the Jonin agreed with Iruka, nominating rookie Genin, especially a deadlast demon like Naruto had most of them frowning and wondering of the stability of the already fragile Kakashi Hatake.

"With all due respect Iruka-san, these Genin are no longer your students now, they are under my jurisdiction, they are my soldiers and I can do what I please with them. I do think they are ready, so ready in fact that I think they have a high possibility of being the top three in the exams each one of them was holding back in the academy, one of my students is even ready to become a Jonin, so weather you like it or not, they are entering the exams." Kakashi spoke with a steel edge in his voice, but talking about his students, all of the Jonin noticed the fondness the previously cold man had. Everyone's thoughts were reeling, trying to comprehend Kakashi's words. All of his Genin were holding back, the top students and the deadlast are all more powerful than anybody knows about, and if he is so confident, they must be something special. It was chilling for each of the people in the room to find out that they had been played by mere Genin, and do not know the true power of the Jinchuriki demon and his teammates. To conclude the meeting and help Iruka feel more calm about the situation, he allowed for Iruka to do a small preliminary test for each of his rookie students so they could prove they were ready.

(Hinata POV)

I woke up at 6 in the morning, pissed off. Kakashi is making us meet at 6:30, of course he is going to show up late, but now he has Zabuza keep watch on me since I figured out to show up late. It's annoying because if I'm late, I have to run double of what the boys do. Moments like that are why I wonder why I even like Kakashi. So here I am now, pissed off because it's early and I'm awake at our training ground waiting for my bastard of a sensei to show up and give us a mission. I was meditating on flowing my chakra at a constant level, its hard to do without water, but I still needed to practice, Zabuza was sharpening his beloved Kubikiribōchō, Naru was grumbling about Kakashi and his bad cleaning habits, which I feel on a deep level, and Sasuke was being Sasuke, standing there with his hands in his pockets and glaring at nothing like a weirdo. Finally Kakashi showed up crouching on the railing of the bridge.

"Yo. Sorry I'm afraid I got lost on the path of life." He said with a wave and an eye smile. My eye twitched, Naruto was just pissed.

"More like you too into reading your porn and had to take care of yourself before you came here." I thought I mumbled it, but by the reactions everyone had, I was a lot louder than I meant to be. Kakashi was bright red and shaking his hands furiously in protest, Zabuza was letting out a loud scary laugh and gave me a pat on the back, Sasuke was glaring harshly but he had a faint blush on his face, and Naruto was just very confused about what I meant, the poor innocent boy.

"Hinata-chan, what was he taking care of?" Sasuke and Kakashi paled greatly, Zabuza looked amused and I cracked my knuckles a shit eating grin plastered on my face, ready to give him the lesson of his life. After everything, especially Lady Seiko's lessons I am a master at this kind of information.

"You see when somebody gets horny and-" Kakashi slapped his hand on my mouth and pinned me to the ground. He whispered harshly in my ear.

"You finish that sentence and I will put you on probation for a month." I nodded quickly, I don't want probation, I need to do my ninja stuff. Kakashi released me and I stood up brushing off the dirt on my clothes. Sasuke gave me a harsh jab to the ribs, he didn't like my little lesson either. Kakashi cleared his throat and told us today we have a special training. We were all amped up, Naruto had fire burning in his eyes, ready for a new training session. How much we all regret that, we should have know new training didn't mean nicer training. I would like to call this training from hell. Apparently Kakashi thought it would be fun to gather some of his retired ANBU friends and along with Zabuza, we would have to hide and stay away from them. No jutsu aloud either. Plus, every time we get hit by one of them, its 5 laps around the village. ANBU are scary and sadistic and lets just say I was running and flipping for my life. I managed to only get hit a few times, Naruto and Sasuke weren't so lucky. By the end of the session, all of us were puking our guts out from the continuous sprinting we did for hours on end. When Zabuza and Kakashi were carrying us to Sasuke's for dinner, a messenger Hawk was circling above Kakashi. He saw it and gave Sasuke to Zabuza to carry all three of us. Kakashi poofed away for the meeting I'm guessing about nominating everyone for the Chunin exams. Zabuza grumbled about carrying us, but when I promised to take him to scare some of the new academy students if he shut up, he did.

We made it to Sasuke's house and when we entered, Zabuza dumped us on the floor, making me let out some not so nice words to the asshole. I looked up and saw Shisui make his way over, a big smile on his face.

"Is that the sound of my sweet little Imouto's foul mouth?" I pushed myself off the ground, some of my energy regained.

"Shisui-nii!" I jumped, wrapping myself around him. Shisui caught me and put me on his back laughing happily at my PDA for him. Naruto got up next and attacked Shisui as well, whining about how Kakashi's training is even more evil than Shisui's was.

"Sasu-chan, why don't you give your dear old Shisui a hug." Shisui teased at Sasuke's antisocial and awkward behavior. Sasuke rolled his eyes, not that Shisui could see, and walked right past Shisui into the kitchen to cook us dinner.

"Hn." Shisui grabbed where his heart was and faked being in great pain.

"Sasu-chan you wound my poor broken heart. I know you don't love me like you do Naruto but cant you give me one hug." Sasuke threw a knife right by Shisui's head and Naruto screeched in protest. Zabuza and I laughed loudly at the other member of the SasuNaru club. We all slept over at Sasuke's that night, it was fun even when Naruto and Sasuke argued the whole time.

We had all finished breakfast at a small teahouse in town when a pink flurry showed up. Sakura was standing there holding on tightly to Saasuke's arm, begging him to take her out on a date since they haven't seen each other in a while. Sasuke declined Sakura in the harshest of ways I've ever seen, if I hadn't forgiven her I would have laughed. I mean, somebody getting shot down so badly is funny... always. Sasuke said goodbye to me and told Naru and I to meet him for lunch before we have to go meet Kakashi later. Sakura was fuming and sad that Sasuke dissed her but not Naru and I, she sent us a vicious glare which Naruto partially ignored.

Before Naruto could ask her to hang out, she stomped off. We were walking around aimlessly when a square box with holes for eyes started following Naruto every where he went. It was very entertaining to watch him try to outmaneuver the rock. Finally fed up, he turned around and shouted at the box telling them to reveal themselves. A loud bang and a shit ton of smoke later, I was staring at the three cutest kids ever. They were all 8-sh, worshipped Naruto, and were wearing goggles like Naruto used to. The kids noticed me finally as I watched them happily, glad that I wasn't being insulting to them, they turned to me and did their introduction, poses and everything.

"With adult sexiness, I'm Moegi from the senior class of Kunoichi Preschool!" The little blushing girl with orange pigtails that curved and defied gravity.

"I love factoring, I'm Udon!" A little brown haired boy with glasses and a runny nose stated sort of awkwardly.

"The most brilliant ninja in the village, Konohamaru!" The leader of the group, a boy with a long blue scarf and a hell of a lot of confidence stated. Then they all joined together in a very Power Rangers fashion and posed together.

"And we are the Konohamaru Ninja Squad!" They shouted in perfect synchronization. That might have been the dorkiest thing I have ever seen, I LOVED IT! Seeing it in person is just wow, adorable. Naruto rolled his eyes but mine were sparkling. I clapped loudly for the kids and turned to Naruto.

"Oh. My. KAMI! That was so fucking awesome Naru, why don't we have something cool like that. It would be like my very own superhero squad! We have to make one of these now, I'll even get duckbutt and Kakashi-sensei to join in!" Naruto just stared at me in confusion of why I would want to be anything like the littles. I also think he was trying to play cool around them but thats none of my business. I turned my attention back to the Naruto minions. "Hey guys, I'm Hinata, Blondies badass teammate and best friend." All three of the small ones eyes widened and began to glow when they found out who I am.

"You're the Hinata-san that was the best female graduate in Konohoa history, you're even prettier in person, you're my idol!" Moegi squealed, latching on to me. I blushed a bit in embarrassment at the praise. I didn't even know that I was the best female graduate ever, thats so dope, some of my hard work has been showing off. Naruto looked ready to ditch the small fries and go train with me, but before we could bid ado, Konohamaru stopped us with his cute puppy dog eyes.

"Boss, you and your teammate can come play Ninja with us, you promised remember?" Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"Heh, I did say that didn't I." Just then, a new voice spoke up, full of annoyance and disgust.

"A ninja playing ninja, how twisted and childish. Not surprising for losers like you two." Naruto and I turned and there was the big forehead, pink haired ex-friend if mine, her face twisted into one of contempt. I rolled my eyes at her bitterness. Naruto was looking at Sakura intently his eyes full of questions, but unlike at the academy, there was no blush on his face. Maybe he really has been thinking about why he likes her and is learning he might not. My boy is growing up. Plus with his big dick power, he is too good for her right now anyways. Maybe if that stick got pulled out of her ass, but whatever. Konohamaru noticed Naruto's intense gaze on Sakura and came to his own conclusion, smirking slyly I was waiting for the question to come.

"Oh boss, who is that, is she... your girlfriend, you smooth operator." The ninja squad looked a bit more impressed with Naruto when they thought he had a girlfriend. I stepped back and watched how the scene would play out. Naruto's face looked a bit wistful at the statement, Sakura on the other hand looked so ashamed and annoyed that the kids would even think she would date Naruto. That pissed me off a lot.

"He, uh you see..." Naruto stuttered, not knowing how to answer. Sakura took the liberty of doing it for him, she wound up and punched him straight in the face. I growled and clenched my fists.

"No way in hell would I date a loser like Naruto." All three of the young students looked in horror and unmasked anger at how poorly Sakura treated Naruto. I was still growling, but Naruto walked up to me and grabbed my arm to calm me down. His eyes were downturned and it broke my heart to see that look of pain yet understanding he has whenever the villagers disrespect him.

"You ugly witch! What kind of girlfriend are you." Konohamaru shouted at her, I giggled lightly at how similar him and Naruto act. Its like a mini clone. Sakura cracked her knuckles and when Naruto walked up to protect Konohamaru, she hit him again.

"Is she even human, I mean with that attitude and large forehead of hers." Everyone's eyes widened at how the air chilled, Sakura looked enraged. She raised her hands to attack the kids and when her fist came down, I flashed in front of her, grasping her fist tightly in mine. The kids and Naruto scurried away. I threw sakura back and followed after them, knowing what was coming next. I arrived, Sakura behind me, right as Konohamaru was sprawled on the ground after running into a boy with a black cat jumpsuit, a puppet on his back, and purple face paint, next to him was a girl with 4 ponytails and a large fan. Kankuro sneered annoyed and picked up Konohamaru by his scarf, pulling him into his face. His friends shouted in fear for Konohamaru, and Naruto looked ready to destroy Kankuro.

"That hurt little punk." He barked out, trying to intimidate everyone. Sakura stepped forward her hands raised in an apologetic manner.

"We were just messing around, no need to hurt him." Kankuro scoffed, Temari just stepped away from the scene. Konohamaru began to kick at Kankuro, trying to get released, it failed, just ended up pissing off Kankuro more.

"You bastard, let him go!" Naruto took a run to stop puppet boy, but before he could, chakra threads were attached to Naruto's feet making him trip and fall. Right as Kankuro's fist was going to connect to Konohamaru's face I flashed down, hitting Kankuro in the arm with a gentle fist strike, numbing it. He dropped Konohamaru into my awaiting arms. I set him behind me and stood defensively in front of everyone. Kankuro is way more of a dick than I thought he would be. I growled, already in a bad mood and he was just making it worse.

"Back off, don't start a fight you cant finish puppet bastard." I growled out, exerting a minor KI, and that made a larger, more deadly one react. Gaara. His presence was overwhelming, the pressure and dark whirlpool of his chakra was so intense and bore down on us, it felt like drowning in syrup, it was so toxic.

"You Bitch, what the hell did you do. I hate brats like you, you're nothing but a pretty princess playing ninja. I was going to show them first, but I guess you need a beatdown first." Kankuro shouted at me, aggravated. He began to unravel his puppet ignoring his teammates protest.

"Don't call Hinata-chan that you bastard. I should destroy you for that." Naruto shouted, growing pissed. Canker was going to retaliate, but I stepped in, ending this before it would progress.

"If attack any of us again, I'll end you quickly. You're no match for me Kankuro of the sand. How would your father feel if you ended the treaty with the leaf, at this rate thats whats going to happen. That little brat is the Hokage's Grandson and I'm the heir to the Hyuuga clan. Attacking either of us would end very badly for you and your village. Do you want the last three Uchiha, my clan, rogue swordsman Zabuza Momochi and the 9 tails Jinchuriki to retaliate for your ego? You're bound to lose. Got it asshole?" I spoke to the two of them, all of my playfulness gone for the moment, I need their attention to be focused on me and not Sasuke. If I can get Gaara's attention, I can get closer to him. Gaara's pressure was intense, but his chakra spiked in interest, not the good kind. The two of them stared at me a bit freaked out with their realization. "And you, the third teammate in the tree come down."

"Kankuro, you're a disgrace to our village, remember what we're here for, if you forget again...I'll kill you." Gaara's low gravelly voice spoke out in annoyance, as he appeared in front of my by a whoosh of sand. That was definitely the coolest thing I've ever seen. Gaara stared me down, his beautiful sea foam and black ringed eyes were filled with sadness and hatred. Even though I wanted to cower at the intensity of his chakra, the way it was burning to even breathe it in, I had to block it out, not sensing the chakra to the best of my ability.

Instead of cowering like my body was yelling at me to do, I stared right into his eyes. It made me sad to see, his eyes flashed with surprise when I didn't flinch away afraid, instead I smiled brightly at him, my entire demeanor changing back to obliviously happy, one thing Naruto taught me was if you are afraid, keeoing a smile on is the best way to fake it until you make it.

"Wholly Hell, that was so awesome, your sand transport is so fucking dope. Hey I'm Hinata Hyuuga, I know you Gaara, one tailed Jinchuriki, no need to introduce yourself. You're a lot cuter in person ya know, you look like a cute redheaded panda." Gaara's sand began to emerge but I didn't move a muscle like the idiot I am. Surprisingly his sand went back into his gourd when I didn't react. "I hope to see you guys again, maybe we can be friends, as long as you keep the puppet bastard on a leash." I said, still smiling. I tried hard not to laugh at the shocked faces of everyone around me. Gaara's eyes were watching me intently, confusion, intrigue, and intense bloodlust was surrounding him. My smile was strained, tense. Naruto was poised and his eyes were blinking in awe, the bloodllust from Gaara was has less of an affect on him than it did me and the others, something from Kuruma probably.

"Hinata Hyuuga, goodbye." Gaara stated emotionlessly, ignoring Naruto saying Gaara want's to know who he is too. Right as he and his team turned around to leave, Sakura opened her mouth to speak up, but I covered it and whispered that they are aloud here for the Chunin exams.

"Wow boss, why aren't you as cool as Hinata-chan?" Konohmamru asked, making me bust out laughing.

"Dude, Naru is cool in his own way, he's not the pranking king for nothing." His little minions eyes sparkled in awe at their boss and Naruto basked in their praise. A bit later, we met with Kakashi, who gave us applications for the Chunin exams. We all gladly signed overflowing with excitement. Before Kakashi could leave, Naruto asked him about puppet users and how to counter their chakra threads, so he and Kakashi went to train on it. Naruto really didn't like Kankuro, I could see the desire to beat him burning within. It was Sasuke and I left, so we went and got food, talking about the Chunin exams. Sasuke really wanted to fight Neji and Naruto in the exams. I want to fight Kabuto and see how I compare to him.

After dinner, Sasuke and I sat at 'his' dock by the lake and just laid there together, formulating about how to take down Danzo and bring Itachi home. It was hard to talk about, like always, but having Sasuke hold me when I would cry about Itachi was helpful in me not losing my mind. I think it was the same for him, he would hold me tighter whenever he would get too angry, calming down. Sasuke went home and I decided to walk around the village since its quiet at night, and I wanted to clear my head before training on my water techniques. I made it to an unmarked pond at the edge of the forest, and decided to do my training here.

I finished my training, panting heavily laying on the ground, but I had a massive grin on my face. I managed to have the water I was controlling move around easier and farther than usual. I was able to control it for a few minutes this time without breaking my concentration. I can also propel myself up to my shoulders and back out with just my chakra. It is exhausting, but it has helped my control over water increase drastically. I finally sat up and could enjoy the scenery around me. The moon was almost full, lighting up everywhere around me.

It reflected of the water, leaving it glistening, the glow of the moon made the trees look so beautiful and serene. I was awed by its beauty and so mesmerized, I didn't see the sand until it was wrapped around my body. I couldn't move but the sand wasn't crushing me...much, so I decided to save my energy for an escape if needed. I allowed the sand to pick me up and I was brought face to face with my favorite panda who looked almost ethereal in the moonlight, too bad he was deadly and probably wanted to kill me.

"Hey Panda-kun." I said with a happy grin, masking the slight unease I felt, god I didn;t know somebodies chakra could make me react so negative. Even Zabuza's KI had nothing on the monstrous danger Gaara exuded. He's unstable and I can't take him lightly right now. I have enough chakra to escape, I can't fight him right now, and even at full capacity I don't think I could really manage to fight him and live, at least without repercussions. Gaara glared at me, his sand squeezing me a bit tighter but not painfully.

"Why, why aren't you afraid. Everyone is afraid, they have to be afraid. Why aren't you afraid, why don't you look at me with those eyes!" Gaara started out as a whisper, but it ended up in a full blown shout, he was clutching his head and his voice was cracking in pain. My heart hurt at the sound of it.

"I see nothing to be afraid of, all I see is a misunderstood boy who was hurt by a bunch of assholes so he lashes out to help his pain. I see somebody who needs love, who is deserving to be loved. Why would I be afraid of that." I told Gaara, my eyes never leaving his. His cold mask stayed on, but his eyes spoke volumes. They were filled with confusion and longing, but then something happened and they turned back into being full of rage. His sand clenched around me painfully and he started shaking, letting out a cruel and psychotic laugh.

"Love, mother said the only one who loves me is myself! If I squeeze tight enough, I can make your fear show, then I can have your BLOOD and prove my existence!" The sand squeezed and I could barely breathe, black spots started dancing in my vision.

"Gaara" I rasped out. "You're wrong, I can show you the love you're missing, I wont let you be alone anymore." His sand stopped squeezing for a second and I used a blast of Chakra out of my Tenketsu points to make his sand release me. I fell to the ground in front of Gaara, gasping for breath.

"No, NO! LIES! Love is fake, the only one who loves me is myself!" I took my chance and walked up to him hesitantly. His sand didn't react, not taking me as a threat, and I put my hand up to his face, cupping his cheeks, making him look me in the eyes.

"I'll never fear you Gaara. I promise. You may hate me or not believe me, but I understand what it's like to be alone. I will be there for you." I cut my hand and allowed blood to spill out of it, suicide probably but whatever. Gaara didn't get excited and murder-y like I thought so I took the opportunity and I pulled Gaara into a hug and felt him stiffen at the unusual contact. Finally he relaxed a bit and I made his arms wrap around me, returning the hug. His body was cold. His grip tightened around me in a possessive grip and he inhaled deeply. Hopefully this means he wont kill me, but only time will tell. A tendril of sand came out of the gourd and attached itself to my wrist...tightly.

"What's this for?"

"I don't believe you, and if I decide you've lied to me like the others, I'll kill you."

"Cool, cool. But let's make a deal. If I can prove to you I'm stronger because of the people I fight for and that I'm not going to try to kill you, you'll sit and listen to what Naruto has to say and if I don't, I'll fight you...to the death if need be." God, I just do dumb shit all of the time. How the hell am I supposed to show somebody as fucked as Gaara the truth without literally beating it into him like Naruto. Maybe, just maybe this will work. Actions are important and hopefully I can prove to him I fight and am strong because of others, not myself and not have to let it get pounded into him.

"Friends are a weakness. I accept, be ready to die Hinata Hyuga." Gaara spun on his heal and left, his shoulders loose and his face stony.

(3d POV) Team 7 preliminary tests from Iruka Umino

Naruto was telling the story of him and his teammates defeating their Sensei in the bell test. He was embellishing and telling about his 'amazing' skills during the battle and how he had to help out his Teme of a teammate. Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon were watching in awe of their boss, hanging on to every word he was saying, adding in their own 'ohh's and ahh's' at the appropriate moments. He was getting to the climax of the story, how he made a super awesome gravity seal to take out the Copy Ninja, when a cloaked figure swooped by at ninja speed and grabbed Moegi, hauling ass away from the three boys. Moegi screamed, and her teammates screamed for her, unsure of what to do to take down the enemy ninja.

Naruto acted right away and before the enemy could get too far away, he chased him down, activated his brass knuckles and punched the enemy hard enough to knock him out of the tree and leave a nasty bruise. Naruto used his shadow clones to grab Moegi, and throw the ninja back up to Naruto. Naruto ended the fight with a strong blast of wind, sending the cloaked enemy back to the ground in a fatal blow. Unfortunately the ninja substituted away, running to save their life. The little kids looked at Naruto in pure shock at his awesome skills, he really earned his role as their leader. Moegi even gained a little crush on her hero; she ran up to him hugging him tightly with a blush on her face.

Sasuke was given a new training schedule curtsey of Shisui. He was nearing the end of his workout when Hinata walked up to him, a smile and blush on her face. Sasuke could feel something was off with his Hinata, but decided to play it cool and see what was going on. Hinata walked up and grasped his hand, making Sasuke have a slight blush that didn't go unnoticed by Hinata.

"Sasuke-kun, lets go get some dinner, I'm so hungry and I don't have anything to cook for us tonight."

"Hn." Sasuke narrowed his eyes, his suspicions confirmed. That isn't his Hinata, he knows her like he knows the fireball justu. Hinata would never call him Sasuke-kun, she never blushes around him, and the personality of Hinata was so wrong. Sasuke's hands clenched in anger at a person trying and failing to imitate Hinata. He grabbed out a kunai and swiped it at the fake Hinata still latched on to him.

She jumped back and smirked, releasing the transformation jutsu revealing an enemy ninja. Sasuke made two sets of hand signs, releasing a fireball, then a small lightning jutsu one after another, taking out the enemy ninja instantly. The ninja substituted away and when Sasuke was sure the weak enemy fled, he left to go make dinner for him and Shisui, slightly wishing Hinata really would look at him with a blush.

Hinata was talking to Shikamaru about the success of their theory of the byakugan being able to watch and help imitate creating a justu based on chakra flow alone. They were figuring out how to speed up the process of figuring out the jutsu's flow of chakra, needing to watch it once instead of multiple times. They were laying down under a tree right outside the Nara's compound, Shikamaru's arm around Hinata, watching the clouds and identifying them, as they conversed. Choji came and grabbed Shikamaru for one of their training sessions, leaving Hinata alone to her musings. As soon as they were gone she called out to the ninja she knew was hiding in the tree behind her. She didn't even open her eyes, instead waving her hand in a nonchalant way, letting the ninja know to move on.

"I already know its you Iruka-sensei, move on and test somebody else." The disguised enemy ninja flickered away, onto a rooftop next to the copy ninja Kakashi.

Iruka sat in shock for a few minutes at how much his all of his old students have grown. He knew Team 7 was strong but the skills each of them showed in their tests blew him out of the water. Sasuke was already a basic prodigy, but his use of two justu's back to back stunned Iruka, if he was a lesser Shinobi, he would have been seriously injured by the boy. Hinata didn't even have to open her eyes to know he was there, and she even knew that it was Iruka himself. Naruto came as the biggest shocker, Kakashi said he was strong, but Iruka was speechless at how strong the loudmouthed knucklehead really was. To be able to use his shadow clones so well, have such improved speed, and his use of wind made Iruka proud at how strong his surrogate son was. All of his doubts of Kakashi's high praise of his team flew out the window, leaving Iruka excited to see what's next for his little ninja.

"So believe me now?" Kakashi asked amused, with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes. I want to know how Naruto got so strong so quickly." Kakashi let out a chuckle and told his buddy Iruka about Naruto and Hinata's scheme to get on the same team, as well as all of the training all of his students do. He even let Iruka in on some of the real strength of the new team 7, getting him excited to watch them fight, especially Naruto, and how the other Genin will react to the impressive strength of the knucklehead and his team.

---

I woke up late in the morning alone by the pond I trained by. I thought that last night was a dream until I looked down at my wrist and the sand bracelet was still there. I guess I did make a friend of Gaara after all, I mean he still might kill me and I'm going to have to kick his ass during the invasion, but a friend nonetheless. I got my bearings, realizing I slept outside, I busted my ass to get home knowing my overprotective dad was going to kick my ass for not coming hime, or at least sending notice I wouldn't be home.

I made it home and tried to sneak into my room, but by the close laughing I could hear from Hanabi, I was fucked. I heard the annoyed tap of a foot and slow turned to see my dad, standing tall and intimidating, sending me a pissed glare. I chuckled sheepishly and turned to run, but he caught me by the back of my shirt and basically dragged me to the training grounds as punishment. He made me do my least favorite training, its basically me running laps until I drop, thats basically past the point of puking, then I have to spar him while he goes full force. I don't like running, and I have a high stamina so I feel like I'm running forever. Once it took almost a whole day for me to drop. I never get out of this training without being bedridden for a day, so I know he's pissed. Dad glared and I jumped up and ran, every few laps he would add resistance to my weights for me to run. It feels like death, honestly being chidori'd hurt less than this does.

I finally dropped to the floor, my legs basically jelly, after hours and hours of running. Dad gave me 5 minutes of rest and a water bottle to finish, before I was dragged up to spar him. We were sparring for a bit, I was moving sluggish, so I was too slow to dodge one of his attacks that should have shut off the chakra to my hand, but instead of being struck, the sand bracelet Gaara put on me wrapped around my hand in a protective gauntlet, blocking the attack from my father. Once the attack was blocked, it morphed back into a bracelet, locking tightly around my wrist. My dad and I both stopped, staring right at the sand bracelet, me in awe and my dad in pure rage. He grabbed my wrist tightly and brought it up to inspect it closer with his Byakugan. He scowled and locked eyes with mine. I wanted to flinch away at the angry look in his eyes, it gave me flashback of when we were younger. He saw my fear and softened his eyes a bit, guilt crossing his features.

"Do you know what this is?" He asked through gritted teeth. I was confused at his anger of me having a bracelet. I mean it's definitely not in my control, but I really don't get his anger. I grinned at him, trying to gage his reactions and why they were happening. He looked even more annoyed. If I wasn't worried, I would have laughed at his distraught emotions.

"It's a friendship bracelet... I think. Its pretty freaking dope anyways, like my own protective gauntlet." Dad's eyes narrowed at my response. He tried to add his own chakra into the sand, but it lashed out at him. Weird, but cool.

"That is no friendship bracelet. It's sand infused with chakra, that melds with yours as a type of claim, and also a tracker. Whoever gave you this does not think of you as friends, he is either marking you as his next victim of hopeful spouse." My eyes widened in realization, I've basically been marked and since the sand is under Gaara's control, I cant make it do what I want. It protects me so when Gaara decides, he can be the one to kill me or be my spouse. I'm thinking he's definitely more on the murder me route.

"Oh fuck." I breathed out, before realizing who I said it in front of. To my surprise, instead of getting hit, dad stayed silent, his face morphed into a morbid one. If my stoic dad is this stressed out, maybe talking to Gaara without the power of Naruto's therapy jutsu fucked me over big time. I might have to fight a tailed beast, and I don't know if I can take him.

"Who put this on you?" Dad asked, his voice shaking in fury, not at me though.

"This kid Gaara from the sand village, after I told him we were friends. He's a jinchuriki like Naruto and looked really sad so I told him I'd be there for him so he's not alone anymore. He tried to strangle me a few times, but stopped and put this on me instead." All emotion fell from my dad's face and as much as the bracelet, and now who gave it to me, worried him, I could tell he wanted nothing more than to face palm at how I told him I was almost killed a few times by the person I basically am forcing to be my friend, even if he is seeming to be more Yandere, or just murderous, by the moment.

Like as cute as Gaara is, if he actually claimed me in the relationship sense, that is like a massive no no. I get that he doesn't know how love and stuff works, I don't get it either, I was an orphan and like a pretty fucked up life of training to kill people, but I don't want him claiming me, just like I didn't allow myself to just be married off to one of the Uchiha. I don;t know how to go about this though, because I could be walking into my death either way, and I could hurt fragile psycho Gaara if I just like make him take it off. I'm just going to pretend it's a super cool, protective, mind of its own, tracker friendship bracelet and not whatever else it is.

"Training is over, go find Kakashi and Zabuza and tell them about this, see if he can do anything. I'm going to figure some things out. Stay away from the sand boy." I nodded, bowed, gave dad a dorky smile, and ran off to find my Sensei, Senpai, and teammates to let them know I've been marked or whatever.

So telling them about my Gaara experience, leaving out little details only, I was bombarded with a flurry of reactions. Kakashi was worried about my safety and went into serious Kakashi mode, studying the sand closely, trying to determine whether it's use is for my demise or as a claim. Zabuza was not stressed, trusting in my skills and abilities to change people, loosely based on how I changed him and Haku. He did promise to gut Gaara in an instant need-be, the big softy. Sasuke was beyond pissed, both at me and Gaara. He had that possessive and protective look in his eyes, I know he now want's to fight Gaara, even if they never met this time. Naruto was just confused about the whole thing, but just like me, he thought it was awesome how the sand would block attacks to my right arm, from the elbow down. It's like in Ben 10 when Kevin can harden his hands to a metal or rock he absorbs, but with sand that I have no control over.

From testing, I figured out the sand is weak to lightning and large surges of chakra. When I use lightning or a chakra surge, forcing it into the sand, it freaks out and either tightens harshly on my wrist making me stop, or it moves around, avoiding the 'attack'. I think I can get off the sand tag and found out the slight weakness to Gaara's kick ass impenetrable defense, but I'm not going to remove the bracelet yet, I want to have it be a symbol to him that I stand by what I said, and we are friends.

I also figured out what to do with Orochimaru, it's a absolutely terrible idea, but it's so terrible, it just might work. Right now, Snake Man is a freaky, Sharingan obsessed, mad scientist with a large cult following, so I have no hope of changing his mind on anything, all I can do is fight him to the best of my abilities. Plus it's not like I have to worry about killing him, he's some kind of ageless bastard that never dies, even when he does die. I just need to hold out in a fight to hopefully keep his hickey of doom from happening, preventing the forced corruption of Sasuke's mind. You know thats just me, deciding to go head to head with the prodigy Sanin, and one who takes fatal blows and just sheds his skin to survive. If cats have nine lives, snakes have ten. Also, overall as a team we are way stronger than the first go round with Snake man, that might be a bad thing, but also is a great thing, especially for when the sound assholes come. With Zabuza's sadistic means, Orochimaru hopefully won't seem as scary to Sasuke.

Today is the last day before the Chunin exams and I spent it resting. I know training would be a great idea because shits about to hit the fan, but me resting the entire day like a lazy ass helped me fully recharge my chakra, my muscles were looser than ever, and my mind was as calm as my mile-a-minute thoughts could be. I woke up at Noon, which was a blessing, oh the luxury I missed of sleeping in so late. I had a super tasty breakfast made by one of my maid/servant people, her names Sari and she is a fantastic cook, the pancakes I had were fluffy and just so good. I went to the hot springs for a bit too, Zabuza came along to enjoy the relaxing fun. I hung out with Shisui, just telling random stories to one another while he played with my hair, tangling it into a freaking mess. Finally, I went home watched a movie, read a part of a book, and went to sleep. It was the laziest and most calming day ever, perfect timing for my last day of serenity.

I woke up a bundle of nerves, yet I couldn't control the excitement I was also feeling. This is it, my time to announce to the world who I am, to showcase how hard I've worked everyday of my life to become strong. It's also Naruto's time to shine, he's been playing the fool for so long, when he wipes the floor with the others, as much as I love everyone, he deserves all the praise in the world. I get to protect Sasuke and see if me meddling in his life changed enough for him to not fall into the curse of hatred. I'm also pumped to see my friends again, watch them battle, and see what the hell is going on with Gaara. Jumping out of my bed, I almost put a hole in the floor of how much force I used, damn, I'm really freaking out.

I put on my ninja attire and decided, since it's only a written test, to make myself look more innocent then usual as a way to hide my actual strength. It doesn't really matter much, whenever people see me they always say I'm too pretty or whatever to be a strong ninja. I did my hair, it gliding down to my lower back in glossy curls. I still cant bring myself to be too girly, so I put on my normal sharp eyeliner and my eyes looked pretty and deadly. I have my perfect mix of a sweet princess and a deadly warrior. Dad gave me a short "make me proud," and I ran to meet up with my teammates. I can't believe it's finally time.

I ran up to the front of the Academy, Naruto and Sasuke were standing super close glaring at one another, lightning passing between them. I began to laugh because it looked like they were going to kiss again. They snapped their heads towards me at neck breaking speeds and Naruto glomped me, whining about the 'teme being such a teme.' After our greetings with one another, wide smirks plastered on our faces, we linked arms and walked up to the second floor. I could feel the genjutsu, so could Sasuke. We locked eyes and had unspoken understanding that is's time to be assholes. Kotestu, in a shitty transformation jutsu punched down Tenten, Izumo doing the same to Lee. I stepped forward with a shit eating grin on my face.

"Wow Izumo and Kotetsu, I didn't know that for you to really feel like grown men, you have to parade around as Genin, beating up on people younger than you. You limp dicks have really fragile egos." Naruto busted out laughing at my statement. Sasuke stood next to me, his giant arrogant asshole smirk on his face. I could hear the girls swooning already.

"And while you're at it, release the lame transformation. We want to go to the third floor." Murmurs of what Sasuke and I said were spread throughout the room. IZumo and Kotetsu turned red in anger.

"Agh you little brats, didn't anyone ever teach you how a lady should talk?" Kotetsu said, aiming a kick at me. I blocked it easily.

"Yeah but does it seem like I care." He growled and walked off, pulling Izumo, who Rock Lee blocked from kicking Sasuke. All eyes were officially on us. Neji and Tenten walked over to where lee was, our teams facing off.

"Hinata-hime, it is wonderful to see a beautiful youthful lotus like yourself in these exams." I smiled brightly at the weirdly adorable, blushing Lee. He's so Kawaii for such a badass fighter. I allowed Lee to glomp me, and returned his hug before pushing him off.

"Lee, I missed you! Oh my Kami you dress so much like Gai now." I said, flinching a bit at the bright and skintight outfit of lee, I had to keep my eyes away from any unwanted areas. I turned to Neji and gave him a hug, him returning it barely. "Niisan, Tenten, I missed you guys. We better make it to the end together."

"Of course, its our destiny to meet Hime, the rest of these Genin are weak fools." I rolled my eyes at him and let Neji and Sasuke have their little stare down. Finally, done with the testosterone battles between them and the moping of Naruto and Lee, I grabbed my team and not so nicely yanked them to the stairwell to head up to the third floor. We were passing an empty sparring classroom when a voice loud enough to rival Naruto called out.

"Hey you with the arrogant look." We all stopped and turned around to see the green beast Rock Lee, a determined look etched across his features. Sasuke raised an eyebrow, keeping his emotionless look on his face. "My name is Rock Lee, top Genin of my year. You said to give your name before asking for another's isn't that correct. Sasuke Uchiha. I would like to fight you, test my skills against someone from the infamous Uchiha clan." Sasuke looked annoyed, but I could see the glint of excitement for a fight against the boy who stopped his kick with his bare hands, and didn't even flinch.

"Hn. So you already know who I am."

"No shit sherlock, you wear your clan symbol boldly across your back." Sasuke sent me a glare before turning his attention back on Lee. Lee gave Sasuke a fierce look and walked into the classroom, we all followed. Lee turned to me and gave me a blinding smile, his teeth actually sparkled. What ever kind of non-chakra genjutsu he uses, I want it. He gave me the dorky thumbs up and I had to smile back at it. He's such a dork.

"Hinata-hime, I did as promised, I kept up my training to be a Taijutsu master, all thanks to your kind words and belief in me. One day I ill measure up and be enough to protect you, but for now my win in this battle is for you." My eyes widened then began to water at the sweetness of his words. I didn't do anything special, I just believed in him because I knew he could be amazing, but for that to have made him get the confidence to continue. I sent him a glassy eyed smile, full of happiness.

"Lee, I already know you are strong, keep up your work. I'm happy that you appreciate the belief I have in you, I will never stop believing in you. Show my arrogant Uchiha what the green beast can do." Sasuke looked to me in annoyance at the thought that Lee could even slightly show him up. Honestly, Lee is amazing and in a league of his own, but Sasuke is so strong, so I don't know how the fight will end. What I missed was the flutter of Sasuke's heart, and the pride he felt when I called him my Uchiha. Sasuke and Lee squared off, before Naruto could run in and interfere, I whispered to him about keeping his skills secret until we have to fight, make it even more of a surprise. He backed down and watched the fight intently, to gather more information on the two opponents. Sasuke shot forward at Lee, attempting to land a blow, but Lee with his superior speed moved out of the way and broke through Sasuke's defense, giving him a hard kick to the cheek. Sasuke stumbled back, shocked at the hit, then he smirked.

Taking Lee fully serious now. They went back to fighting, moving in blurs to the untrained eye. Every attack Sasuke threw, Lee dodged and vice versa. Sasuke was holding up well in the Taijutsu battle, but soon Lee sped up more and his attacks were overwhelming, and Lee finally landed an uppercut sending Sasuke into the aid, sprawled out like a starfish. Lee appeared under Sasuke, his bandages unravelled and flowing with him. When he was about to do the forbidden technique, paper pinwheels shot out of nowhere and pinned Lee to a wall, hanging him by his bandages. It looked similar to the crucifixion, in a less Holy way. Sasuke was falling to the floor, but Naruto caught him. Sasuke looked disgruntled, Naruto looked ready to kick some ass, and Lee was pale and sweating nervously.

"Y-You were watching the whole time?" Lee asked to the giant tortoise that suddenly appeared.

"Yes, that technique was forbidden, I taught it to you for extreme circumstances only." Naruto dropped Sasuke in shock and pointed at the tortoise, his eyes comically wide.

"Hinata-chan that turtle is talking, can turtles be sensei's too?" Sasuke looked over to me and I knew he was wondering the same thing. I began to giggle which turned into full blown laughter.

"Kami no, first it's a tortoise and it's a summoning animal. His sensei is way weirder than that." They gave me weird looks until the tortoise disappeared and in its place, clad in the horrific green outfit, Might Gai, taijutsu master. Lee's eyes basically glowed at the sight of his Sensei, mine were sparking in amusement for seeing the oddness of Gai, and the boys eyes were filled with pure horror at the sight of him.

"Gai-sensei. I am so sorry!" Lee said with large tears falling out of his eyes. I held in my snickers at the sight.

"This guy is an even bigger freak, his brows are eve larger than Lee's, they look alive." Naruto shouted in my ear. Sasuke nodded in agreement, looking butt hurt about losing to such a weird kid. They stopped and stared quietly when Gai punched the shit out of Lee, sending him flying. Then the forgave one another and began crying puddles together.

"Gai-sensei"

"Lee"

"Gai-sensei"

"Lee"

"Gai-sensei"

"Lee" They shouted to one anther, an odd sort of love glowing in their eyes. Then they tightly hugged another, spandex to spandex, crying even more, a genjutsu sunset appearing behind the duo. Sasuke watched appalled at the freak show, I laughed at the odd yet sweet bond between the Sensei and student, and Naruto was crying too since he thought it was a sweet sight. Finally Gai noticed us again, and did his nice guy pose.

"Nice to see you full of youth Hinata. I know you were all shocked by my youthful and handsome face. I am Might Gai! You are Kakashi's students."

"Bushier brows, you know Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked dumbfounded that our too cool for school sensei would even talk to someone like Gai.

"Yous! Kakashi is my eternal rival." Gai then appeared behind us, showcasing his speed. "My record is 50 wins and 49 losses over Kakashi. Face it, I am stronger and faster than him." Sasuke lost his mask of indifference and looked openly shocked at Gai's display of speed, and the fact that our super awesome Sensei is weaker than the weirdo. Naruto's mind was reeling with the information, trying to process how Kakashi would lose to a bushy brows sensei.

"Gai, I'd love to stay and talk about your rivalry, but we all have to leave for the exams." Gai's eyes flickered with understanding and he flashed away, saying his goodbyes and good lucks. Lee followed right after, leaving us alone.

"Teme, you couldn't have beat him. Did you see his hands? The only person we've met who seems to train to that extent is Hinata-chan." Naruto said, as a sort of consolation for Sasuke. Even though he did slightly rub it in earlier about Sasuke's loss. Sasuke finally understood, flashing a glimpse to me. He knows that I train more than anyone, including him and Naruto who train more than most. To meet somebody who does a s much as me shocked Sasuke to the core, also lighting a fire inside of him for all of the strong opponents he gets to face. He grabbed my hand and we walked up the stairs to room 301 where Kakashi was waiting for us.

Kakashi gave us a smile as we handed in our paperwork.

"Maa Maa, I'm glad you all made it, all I have to say is I'm proud to be your sensei. You have proved over and over how talented and hardworking each of you are, I expect you all to make Chunin. Show the elemental nations what Team 7 is made of." With Kakashi's wonderful speech, we all felt more confident, I could feel it overflowing between the 4 of us. I gave Kakashi a hug.

"Thank you for being my sensei, even if you are a lazy ass perv, I wouldn't have made it this far without you." Kakashi patted my head affectionally and sent us off. I was standing in between Naruto and Sasuke, we exchanged glances, all plastered on smirks and I slammed open the doors in the most dramatic fashion possible. My smirk grew wider when all eyes turned to us, when they saw who it was, the rookie brats, almost all of the other Genin glared and began to release their weak KI to scare us. My smirk, along with Naruto's turned into full blown smiles, mine deceptively sweet and Naruto's foxy.

"Oh how cute, the other Genin are trying to scare us, I heard that when scared, weak people try to use KI to make the opponent back off. Naru, Sasuke wanna show them what real Killer Intent feels like?" I felt the air around us become more tense, the usual warmth radiating from my blonde sun changed into the swirling dangerous one. Sasuke and I can release a pretty scary KI thanks to Zabuza, but nobody in this world can match up to Naruto and Kuruma's KI. We all released the KI and directed it at the crowd, many flinching or quivering in fear, I'm pretty sure a few even cried. Stopping the KI, I began to laugh at the shock of the fellow Genin, that is until I could feel my bracelet humming in a mix of pleasure and deadly excitement. I'm guessing he can project his feelings into the sand, and since my chakra has merged, I can feel it too.

I had my lavender eyes roam over the room until I saw the familiar red hair, a blank mask on his face, his eyes ruining the mask of nothingness. They were swirling with murderous excitement directed at Naruto, not surprising because of Kuruma and Shukaku's rivalry. They also had emotions I couldn't quite identify directed towards me. I studied Gaara for a bit, but still was unsure of what he was feeling, so I just gave him a smile, flashed myself by him, patting him on the head in a way that pleased him since his lips quirked up in the slightest, then returning to my teammates. I could feel the stares of Kankuro and Temari, since his sand defense didn't react to me at all. Sasuke and Naruto exchanged glances at my actions with the Sand team, but decided to not say anything.

"SASUKE-KUNNN" Two obnoxiously loud and squeaky voices called out. In a movement faster than I've ever seen them move, pink and purple were soon holding on to the arms of Sasuke.

"I've missed those devilishly brooding good looks of yours. I'm sorry we've been apart my love." Ino cooed out, pushing herself against Sasuke trying to put his arm between her small chest.

"It's been too long, I'm sure you've been miserable with the blonde idiot and the failure of a girl on your team. Don't worry, a real woman is here now." Sakura said batting her eyelashes in a failed attempt to be sultry. Damn, I so want to blow them out of the water with my seduction skills, but maybe now's not the time to let my freak flag fly. It wouldn't work on Sasuke anyways, the asexual bastard. Sasuke grumbled in annoyance and shoved the girls off of him harshly. I could feel the anger radiating off of him as the fangirls kept trying to rub their nonexistent bodies against Sasuke, not taking him pushing them off as a sign to quit. WTF they are horny already at the age of 13. They proceeded to have an argument calling each other names and arguing who Sasuke likes better. I began to laugh at the misfortune of Sasuke, I may not like fangirls, but seeing Sasuke annoyed has always pleased me in a sadistic kind of way. Finally the rest of Ino's team made their way over.

"Oh its you guys. Nice show earlier with the Ki, it was actually pretty intimidating." Shikamaru stated blandly, stifling a yawn. He walked over, Choji in tow, and threw an arm around my shoulder, laying his head on mine as a way to sleep standing up. I flashed Choji a smile, giving him a side hug.

"So, the three stooges are here huh?" Naruto yelled, grinning at his supposed awesome nickname for Team 10. Shikamaru opened one eye, annoyance flowing from his lazy ass.

"Hey, you know what you pipsqueak." He said, raising his voice a bit, then slumping back over me in defeat. "Ah forget it, it's a waste of time." Naruto just laughed it off, not being mad at his sort of friend.

"What do you know, looks like the whole gang is back together again!" Kiba's loud, confident voice overpowering the room. He had his signature feral grin on his face, walking up with Shino to stand by Sakura who huffed in annoyance at him.

"Man everyone is here for this troublesome thing, this is going to be a drag." Shikamaru whispered to me, letting out a large sigh. I giggled and poked him in the ribs, sending a shock of Chakra to piss him off a bit. He retaliated with shoving his chin harder onto the top of my head.

"Here we are, all 9 rookies. This is going to be fun, at least for the ones good enough to make the cut, right Hinata?" He asked, a taunting smirk on his face. I wanted to punch it off, but I also couldn't help but smile at him.

"Yeah yeah, whatever dog boy. You haven't been able to beat me yet, what makes you think there will be a difference now." I pushed Shika off and walked up to Kiba, taking Akamaru off his head and cooing at his cuteness. He responded with a happy yip and licked my cheek.

"While you've been putting on doll dresses, we've been training like crazy. And what the hell, you say hi to Akamaru but not me?" I smirked up at him, patting him condescendingly on the arm. He pulled me into a headlock, ruffling up my hair and we laughed, Kiba ignoring Naruto's declaration of kicking Kiba's ass. I greeted Shino, asking him about the newest insect in his collection. We were all chatting animatedly, when an annoying and fake sweet voice called out to us.

"Hey you guys." We all turned to see a guy around 18, with grey hair in a low ponytail and round Harry Potter glasses walking over to us. I stopped talking and my face set in a glare, any of the people watching were shocked at my change. Those who know me know I don't have issues with people, and if I do, I don't let it be evident, so my apparent dislike for Kabuto put them on edge. I must have alerted Gaara too because the bracelet tightened in an almost comforting manner. "You might want to try keeping it down a little. No offense, but you are the 9 rookies right? Fresh out of the academy." He finished as he stood in front of us all. I moved closer to Sasuke, him taking the hint and pushing his shoulder against mine, then grabbing my hand tightly. He knew I was uncomfortable by this dude, and I watched as Kabuto's eyes wandered over us, stopping to stare at my glare, then at Sasuke longer than necessary. Sasuke noticed too, even Naruto picked up the tension between us. "I wouldn't go making a spectacle out of yourselves, even with the Impressive KI you managed to pull off, everyone here doesn't take rookies nicely."

"Thanks Kabuto, but you can take that fake concern and shove it up your ass." I growled out. Everyone around me shot their eyes to me, wondering how I knew him. Kabuto on the other hand, I saw his eyes fill with dark interest at my knowing who he was and he tried to hide the smirk that was forming.

"Oh and how do you know who I am Hinata-san, I am nobody special." He asked with the fake kind voice again. I tightened my grip on Sasuke's hand, trying to control myself, but failing. Him and Orochimaru right now are my enemies and want to basically destroy Sasuke, my precious person.

"I know lots of things Kabuto, maybe even more than you and your special cards. Why don't you show the others." Kabuto's eyes flashed with dangerous intent, before becoming more intrigued and watching my figure closely. Damn it, I need to shut up. I don't want or need him to know anything about me, but I can't help but word vomit and say things he didn't need to know I know. He smiled a sweet smile, eyes never leaving mine. It was unnerving and I wanted to look away, but couldn't bring myself to. Kabuto dug in his pocket, pulling out a deck of cards.

"Ah yes, let me show you all my ninja info cards. They are chakra encoded and have everything I've learned about in the last 4 years."

"Kabuto, that's your name right? You seem to know so much, is this not your first time taking the exams?" Sakura asked him.

"Nope it's my 7th. This would be my 4th year taking them." He said sheepishly.

"This really is going to be a drag then." Shika moaned.

"Wow, you must really be an expert then! You can help us and give us inside tips." Sakura stated enthusiastically.

"Sakura, he's not an expert if he's never passed, it means he's an idiotic dipshit or is taking them for his amusement." I said deadpanning at her, my voice still lining with an edge. Kabuto looked even more intrigued by my statement, a threatening look behind his glasses. Fuck fuck fuck fuck, I need to learn to shut up sometimes. I'm worse than Naruto at this point. Kabuto laughed and kneeled down, laying his cards on the floor.

"Yeah well hopefully I pass this time, even if I'm not that strong. Anyways..." Kabuto inserted his chakra into the cards, turning them into a world mad. He talked about the hidden villages and balance of power stuff. Finally he revealed the final trick to his spy cards, information on other people. Sasuke perked up at this.

"These cards have information on over 250 people, for example," he pulled out a card with my face on it fucking creep. "Hinata Hyuuga, 362 D-ranks and 1 A-rank mission. She is the top rookie Genin and not many know that she is a Prodigy akin to the likes of the greatest ninja's of all time." I stiffened, even he shouldn't know about that. How he got that information is beyond me, but that's concerning if his spy skills are that good. He just announced my skills to all of the Genin there, fuck. my. life. Sakura and Ino humphed at me, saying I was more beast than woman and Kiba shouted annoyed at the amount of D-ranks we've completed. Sasuke moved infront of me in protector mode, his eyes narrowing at Kabuto's information.

"Do you have anyone in mind Sasuke-kun." Kabuto asked, smirking slightly.

"Hn. Rock Lee and Gaara Subaku." Everyone learned about the two, and Kabuto tried to intimidate everyone indirectly by saying how all of the Genin were top ninjas like me. I was still in mild shock at Kabuto's knowledge and interest in me, but I was brought out of it by Naruto's yelling. He was standing right in front of all the potential Genin pointing at them, shoulders back, a confident foxy smile on his face.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, rookie extraordinaire, part of the legendary Team 7, and I'm going to kick all of your asses dattebayo!" The rest of the rookies looked pissed at Naruto for drawing more attention from the older, scarier Genin. Sasuke and I, on the other hand, were amused, and believed in what he said. Sasuke had a smirk on his face as he went to stand beside Naruto, I busted out laughing and followed, showing off the 'legendary Team 7' to everyone there. There were a few hungry and intrigued looks sent towards us, some annoyed looks, and some fearful looks. Then, everyone went back to their business, until the sound trio decided to make their appearnace. I watched as they swiftly got out of their seats and went over to Kabuto, Zaku threw a knife at Kabuto, who dodged, and Dosu appeared right in front, aiming a punch straight at Kabuto's face. The rest of the sound made it, standing next to Dosu, ready for battle. Kabuto leaned back, avoiding the attack, but then his glasses cracked and he keeled over, puking his guts out. Kabuto wiped his face off and looked up, a nasty gleam in his eye.

"Oh so it was that kind of attack." He said, not being able to hide the amusement in his voice.

"What the hell was that, I saw him dodge." Naruto whispered between us rookies. Many of them nodded in agreement and confusion.

"There was some trick to the attack, making it land." Shikamaru stated, trying to analyze the situation and the intimidating sound trio, whose blood thirst was obvious.

"Sound waves, they are from sound. That metal gauntlet rekeased them, he didn't have to hit four eyes directly, just get close enough for the sound waves to attack his ears, messing up motor functions." The area around me went dead silent, even the sound trio was staring at me. Looks of awe, anger, and intrigue were directed at me.

"How annoying, this brat figured out my trick by one attack." Dosu stated annoyed, giving me a murderous glare.

"Hmm, impressive indeed." Kabuto said, watching me hungrily like a predator watches its prey. My friends all whispered about how I was able to figure out the attack and deduce it so easily. If only they knew. Finally, Ibiki in all of his scary ass glory poofed into existence. He was even more intimidating that I thought, he might be the most intimidating man I've ever seen in my life. He was tall, so tall he towered over me and everyone else around him. His bandana did nothing to hide the massive scars across his face and with the glare he was sporting, I felt myself cower a bit at the master TI sadist. His eyes were sparking with amusement at the fear he evoked within the Genin when they didn't even know who he was. This guy is the real deal. He made us grab papers to take our seats, I ended up next to Naruto, but since we're teammates, I was moved seats and am now unfortunately sitting next to Kabuto. He gave me a smile when I sat down next to him, I just glared.

"Hinata-san I'm so glad we can sit next to each other and get acquainted. There's so much I want to know about you." His eyes were dancing with amusement at the twitch of my brow.

"I don't want to get acquainted with a petty snake servant like yourself." He smiled even brighter, this time I could see the dangerous and menacing glint behind it.

"Oh and what do you mean by that?" He asked sweetly, feigning innocence.

"Who are you a lap dog for right now, Sasori or Orochimaru?" I whispered in his ear, leaning with a smile equally as fake as his. My smile turned into a smirk as his eyes widened and his face turned into a hard glare. By his reaction, and the flicker of his eyes left and right, he looked nervous that someone was listening in. That means he's under Sasori right now and Orochimaru doesn't know. That's also why he tries to kill Sasuke later on, Sasori want's to keep Orochimaru form gaining the Sharingan, and would have killed Sasuke to do so. Unexpected, Kabuto sent his chakra into my leg, severing the tendons like an asshole, I bit my lip to keep from screaming. I'm such an idiot, why the hell can't I keep my mouth shut. Somebody should mute me, I really did it this time, I could tell by the fierce look Kabuto had, he was going to do something bad. He leaned over to me a coy smile on his face, putting on the show that he was flirting. Brushing my hair behind my ear, he whispered to me, a deadly tone that made me shiver.

"Stay out of things that you don't belong in, you'll get your pretty self killed." He placed his hand back on my thigh and healed my leg as we started taking the test, leaving me with a warning that he wont be so kind next time. I was slightly shocked that he even thought to heal me, I guess maybe he isn't as much of a dick, or he just enjoys toying with people. Either way, I screwed myself by getting his attention earlier than I wanted. The test in itself wasn't that difficult, the questions were analysis questions with math formulas, something I'm good at, but because I know actually answering the questions doesn't matter, I decided to write Ibiki a riddle for each of the questions, if he decided to solve the riddles, each answer would be a letter. Then putting the letters in the correct order, it would spell out "I'm so bored." After finishing my master piece of riddles, which Kabuto gave me strange looks for not answering the questions, and as he finished healing me up, I decided to take a little nap.

I woke up when Anko came flying through the window. I tired and failed to hide the grin on my face for finally getting to meet the one and only Anko, my favorite (alive) female Jounin in the leaf village. Anko is like if Zabuza, Orochimaru, and Naruto had a love child. She's just amazing, and she can use snakes, and she takes no shit from anyone, and she can scare the living hell out of anyone, and she can use snakes, and she's just an amazing person. I was so excited about finally seeing Anko, I missed the whole speech, which somehow Sauske knew, so when it was over, he came and told me what I missed. It's kind of freaky how well he knows me sometimes. I was so excited about passing the exams, even Kabuto's previous scare wasn't on my mind. As a team, we left the room where Kakashi and Zabuza were waiting for us.

They took us out to get ramen and we chatted throughout the dinner, Zabuza pissing off Sasuke, Naruto talking about himself and ramen, and I talked with Kakashi about the next stage of the exam, gathering as much information as he would give me about the forest of death, which was basically nothing. I could feel the smugness radiating off of Kakashi at his shitty answers he was giving me. He was getting more and more amused as I grew more and more annoyed with him. If he wasn't so hot, I would have punched his lights out by now. Sasuke and I were both ready to flip, annoyed at our tormentors, only we can annoy eachother. We shared an unspoken agreement to team up and destroy the sensei's, but they figured out out plans and before we could attack, Zabuza subdued me, Kakashi doing the same to Sasuke. Naruto watched all of this, laughing his head off, especially at Sasuke's disgruntled look. Finally, we were released and made stops at each of our homes, our sensei's aiding us in packing for tomorrow.

(3d POV) Ibiki gathering up the exams

Ibiki was gathering the exams, checking over each one to see how the passing Genin fared. He stopped at one and let out a chuckle, he was amazed that he passed a Genin who didn't answer one of the questions. He continued looking through the tests, impressed with those who managed to cheat and answer them all. Ibiki came across another peculiar test, he read through the answers provided and realized each answer was a riddle seemingly to not pertain to the test. Wanting to know what the riddle was for, the TI sadist sat down and went through the riddles, each one becoming more difficult, just like the test. He was thoroughly impressed with the mid of the Genin who designed the riddles. He finally solved them all and arranged the letters, following basic leaf coding and was highly amused that the riddle spelled out "I'm so bored." He looked at the name and was shocked to see the name Hinata Hyuuga. He was impressed to see a such an intelligent Genin, that isn't a Nara, let alone a Hyuuga without a stick up her ass. Hinata caught his attention, and Ibiki soon left to discuss with the Hokage, needing to know more about the Hyuuga girl who was able to outsmart his test.

---

I was walking to training ground 44, the forest of death, and along my journey I saw a mop of blonde hair. I ran up and jumped on Naruto's back. He stumbled but kept his balance, his hands finding their way to grasp my thighs to keep me on his back. He sent me a fake glare that turned into a bright smile when I started giggling.

"Onward my steed, march us to our death." I said, pointing my hand in a random direction. Naruto neighed like a horse and took off, both of us laughing loudly on our way to the second part of the exams. The Genin that passed yesterday, all 70 something of them, were gathered around Anko, who was sucking on a dango stick while picking at her nails with a kunai. She looked up at Naru and I, a smirk on her features making her look even more badass, then she looked back down, uninterested in our arrival. Sasuke made his way over to us, eyeing Naruto with distaste, then proceeded to pull me off his back, standing closely to my side.

"Hey what the hell teme, Hina-chan and I were having fun!" Naruto shot Sasuke a glare, sparks flying between them.

"Hn." Before they could get into another argument, Anko yelled out to get our attention. She handed out papers to sign making her not liable for our death. Her eagerness of it seeming like a lot of us were going to die shook up some of the ninja I didn't recognize. They were shaking in fear, Anko and I both smirked at them. She met my eye, and I winked, making her laugh and wink back. I swore I almost died in that moment, she is the coolest. Sasuke went off on his own, he saw Ino and Sakura then scurried off to hide. Naruto was running away from Konohamaru and his squad, looking like the dorky idiot he is. Anko made her way over to me, smirking devilishly.

"So brat, you think you're ready to face all the beasts the forest of death has to offer? A place like this eats up and spits out little girls like you."

"The forest of death can kiss my ass, if I can handle facing ninjas like Itachi and Zabuza, I can handle a measly forest. There's no way in hell I'm going to die a death as lame as one from a forest or from another Genin. When I die it's going to be with a bang." Anko studied me intensely for a second, then let out a booming laugh and gave me an almost sinister smile.

"So you're the Hyuuga brat that shit on Ibiki's test. I don't say this often, but I like you kid. You got guts, lets see if you have the skills to back it up." My smile was so wide at this point, I thought my face was going to split. Anko looked thoroughly amused by my obvious love of her. I watched her closely and hidden behind her sadism and amusement, I could see the brokenness that she harbored from Orochimaru, and how that made the village distrust her. Then a glimmer of hope was there, the same one I saw in Haku and Naruto, hope that I would truly accept her.

"FUCK YEAH! The Anko Mitarashi likes me!" I said fist pumping. "This means you can be my new mentor and teach me all kinds of cool things. I look up to you so much. You were shunned for how you trained under Orochimaru, yet you overcame it and became one of the most valued ninja in the village. You don't fit the stereotypical woman like everyone wants us to be, I am like that too. Plus you can summon snakes which is so fucking awesome." I noticed how she flinched at the name, and the unadulterated rage that burned in her expression. She switched to a prideful smirk when I boasted about how awesome she is. I mean, she's similar to Naruto in the way that everyone hated her for what was out of her control, and instead of letting it get to her and turning evil like they thought, she became an invaluable aspect to TI and the leaf village. She is outspoken and does what she wants, since I no longer have Lady Seiko or any other female role model/teacher, I want her to be my next one.

"I am that awesome aren't I. Well brat, if you survive this next stage and manage to impress me, I might take you under my wing and give you that awesome female guidance your missing. I mean, like you said, I am the best at what I do." As much as I didn't want to, I couldn't help but hug her. She tensed up and quickly shoved me off, blushing in embarrassment which I thought was funny.

"Hell yeah, just watch I'm going to crush this stage of the Chunin exams, and you're going to beg me to be your apprentice." Anko smirked devilishly and sauntered away, throwing her head back to call to me, in a fond yet snarky tone.

"Keep talking brat." Basically glowing with happiness, I made my way over to my teammates, watching in interest as Sasuke finished his interview, which somehow had Naruto fuming in rage. They exchanged lightning filled glares yet again, Sasuke had a triumphant smirk and Naruto was glowering. Moegi noticed me, and with an adorable grin, she ran over to me, her boys following hurriedly after her.

"Hinata-nee! Can I please interview you? I want to know more about the girl I strive to be like." I patted her head in affection.

"Hai, ask away my spiderlings." We all took a seat, and their eyes were staring intensely into my form. If anyone else stared at me like this, I'd probably try to hide. I also noticed how Naruto and Sasuke broke from their glare fest and inched closer to hear the interview, both of their eyes on us, taking in every detail. Udon was staring at me dazedly with a blush on his face and hearts in his eyes.

"So tell us about Team 7."Moegi asked, taking control of the interview. Konohamaru had the notepad to write down what I say.

"Team 7 is pretty much awesome. We have Naruto Uzumaki, who you guys know all about. Naruto is an idiot for sure, but he has one of the kindest hearts I've ever encountered. He's a ray of sunshine in the darkest of days, and one of my best friends. The thing is, everyone sees him as a deadlast, but throughout the whole academy, he was faking it. He's one of the strongest Genin right now and I feel sorry for anyone who has to go up against him. He's unpredictable and is going to be the greatest Hokage someday." The three kids of the Kono Squad were filled with even greater admiration for their boss, and I could feel the sunshine happiness radiating off of Naruto from here. Sasuke had a depression cloud, which I ignored, he broods for no reason sometimes. They were watching me expentantly, so I continued. "Next we have Sasuke Uchiha. Just by his clan, you know he is strong. He was the top male student in our year for a reason. Everyone sees Sasuke as this cold and stoic shinobi, but he has a heart of gold and is super funny in his own way. I've known Sasuke, for forever and we are basically family, I'd trust him with my life with no question. Also, his nickname is duckbutt and he will forever be duckbutt to me. Sasuke and Naruto fight more than they get along, but together they are a perfect team, like Yin and Yang. My two halves of my team. We also have our Sensei, Kakashi Hatake. Kakashi-sensei is one of the coolest people in the world, but he also is a huge asshole because he is never on time to ANYTHING. Not only is he famous and super badass, he is a great sensei and has taught us so much even if his training is draining. No matter how tense of a situation, Kakashi-sensei is there to protect us. He is super quirky and has so much swagger. He's the guiding hand of our team, he keeps us on track and has made us an unstoppable team. The final member of Team 7 is new, a rogue ninja Zabuza Momochi. Zabuza is one of the most entertaining people ever, and he's my Senpai. Zabuza is sadistic and merciless, but his heart is in the right place. He came with me to atone for his sins and protects me, he also trains us, and oh my gosh is it horrible yet effective. He's one of the 7 ninja swordsman of the mist meaning he is a master with a sword, and his is big and awesome. Zabuza increases our teams scare factor tenfold. Overall Team 7 is awesome and I love being in it." My teammates were smiling, Sasuke wearing a smirk, and I knew that this information would somehow get to the other members somehow. If given the opportunity, I'd gush all about my whole team endlessly, but alas, there is a time limit.

"You forgot to tell us about yourself Hinata-nee, you're a member of Team 7 too, we want to know all about you." I laughed and blushed sheepishly at forgetting to talk about myself. I put on a smirk and began to tell them all about myself, to the best of my ability.

"Oh yeah, well lets see. I guess I'd say I'm like the glue of my Team, strong and sturdy. My dream is to be the strongest I can be to save as many people as I can good or bad. I think everyone deserves a chance at a better life. To do that I have to kick ass and take names, which I have been doing my whole life. Since I was 1, I've been training every day to get stronger and smarter so I can save everyone and bring peace alongside my friends and family. I have support to help me on my journey, my team; my friends: Lady Seiko, Shikamaru, Choji, Shino, Kiba, Lee, Gaara, and Tenten; my family: Shisui, Neji, Hanabi, and My dad; and those I've lost: the Uchiha clan, Itachi, Haku, and my mother. All of these people have aided me in becoming a kick ass Kunoichi and will keep aiding me in the future." I finished and there was a crowd gathered around us, all of the Genin were listening Intently. My friends were staring at me in awe and love, Gaara looked shocked yet pleased that I mentioned him as a friend, and Kabuto was watching me with that strange interest like yesterday. It was super awkward with all the gazes on me so Anko called everyone's attention to explain the rules.

"This test consists of an anything goes battle to get your hands on these scrolls!" Anko said, pulling out 2 scrolls, one with the kanji for heaven and one for earth. "You'll be fighting to get both, a heaven and an earth scroll. All together there are 26 teams, half will be going for the heaven, and half the earth. That means more than half of you will fail."

"Ok, so how do we pass the test?" Sasuke asked, well more like demanded. Anko smirked causing many of the Genin to shiver and look worried. Anko finished explaining the rules and point of the exam, I could feel the blood thirst rise among us, people were itching to kill, and a lot of it was directed at us rookies.

"Oh, and one more thing, this test has a time limit. You must finish it within 5 days." Anko stayed silent, letting that digest in our minds for a minute.

"5 Days?" Ino and Sakura screamed out.

"What are we supposed to do about food?" Choji asked our worriedly, his eyes wide. I smirked, I packed a lot of ration bars to eat and survive on. Anko and Kabuto tag teamed, telling how the forest has lots of food to find, but also lots of deadly alternatives. Yep, make everyone more fearful. Shikamaru raised his hand, eyes lidded and huffing in annoyance.

"Soo...um lets say we're halfway through the exam. Can we quit?" He drawled out. Everyone who didn't know Shika gave him incredulous looks. I had to turn my head away to hide my laughs of amusement at his laziness. Only he would think that, I can see him just sitting down, right before being attacked and giving up, going to sleep.

"In the middle of a battle can you just say 'sorry I quit?' No, you will end up dead." Anko said, annoyed at the absolute laziness of Shika.

"Great... this is going to be such a drag." I walked over to Shika and wrapped my arm around his waist, smirking up at him.

"Stop being such a lazy ass, you know you're smart and can finish this exam easily." Shikamaru grunted and shut his eyes, placing his head on top of mine and shutting his to relax before going into the forest.

"Mmm, same to you, just... just don't die out there troublesome woman."

"Eeh, you know nobody here can kill me." I could feel the eye roll coming from him, he buried his face in my hair and inhaled, then grunted before he let go and walked away. I went to each of my friends, wishing them luck. I made it to Gaara, and we had an awkward stare down. To end it, I hugged him, getting no hug in return, just a happy vibration from his sand bracelet. I wished him luck and made my way back to my team, not noticing the multiple pairs of eyes following me, and Gaara's mutter of 'mine' under his breath as I left him. I finally returned to my team, Naruto was animatedly telling Sasuke about all the he's going to kick. Sasuke replying with short answers or taunts, they seemed content and almost happy to converse with one another. We sat on the ground, taking strategies while everyone got their scrolls. I decided to give Naruto the scroll, nobody would expect the dead last to have it, its perfect. And this time, Sasuke cant hand it over to Snake man. We were so engrossed in the conversation, I didn't notice the presence near us, until the person's shadow covered me, blocking out the sun. I looked behind me, and almost jumped away, there was the Grass Nin aka Orochimaru. He eyed each of us, his eyes basically glittering when they landed on Sasuke. I saw his eyes rake over y form, interest sparked in them. I don't doubt Kabuto said something to him about me.

"Ahh, so you guys are some of the rookies. You must be quite impressive to have made it this far." My body was tense, and I had to prevent myself from calling him out, I already fucked up with Kabuto, I can't mess up my plans again.

"What's it to you?" Sasuke demanded harshly, his eyes narrow and body poised to attack.

"Yeah creepy lady, leave us alone." Naruto yelled out. They both didn't like the aura of Orochimaru. Orochimaru laughed a creepy laugh, voice still distorted to be like a woman's.

"So testy. My apologies, I'll be on my way." He said, he licked his lips, looking over us once more, then slithered away. Man if he wasn't so creepy and wearing someone else's skin, I'd be pretty excited to meet a Sanin. He's even more snake like in person, he moves in a deadly grace like a snake, I can tell and I haven't even seen him fight yet. I ripped ,y eyes away from him, and we went back to strategizing. Finally, everyone received their scrolls and we were called to each of our gates. We stood, exchanging glances, determination etched onto each of our features. 5..4..3..2..The gate was opened and we rushed inside. We were moving quickly to find the river, and I had my Byakugan on, scouting for potential threats as well as good resting spots. After 2 hours, we finally came to a stop, there was a cave and the river was only a quarter mile away from us. Sasuke went out to set some traps and Naruto and I were alone. I was feeling a bit exhausted from using my Byakugan consistently for so long, and I was running through my plans in my head over and over. Naruto noticed the strain on my face and he scooped me up in his arms. I was so focused on what to do with Orochimaru, I barely noticed Naruto holding me in his lap as he set up the fire. Sasuke came back and noticed my far away look, but said nothing. I fell asleep to Naruto's warmth, and got a good hour nap before I woke up. I noticed Sasuke's stare and went to sit by him, allowing Naruto the next nap. Sasuke and I were playfully bantering as I leaned my head on his shoulder.

After a few hours, the sun was getting ready to set, and one of the traps went off. We were all up and alert, weapons drawn. I was molding my chakra, moving it around readying it for ninjutsu use and to be used if I have to use olympic style with the enhanced strength. A team came from the Northeast, they were a team of 16 year old boys from Takigakure. Each of them had dark smirks on their faces. The boy on the left hand long green hair and was wielding a Chokuto (A/N this is a type of sword. Same kind Sasuke uses). The boy in the middle, he seemed to be the leader, hand short spiky dark grey hair, he had a Kunai, but I he looked like the jutsu user of the bunch. The boy on the right had purple hair and was carrying senbon, he was further back than the others meaning he's probably their medical ninja of the crew. It's rare to have med ninja in the field, but I could tell he was prepared to fight.

"Look who we have here, the three little rookie Genin from the Leaf. They must be getting so desperate to appear strong, they allow babies to try to become chunin." The middle boy scoffed.

"It really sounds more like you're jealous that we're in the Chunin exams as rookies when you weren't good enough until you were 16." I said back, putting on my shit-eating grin and laughing in their face. The green haired boy's face scrunched up into rage, he's the hot headed one. I signaled for Sasuke to take him on, weapon user versus weapon user; plus, Sasuke's cool facade always pisses off the hotheads, making them even more of a wild and blind fighter. I signaled for Naruto to take on the Medical Ninja, Naruto's brute strength and overpowering chakra, his fast healing from any specific medical attack, and especially his clones and wind use will make it easier to take out the medical ninja who has a small amount of chakra and is a fighter based off of dodging and not strength. Tsunade is the only exception to this style of medical ninja fighting, so Naruto will be the perfect contrast to overwhelm him. I decided to take the grey haired boy, he seems to be a jutsu user and looks to be more of a mid range fighter. I have the best handle on justu's between our teammates, and with combining my nin and tai jutsu, I will be able to take this guy down. I can fight him mid-range with my water ninjutsus, and use that to push him into close combat, which I can decimate him with.

"You bitch, I'll..." Sasuke and Naruto sent ferocious glares to the green haired boy.

"Little princess has a big bark, lets see if she has any bite." The grey haired boy said, calming down his hot headed teammate, cutting him off before he could continue to freak at me. Sasuke smirked as his opponent drew his sword, taunting him just by looking at him.

The boy's rage surfaced again and they shot at each other, kunai and sword meeting in a clang, sending off sparks from the collision of metals. The boy had strength, and his pressure with the sword was slowly overpowering Sasuke, but quick on his feet, Sasuke gripped the boys wrist, twisting it and throwing him over his shoulder effectively disorienting the boy so that Sasuke would not be overpowered. The green haired boy was fast, but Sasuke was faster. Greenie sent a flurry of swipes and jabs towards Sasuke, his skills with his sword were blatantly apparent. He moved with a deadly grace and if Sasuke was any slower and less skilled, he would have lost. The training with Zabuza and Kakashi kicked in and Sasuke easily dodged each swipe, making the green haired boy even more pissed off. Losing his temper, the boy added in some more moves, and managed to nick Sasuke in the shoulder. Sasuke scoffed in annoyance and activated his Sharingan. Sasuke jumped in the air, made the hand signs and sent a massive fireball at the swordsman. While the boy was occupied with dodging and not getting fried, Sasuke threw a barrage of Kunai around the boy. The boy laughed and taunted Sasuke for having shitty aim. Sasuke merely smirked, landing on a tree branch. Looking closer, there was a glint of ninja wires surrounding the boy and each of the wires led back to Sasuke. Sasuke made a fist and pulled back causing all the wire's to wrap tightly around the green boy, easily trapping him in a hold he would not be able to get out of. The boy shouted a string of curses at the Uchiha as Sasuke teasingly stalked his way forward. The onyx eyed boy chopped the green haired boy in the neck, knocking him out. The boy slumped over and Sasuke searched him for the scroll, finding nothing.

Naruto was having a standoff with the med ninja. The boy smirked at Naruto, dismissing his skills immediately like so many others. That angered the knucklehead and Naruto got ready to fight. He sent a wave of chakra through his hands, activating his brass knuckles. The med ninja noticed this and put a bit more distance between himself and Naruto. Grabbing 4 senbon in each hand, the boy threw them quick and precise at numbing spots. Naruto noticed this and managed to move enough so that the senbon impaled him, but nowhere important. Being hit already pissed off Naruto even more. He took a calming breath like he was taught and assessed the situation. He noticed the distance the med ninja but between them, Naruto figured out that meant he was not a strong fighter, and by his weapons, the same as Haku used, he figured the boy must be fast, but he can tell he's no where near Haku's level. The boy sent another round of senbon at Naruto, but this time Naruto remembered the training that was beat into him: 'duck, dive, dodge' ran through his head, don't get hit, never get hit.

Naruto moved in his wild way, dodging the senbon, punching the last one with his iron clad hand, sending it clattering to the floor. Right when the boy grabbed another handful of senbon, he prepared a senbon Shadow Clone jutsu to sent a mass amount at Naruto. Noticing this, Naruto made a ton of Shadow clones, using each of them to take the hits of the senbon instead of him. Naruto figured out that if he cant fully dodge something, using a shadow clone to take the hit is the best way to survive. The med ninja froze in shock at the mass amount of Shadow Clones, wondering how much chakra Naruto must have to not even be phased by it. The med ninja pulled out more senbon, these ones laced in poison, the purple liquid was dripping off of them. He threw a barrage yet again at Naruto, leaving him without enough time to make enough Shadow clones. Naruto pushed himself into the air, twirling to avoid some of the senbon, and send a giant Great Breakthrough jutsu from his palms, rendering all of the senbon useless and sending the med ninja flying back into a tree, covering him in cuts and knocking him out. Naruto jumped in joy, curling his hand into a fist, proud of his first real success in the exams. His bright smile was making the area basically glow, and he all but skipped over to his defeated victim and checked his pockets, not finding the needed scrolls. He did find food scrolls, and decided to take those for future help in the exams.

Sasuke and Naruto rushed into battle, I was having a stare down with the dark grey haired boy.

"Little Princess, if you tell me who has the scroll, I wont hurt you...much. This place is not meant for cuties like you, you should be in the kitchen not trying to be a ninja. I'll even be nice enough to make you mine after this and you can cook for me all I want. I like a feisty girl." He said with a smirk, licking his lips lecherously.

"Damn, I finally got Kiba to stop being a sexist bastard, now I have to beat it into you too? Call me princess one more time and I'll show you why I'm to be feared, asshole." The boy smirked, letting out a laugh with a mix of annoyance and lust.

"I can't wait to break you in... princess." I giggled at him, turning it into a full blow laugh. I narrowed my eyes and activated my Byakugan, watching as he revved up his chakra. His chakra was gritty and moved steadily. He started making hand signs and the flow of his chakra was being moved around, his chakra moved towards his arms and when it reached there, it was being molded into the likeness of rock and mud. He's an earth user. The best counter for that is lightning, so with my limited arsenal, I'm going to have to improvise and add lightning into my normal water jutsu's. Just like wind and fire amplify each other, lightning and water do. Water is a conductor so when a hit of lightning is added, the water becomes electrified. He finished his unfamiliar hand signs, and called out Bashōsen: Coil of Earth. Why people call out their jutsu's I'll never know, only some don't and they are the smart ones. It's honestly such a handicap and gives so many opportunities for counter. I can't believe more ninja haven't noticed this. 4 giant, sharp stone slabs emerged from the ground and came barreling towards me.

I dodged one, and jumped to avoid the other three. Grey boy made one more handsign and spikes came shooting out from the Earth coils. I pushed chakra throughout my body and spun emitting a mass amount of chakra from myself, creating an impenetrable dome of chakra. The spikes hit the dome and broke right as I finished my 8 Trigrams Heavenly spin. The boy watched in shock and fury as his attacks did nothing to me. I merely smiled at his angry state. He prepared another justu and I prepared one of my own. I did the hand signs: ox, tiger, ox, tiger creating the Water Dragon Bullets. As each was formed, right before they attacked, I infused the lightning from my palms into the bullets, electrifying them. They shot towards the boy, he blocked one with his Mud Wall justu, but since they were lightning based, the other's broke through. They lost some of their size from the water being absorbed by the mud, but they made contact with the boy, frying him dizzy. While he was trying to gather his wits, I body flickered up to him and gave him a swift punch to the jaw, knocking him out and leaving a nasty bruise to form. I checked in his pouch and sure enough he had a scroll, sadly it was a heaven scroll, same as ours.

Naruto and Sasuke dragged their KO'd opponents to me, and using some of Sasuke's ninja wire, he tied them all to a tree. Naruto and Sasuke both were basically glowing with pride of our wins. Sasuke had on a small smile and I jumped on his back, wrapping my arm's around his neck like a Koala. I pressed my cheek to his, smiling brightly.

"Guys we kicked ASS oh my Kami we were awesome!" Sasuke removed me form his back, hiding his face slightly so I couldn't see his blush. Still amped up with Adrenaline from our fight, I knew I'd get the hype I need from Naruto. I ran and jumped on his front, wrapping my legs around his waist. He held me up and we fist bumped. I was so proud of Naruto, I got to see glimpses of his fight and he was amazing, it was nice to see him fight somebody other than our teammates for once and it really showed on how skilled he's become. I kissed his cheek and Naruto's grin widened. Naruto carried me back to our fire and I sat in his lap, eating my food as he told me in detail all about his fight. Sasuke got up, going to fill up all of our water bottles. Naruto and I continued out conversation.

"Naru, why do you like Ichiraku's so much. I mean, the ramen is good, but you treat it like a godsend." Naruto's cheerful demeanor was changed into thoughtful. His eyes glazed over like he was remembering something. He was wearing a soft smile, but it was still sad.

"Before I met you, I had nobody. Everyone hated me so it was hard for me to find food, it was always too expensive or nobody would give it to me hoping I'd starve. One night after I was kicked out of the orphanage, it was pouring rain and I was so cold. I was walking in the street, trying to find some place to let me in before I died from the cold. All of the stores laughed at my misery and shut me out, until I found Old Man Ichiraku's. The place was warm and smelled so good, so I walked inside, huddling in the corner. Old Man Ichiraku walked out to greet me, and I thought for sure he was going to kick me out and beat me like everyone else, but instead he smiled at me and let me sit down. He made me a miso ramen and was so kind to me. It's one of the only good memories I have as a kid so I think I associate the food with the memory. The place is a godsend to me, without it I'd be gone." I was in tears by the end of the story. I'd always wondered why he loved ramen so much, but now I see why he does. I turned around and hugged Naruto tightly, doing my best not to cry at how horrible his life was. He rubbed my back. "Don't be sad Hina-chan. I'm not sad about it anymore, because I have you and Kakashi-sensei, and even teme." He said, his cheerful aura was back and it was comforting. I laughed a bit, as he wiped away my tears. Naruto and I talked for a bit longer when he brought the topic of Sakura up.

"I figured out something." Naruto muttered, his blue eyes sharp and pensive.
"You can think on your own?" I teased. He smiled and punched my shoulder, calling me Teme 2.0.

"I know why I liked Sakura." My eyebrow raised, I definitely noticed the past tense liked, not like. Is he finally over the fake pinkette.

"Liked?" We were both facing the fire, his head on my shoulder.

"Yeah, I liked her because she was different, she was bullied like I was, but figured her way around it. I liked that and because I wanted to be like that, I thought she was the love of my life."

"What changed? You swooned over her all the time."

"When she first stopped being your friend, I noticed she wasn't the nice girl anymore, but I ignored it. Same as how I ignored that I didn't have a chance with Teme being her love. When you asked me why, I though about it a lot. I realized, I don't love her anymore, she's just a mean girl and there is someone better for me. I' starting to think my heart belongs to someone else." My eyes widened, who the hell is he talking about. Somebody is taking his heart, whoever it is better not break it. I turned my head around to look Naruto in his vivid blue eyes.

(Sasuke POV)

I finished gathering water, and was making my way back to our camp for the night. I didn't like how Hinata kissed Naruto, or how he looked at her. She's mine and she should only be kissing me, even if it's on the cheek. I was fuming in jealousy at the blonde dobe. I made it back to the camp after checking all of our traps. My teeth clenched and my Sharingan activated at the sight. MY Hinata was sitting on the dobe's lap, looking up at him. He was looking at her, a slight blush on his face as they spoke in hushed tones. I know she isn't in love with him, and I thought the dobe was in love with Sakura, but this looked too romantic, and by his blush, he must like my Hinata.

"Who?" Hinata asked, furrowing her brows. She looked so beautiful with the fire illumaniting her face. Even with dirt and stray hairs, she's always beautiful. More so than any other girl I've ever seen. I was far enough away, they didn't notice me yet, and I could read their lips with the Sharingan. Naruto grinned at her, she laughed in return. My blood was boiling, but I had to stay to figure out what they are talking about.

"She is the prettiest girl I've ever seen, she's really strong, sometimes scary, really loud, boyish, and cusses too much. She isn't the ideal girl, but she's mine. She believes in me and always had." My glare was so strong, I'm surprised Naruto hasn't combusted yet.

"She sounds cool." Hinata replied, still oblivious that he was talking about her. She was smiling in pure joy that Naruto liked somebody. He tucked her stray hair behind her ear and leaned down to kiss her, but before he could, I revealed myself. I walked straight up to them, Naruto removed Hinata from him and stood up. We had a glaring match, more tense than usual. This was not one of friends but of rivals. I smirked a bit as a thought came to my head. While their attention was on my face, I sliced myself in the leg with a Kunai. I looked away from the dobe and turned to my lavender eyes beauty.

"Freak, I just noticed that guy we fought earlier cut my thigh. You have the bandages, wrap it." She sighed and shook her head at us.

"Hn, duckbutt." She said, mocking me. I smirked and sat down, ignoring the glares from the dobe. For the next few minutes, Hinata cleaned out my cut and wrapped it. Her fingers caressing me gently, well as gentle as she can be, contrasting to her violent words calling me an idiot for noticing so late. Each touch sent jolt's through my body, I had to control myself from kissing her. I love her so much, but I still don't have the guts to tell her. I'm a failure of an Uchiha. This would be so much easier if she was an actual fangirl. I settled for watching her work, loving her touching me. It should be me, not Naruto she touches.

---

We woke up, ate some ration bars, and packed up all of our stuff, leaving the traps just to help take out other teams. Instead of a code to make sure it's us. We each have to reveal a secret only we would know. Naruto's code is 9 Tails, Sasuke's is Root, and mine is Peter Parker. We were moving in our formation, Sasuke in front, me taking up the rear. Sasuke stopped to take a drink of water and thats when a massive gust of wind came knocking all of us out of whack. The wind was sharp like needles and left cuts in all of us, then blew each of us apart. I felt my back hit a tree, knocking me completely through it, before hitting one more. I slid to the ground groaning in pain.

I blinked away the pain and sat up. I could feel something wet and cool dripping down my side; it took me a minute to figure out it was my blood rolling down my back, cooling my hot skin. I grit my teeth and twisted to look at the damage done. Each movement burned like the fiery pits of hell, but I was lucky. There was a gash across my back, but it was not fatal or debilitating in any way, it just hurt from all of the splinters that were stuck in it. I took the alcohol in my pouch and poured it on my back and didn't bother to wrap it, I wouldn't be able to do it well anyways. I took a drink of water, gaged where I was and got ready to go. I was hopping through the forest for 2 minutes or less when I found Sasuke.I activated my Byakugan, and I knew it was him by the steady, familiar, and alluring flow of his chakra. I know why Karin finds his chakra sexy. Sasuke got in a defensive position and growled at me.

"Code." I put my hands up in a defenseless way to assure him I'm no threat.

"Peter Parker. Geez I'm hurt you thought I was an imposter duckbutt." Sasuke sighed in relief, then I was engulfed in a hug. His body was tense and he held onto me tightly before letting go, standing in front of me defensively as the bushed rustled. Out popped Naruto. With my active Byakugan, I knew it wasn't Naruto. This person's chakra was large and dominating. It slithered through his body in a very in control yet dark way. I grabbed out a kunai in defense and Sasuke followed suit.

"Whats the code dobe."

"Peter Parker." I trembled slightly, knowing who we were up against, but when Sasuke threw the kunai and Orochimaru dodged, I steeled myself, prepared to fight as hard as possible to protect my teammates.

"Oh so you figured me out already. How preceptive of you, how'd you know I wasn't your teammate." The 'Naruto' shifted forms into that of the grass ninja. That being said, the pressure he was exerting was akin to that of death. It was traumatizing, terrifying, I felt like my insides were being burned by the amount of fear his chakra could produce just by letting it out. It was like darkness enveloped my senses, each breath burned, it was so hot it felt cold. Sasuke stood straight beside me, not worried yet, he wasn't a sensor the same way I am but he was a bit more tense. He could tell something was off.

"You can transform your physical body all you want, you can't change your chakra though, and you sure as hell aren't Naruto."

"Hn. So you finally revealed yourself Grass Ninja." Sasuke stated coldly, his body poised to attack. He narrowed his eyes as the grass ninja stood confidently, licking 'her' lips, smirking at us. 'She' reached in her pouch and pulled out an earth scroll. Sasuke's eyes widened and he got ready to take the scroll. He was baited so easily into disclosing what scroll we needed.

"Ahh so you do need this scroll. Let us fight for it. I want to see what you rookies can do." Orochimaru then wrapped his long ass tongue around his scroll and swallowed it whole, if he was into guys, they'd be very happy.

"Wholly shit, you must have a lot of fun in bed with a tongue that long and no gag reflex." Sasuke glared at me for my inappropriate comment, then shot at Orochimaru, but was effortless thrown aside. I flashed to steady Sasuke, and Orochimaru appeared right in front of us. He released a massive amount of blood lust, triggering a genjutsu type hallucination. In the hallucination, I visualized myself being struck in the forehead, dying instantly. It was scary and seemed so real, my body hurt and fell to the ground, it was death, there was so much pressure I was drowning in it. I realized I was still processing my thoughts, and was somehow watching myself. I snapped out of it, relatively. I had to be strong, I'm not going to succumb to this, I've died before I can do it again, it's nothing big just death. Come on, dammit, I need to get my ass up. I got off of my knees and stood up, albeit shakily. "Oh so you are still able to move. Do you not fear your own death?" He asked, I peaked his interest. Saskue was still on the ground breathing heavily, caught in his vision.

Time to enact my plan. It's a shitty plan on all fronts, but it should hopefully work to lessen the overall damage we will take from Orochimaru. My plan is called the Triple T plan: Talk, Tempt, and Taunt. I already revealed too much to Kabuto too early, but now it can be in my favor. He probably already told Orochimaru, so if I play my cards right, I can talk to Orochimaru enough to keep his attention off of Sasuke, hopefully Saving Sasuke from the pain of the curse mark, or at least to help Naruto not get sealed. It's pretty shitty, but if I'm going to talk, might as well use it and talk too much, gaining all of the attention to protect my team. I can fight Orochimaru, maybe not as well as Itachi did, but I think I can handle my own against him if I go all out, so I need to keep him distracted to be able to fight him better. I smirked at Orochimaru.

"Why fear something I've already been through, honestly just like fuck that. I mean if you planned on taking us out easily with some measly hallucination of death, you really aren't the man I thought you were. I thought the legendary snake Sanin Orochimaru would have something better up his sleeves. I guess I'm wrong, maybe getting your ass kicked by Itachi when he was only 13 hurt your pride. I mean, thats the only reason you had to come after his little brother right, you couldn't take him on." God, I was so lying, he was so much scarier in person. The feeling of death weighing on my shoulders, his chakra constricting me like a snake, it was horrifying. In a speed that was faster than I was expecting, I was pressed up against a tree by my throat. Orochimaru's yellow eyes were staring directly into mine. His intrigue was present, along with anger. I inwardly smirked at my success. Good, his attention is still on me, that should give Sasuke time to recover and get his bearings, and for Naruto to get his ass over here.

"How do you know so much, who are you really." He hissed out the questions as statements. He shed his skin from the female, showing his pale chiseled face, long inky black hair, and his piercing yellow eyes. His eyes raked me up and down, his tongue flickered out, and licked up my neck and cheek.

"You see, I'm your worst nightmare. I know about everything and everyone important. More than you can dream of. I'm the Hyuuga prodigy of Konoha, my skills rivaled Itachi when he was young. I may not have a Sharingan like you want, but that wont stop me from kicking your ass. I'd love to show you the good in life, make you less of a monster, but you're after my teammate, my family and I cant allow that." I stated, forcing myself to be strong and not shiver under his tight grip.

"You have peaked my interest Hinata-chan. No wonder the Uchiha wanted you to marry into their clan. A mere 12 years old and your detective skills and mind are sharp, just as Kabuto described. I've heard of your physical skills as well, lets put those to the test. Sasuke-kun can wait, he will be mine soon enough." Orochimaru jumped back, his arm turning into snakes, sending them at me. I jumped out of the way, flipping to direct my body to land at him so I could send a strike. I landed one hit on his arm, but he threw me off like a sack of dirt. I landed on my feet, sliding back. Orochimaru bit his thumb, drawing blood. He dragged his bloody thumb down his summoning tattoo, and a giant snake appeared below us. It slithered quickly and aimed itself at Sasuke. I screamed his name, effectively breaking him out of his trance. Sasuke's eyes widened in fear, but he managed to drag himself up and jump away from the snake, assaulting it with shuriken, killing it. Enraged he would go for my teammate, I jumped at the pale man again. I fought him with a variety of kicks, slashes and rapid movements. Each jab was fueled with my gentle fist, but few landed and none of them in the right spot. Dammit, he's too fucking fast.

I stopped my gentle fist, not getting the best results, he knew exactly how to counter it. Sasuke was on the side, fighting against the mass amount of snakes Orochimaru summoned. I aimed a kick at him, and when he went to dodge my kick, he moved directly into the path of my chakra filled hand. I released the chakra right as my hand made impact with his side, shattering his ribs and sending him pummeling into the ground, leaving a small crater. Orochimaru lay twitching for a second, before he shed the skin of the body I just crushed, coming out looking almost good as new. I could see the constriction of the chakra in the side I blasted. The body shedding jutsu thing he uses must heal his body of all physical and fatal wounds, but cant fully fix the damage done to the chakra in that area. So it seems like a perfect fix of his injuries, but has one fatal flaw, the chakra. Luckily chakra is my clan specialty and with a mix of my fighting styles, and the help from my teammates, we might be able to stop him.

"Hmm. I've never seen a style of fighting like that Hinata-chan. The rumors do you no justice, you've created your own style, impressive for such a young kunoichi. The strength you use is reminiscent of Tsunade, but the style you attack with is unique, unpredictable, magnificent. I want you, I want to study you." His attention was still on me luckily and we went back to fighting. He showed his prodigious-ness when fighting me, managing to direct some of my more fatal blows into the ground and trees around us, destroying them in the process. Instead of the fear like I wanted him to feel, he was enjoying the fight. His face looked almost orgasmic as I fought him, his eyes never leaving mine. Sasuke finally managed to end the snakes, and he saw an opening I made, sending a massive fireball at Orochimaru. It should have landed but Orochimaru melted into a mud clone. Sasuke and I teamed up, our Dojutsu's activated. We used our almost perfect teamwork that has come from years of being together, we can basically read one another's minds. Each attack one of us initiated, the other would send an attack right after. Many of them missed, but those that landed did great damage. After Orochimaru shed another body, I could see the even greater disruption in his chakra. He was running out of time, but unlucky for us, we were too. I used one more electrified water dragon bullet justu, feeling my chakra deplete too low for any more ninjustu. Sasuke was reaching the same point.

"You two fight well, perfectly in sync. I expected greatness, but such mastery of ninja arts at such young ages, even I would have been no match at your age. Sasuke-kun, I want your eyes, they will grow to be even more keen than your traitorous brother. Hinata-chan. I want you, all of you. You are the perfect woman to keep up with me when I reach immortality. Together we will grow stronger, the strongest of them all." That statement sent shivers down my spine, WTFFFF. It thoroughly pissed Sasuke off though, his anger clouded his eyes and he went in attacking blindly. Orochimaru laughed, this is what he was waiting for. An opportunity to strike. Sasuke shot at him, sending a lightning jutsu quickly to Orochimaru. It landed, but no matter what, it still seemed to do little damage. Orochimaru landed a hit, sending Sasuke flying down, but an orange blur shot by. Naruto stood on a tree branch holding Sasuke, his fangs barred and eyes red. Sasuke stood up by Naruto's side, they wore the same look of distaste.

"You will not touch Hina-chan/Hinata snake freak." They both said, voices low and demonic.

"Ahh Naruto-kun, you defeated my snake. Finally I get to see the final member of Team 7, and ohh, that Chakra radiating off of you, you're the 9-tails." Orochimaru chuckled in glee. Sometimes I want to give people the benefit of the doubt and save them, but right now it really doesn't seem like there is anything left to save of Orochimaru. I know he had a rough life, and lacked the love needed in life, but he truly is terrifying to be around right now. He is getting exhausted, but I know he hasn't given us full power, at least jutsu wise. I can't figure out what he's thinking or going to do. Together, Naruto and Sasuke fought against Orochimaru, showcasing their teamwork. Naruto made a mass amount of clones, using them as shields and boosters for each of them. Any of the more violent attacks Orochimaru sent, the clones took the damage instead of Naruto and Sasuke. They attacked with ferocity, such a fierce anger, and I watched the fight, not even blinking.

Naruto was emitting the Kyuubi chakra, his attacks were dangerous and each hit he landed weakened Orochimaru's chakra significantly, even if it seemed like it did no physical damage. Naruto send blasts of wind, attacks with his brass knuckles, he even tried seals, only being able to stop any more summonings for the time being. Waiting for a moment to strike, I prepared my final attack before i'd run out of gas. Naruto send a wind justu, combining with Sasuke's fire jutsu and right after it hit, I was in front of Orochimaru. I was prepared and attacked with my 8 Trigrams, 128 palms. Orochimaru spluttered, coughing out blood. I stood up in shock, as he lay on the ground. We turned to each other, relaxing as we thought he was defeated, but the air went cold and before I could react, Orochimaru's head went flying past me, biting down onto the junction between Sasuke's shoulder and his neck. Naruto and I went to attack Orochimaru, but he disappeared before we could do anything more.

Sasuke was screaming blood curdling screams. His pain was evident and I took a step to hold him, but my adrenaline finally wore off, my chakra exhaustion and injuries from fighting the Sanin taking over, and my vision went black, I fell over, but felt two arms wrap around me as I collapsed into the darkness.

(Naruto POV)

The creepy snake man Hinata called Orochimaru disappeared. Sasuke was screaming so loud, I've never heard somebody scream in pain like he was. Whatever the Snake bastard did to him was making my rival, friend, and the strongest guy I know scream out in pure terror. I looked at Hinata, her face was contorted into worry. Each scream, she flinched. I know how close they are to one another and his pain was hurting her. She fought so hard to protect him, but he was still hurting. She took a step to Sasuke, ready to hold him, but her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she slumped over. Before she could hit the ground, I had her in my arms. Knowing we can't be out in the open, I picked them both up, my anger still flowing through me at the bastard that took out the strongest person I've ever seen fight. She can be on par with Kakashi-sensei and she was out cold. Whoever he was, he's not normal. A Sanin, whatever that is. I moved them into a cave we scoped out last night.

I laid them down side by side and I finally took a closer look at each of them. Sasuke stopped screaming finally, but he was sweating a lot. He had scratches and a few bruises littering his visible skin. His neck where he got bit had a weird symbol looking thing on it. Sasuke's face was scrunched up in pain, and when I felt his forehead, he had high fevers. I've never been sick, probably for having the 9-tails, so I don't know how to care for him. I just placed a cold and wet piece of my shirt on his head, to hopefully cool him off. My eyes turned to Hinata. I laid her on her side because she had a pretty big gash on her back. It was cleaned out, so I bandaged it the best I could. Her arms were cut up and had big dark bruises on her. She had twigs sticking out of her, and she was more pale than usual. From what she's taught me, and by the looks of the battlefield, she used a lot of Chakra and must be chakra exhausted. So all I can do is let her sleep to replenish her chakra.

I stayed up watching over them, I should be calm and happy they are alive, but I'm so filled with rage. I was mad, mad at the snake guy for hurting them and mad at myself. If I was there earlier, I could have helped more, they wouldn't be in this state if I didn't get knocked so far away. What's the point of having such a strong demon beast inside of me if I can't use it when I need to protect my family. If I'd been stronger, if I was faster, they wouldn't be this hurt right now. Hinata would be smiling at me like she always does, her eyes full of warmth. She finally showed me what love is, and when I realized I love her, I was too late to do anything to help her. If I cant protect her, how am I going to become Hokage. Sasuke would be arguing with me and we'd test to see whose stronger. He's like the brother I never had. Together, all three of us understand one another, we've all suffered and been alone. They don't hate me, they never have, and even when they found out about what made me want to hate myself, they still didn't hate me. I wasn't there to protect them, but this time, I'll be the stronger one.

No matter how much training I've gotten, I'm going to get stronger. Strong enough to protect them from any harm, to fight alongside them as equals. I'll prove myself to be worthy of Hokage, strong enough to protect the people I love. Next time, they wont be lying down on the brink of death, it will be me who takes that pain from them, for them.

Sasuke was still sweating, but his fever was going down a bit. He moved around a lot though, like he was re-living his worst nightmares. A weird purple aura was surrounding him too, something the snake man did was reacting badly with him. I wet his cloth again and put it back on his head. He calmed down a bit after that. Hinata was shivering in her sleep, and every time she'd roll on one of her worse cuts, her face would scrunch in pain. I took my jacket off and placed it over her. She was still shivering though, so I gently moved her and placed her right next to Sasuke. She curled into his warmth, and he stopped thrashing. Somehow I think he felt it was her and that calmed him. They have a bond, Sasuke loves her like I love her. She was there for him and experienced his massacre with him. She was there for him, like she was there for me. They are family, and they let me in the family. I'll protect our bond.

Timeskip to morning

The barrier seals I set up stayed put and other than waking up to check on my team, nothing exciting has happened. I'm itching for a battle, one to prove myself. Sasuke and Hinata still haven't woken up, but they both are in good condition... I think. Sasuke doesn't have a fever anymore, Hinata has a lot of her chakra back so hopefully they'll wake up soon so we can crush the rest of this exam. The only people I don't want to fight right now are those Sand creeps, the redhead guy had an evil look in his eyes and I don't like how he branded Hinata.

My seals finally wore out so I sent some Shadow Clones to do some scouting while I ate a ration bar. They taste like dirty garbage, but it's all I can eat for now. My shadow clone got dispelled and the leaves started rustling.

"Oh look, they left the worst ranking rookie as lookout. How fortunate for us." A deep voice called out. I grabbed out a kunai and turned to the sound.

"Who the Hell are you guys? Come out and let me kick your ass dattebayo." I shouted at them.

"We don't want to fight you, wake up Sasuke. He's the one we want to fight." Three people stepped out. One ugly mummy looking dude, a guy with black spiky hair and a cocky smirk, and a really tall girl. They were all glaring at me.

"Ugh Sasuke this, Sasuke that! You're going to fight me, dattebayo. For once I'm not going to lose to Sasuke. I'm going to save him and send you ugly freaks packing!" The spiky haired guy god so pissed.

"I can't stay quiet after hearing you talk to us like that. First I'm going to kill you pipsqueak, then I'm going to kill Sasuke." The mummy guy stepped up, he's the leader.

"Kin, help Zaku. Kill him, then the girl."

"Right, Dosu." Zaku and Kin chorused. I felt my teeth sharpen, the anger flowing through me. They want to kill my teammates, they think I'll go down so easy.

"I'll rip you to shreds, keep your hands off my teammates!"

(3d person POV)

Team 10 was making their way through the forest, looking for a team to fight to get a heaven scroll.

"Oh man, there doesn't seem to be anyone weaker than us. This is such a drag." Shikamaru sighed. his gears were turning in his head on trying to find a team that they could defeat. So far, all the teams seem way too strong, unless they could find Team 8, or get lucky.

"What about the other rookies? Sakura is weak and I bet we can take them. Even if Sasuke-kun is the strongest and most amazing ninja, he has two deadweights holding him back, we could beat them too. I bet Sasuke-kun would be glad to see me, and to get out so he doesn't have to spend more time with the deadlast and the tomboy freak." Ino stated, squealing at the thoughts of seeing her beloved, as well as shoving it in Sakura's face that she is better. Shikamaru and Choji both paled at the thought of trying to take on Sasuke's team.

"We cannot take on Sasuke's team. Hinata alone would destroy us, Naruto may be a dobe, but Hinata is the top ninja of out year. We can't beat them."

"Hey what if Hinata-chan and Sasuke-kun were both knocked out and Naruto was busy fighting?" Choji asked, munching on his chips. Ino got pissed at the thought that Choji would even think her Sasuke-kun could be taken out. Hinata yes, Sasuke no.

"Ha, like my Sasuke-kun would be taken out." Choji moved the leaves of the bushes for them to see. Sure enough, Sasuke and Hinata were laying together, lifeless in the cave. Shikamaru's heart skipped a beat, he was scared for himself and for Hinata.'Whose strong enough to take out Hinata like that, I know she's at least a high Chunin if not Jonin level, and with the aid rom Sasuke, that person must be strong. They turned their attention to Naruto who looked more terrifying than his usual short self. Naruto's normally thin whiskers were think and darkened. His teeth were long and ferocious as he snarled at the three awaiting Sound Genin. His nailes were elongated and sharp like claws, and surrounding him was a faintly visible red chakra. The evil in the air was potent, Shocking everyone in the vicinity as he released it. 'Who knew Naruto had this kind of power' Team 10 thought as they watched in awe and fear as Naruto got prepared to fight.

"What kind of power do you possess boy?" Dosu asked, he was ready to destroy the yellow haired boy, but when Naruto released that demonic power, he became hesitant. Maybe he can't take this boy, his Ki is scary enough to knock out anyone too weak. Zaku felt threatened, but more annoyed than anything.

"Who cares Dosu, I'll still show him real power. He's nothing but a fake." Zaku ran to Naruto, palms raised. The small metal cylindrical holes in his palms were aimed right at Naruto. With a burst of Chakra, Zaku sent a Cutting Sound wave at Naruto, blasting him back. Zaku turned to his teammates, a smug look on his face. "See, he can't do anything against the justu of the future. He's still just a weak midget." Dosu and Kin weren't listening, their eyes were on the boy Zaku just blasted. Instead of being knocked out, or possibly dead from a blast like that, Naruto was walking back to them. His red chakra was more visible and thrashing violently around him. There was a small dribble of blood falling from his lips, but other than that, it was as if Zaku's jutsu did nothing.

Team Gai was watching from the tree line. When Lee noticed Hinata injured and the Sound ninja getting ready to fight, Neji was prepared to go help his sister. His blood was boiling and he was ready for murder, to get vengeance for whoever hurt his precious family. They were all ready to attack when Naruto was blasted away, but Neji turned on his Byakugan and saw the chakra around Naruto. It was so immense and demonic. It was violent and terrifying to look at, so Neji made his team stay back to watch and see. He didn't want to be caught in the crossfire of something as powerful as what Naruto was emitting. Neji's world was crumbling around him, he believed in destiny and that Naruto's destiny was to be a failure, just like Lee, but watching how strong Naruto was, how strong Lee had become. He was beginning to believe in what Hinata told him: Destiny is what you decide, it is not decided for you.

Naruto walked back to them, his chakra swirling violently. He was beyond pissed now. Naruto smiled, instead of his normal bright, foxy grins, it was deadly. Zaku turned around in surprise.

"I thought I had you, oh well. At least its a better fight for me to win, more fun this way. Kin, you go ahead and kill the girl, Dosu, you can have Sasuke. This little brat is mine." Dosu shook his head, he finally figured out why the boy was so menacing now. He's a jinchuriki, but no matter what, Dosu knew Zaku wouldn't listen. Dosu and Kin walked over to where the two sleeping Genin were huddled. Before they could fully enter the cave, a low growl rumbled through their ears.

"You stay away from them. I told you once already. They're under my protection." Naruto yelled out. His chakra finally took a form around him. A one tailed fox. Naruto moved and appeared in front of Dosu and Kin at lightning speed. He used his tail and hit Kin, sending her flying into a tree. She had chakra burns where his tail hit and was barely conscious. He went to attack Dosu, but right before, Dosu and Zaku both sent massive sound blasts at Naruto. Zaku's blast made Naruto skid back a bit, but Dosu's blast did some damage. It entered through the chakra, the vibrations entering Naruto's ears. It scrambled his hearing, making blood pour out of his ears and Naruto fell to his knees. His depth perception was off. Dosu was ready to send another round of sound waves to hopefully put down the beast so they can complete their mission and flee. He raised his gauntlet, sending chakra into it, but was stopped when Naruto's hand grabbed his own. The chakra around Naruto's arm was too intense and burned Dosu to the bone. Dosu grunted in pain, Zaku readied another attack, but the chakra tail on Naruto acted as if it was its own will and hit Zaku into a tree with enough force to break his spine. Zaku fell to the ground limp and paralyzed.

Dosu looked between the blond boy and his teammates. He was afraid, normally something only Orochimaru could evoke within him. Dosu knew he lost and was about to lose his life if he wasn't careful so he reached in his coat pocked, grasped his Earth scroll and pulled it out for Naruto to see.

"You are too strong for us. Take this scroll and we will leave you and your team alone for good." The 9-tails cloak around Naruto receded, but his looks were still feral. He released Dosu, allowing him to gather his teammates and scramble away. Naruto finally calmed down fully, returning to his bright beautiful self. He picked up the scroll, his hands trembling in exhaustion, but that didn't stop the bittersweet smile. Naruto was proud of himself, he protected his teammates but he did it in a way he didn't like. The power boost was nice, but the overwhelming rage, the same kind that made him kill all of those people on the bridge, it scared him. Naruto decided then to use that chakra only in emergencies, and use the skills he knows he has to fight all the other times.

Lee watched Naruto in awe, Naruto was the last of his class just like Lee was, but somehow Naruto was able to become so strong, and Lee knew that was only a glimpse at what Naruto could do. It gave him renewed hope that because Naruto became so strong, Lee can too. Tenten and Neji were amazed, the little dopey looking loudmouth was so strong, so scary. They knew they needed to step up her game if they wanted to compete with the rookie Genin. Shikamaru, Choji, and Ino were shaking in fear. Naruto, the dobe who couldn't do anything right, was so strong. He defeated those scary sound guys without breaking a sweat. The rest of their team was already strong, so whatever is going on with them to make them all that high of deadly shinobi, Team 10 knows the do not want to fight any of Team 7. Shikamaru took one last glance at Hinata, making sure she was alive, he let out a sigh of relief when Naruto shook her awake, her eyes fluttering open. He then followed after his team, ready to take on someone else and finish this stage of the exams.

Timeskip to that night (Hinata POV)

We made our camp for the night. Naruto defeated the sound ninja and got the earth scroll while Sasuke and I were unconscious, so now we have both needed scrolls to go to the building. I wanted to go today and just get there, but Naruto refused. He decided Sasuke and I needed another night of rest to make the trek. Begrudgingly, I accepted. Naruto confided in us on how he beat the sound ninja alone. He didn't use any of his normal skills, all he used was the Kyuubi chakra that came from his anger, defeating them easily. Sasuke and I assured him it was nothing to worry about, and Naruto brightened right back up. My stomach growled and Sasuke dragged Naruto off to go get water in a pot to make our dinner. The food scroll Naruto snagged had ramen and fruit for us to make dinner, so they went to get water to boil to cook the ramen. I was sitting alone, still trying not to move too much from my injuries.

I wonder how the rest of the rookies are doing. I know Kiba and them are fine, Kiba and Shino are skilled enough in this type of situation to survive unharmed. but I wonder what's going on with Team 10, they weren't there for the sound battle, so I wonder if anything has changed for them this time. Eeh, Shika is too smart to fail. There's also Gaara, he is definitely done with the exam already, I want to see him. He needs to know I'm still there for him, his mind is so fragile right now, affirmation vocally and actively is probably what is best for him.

I'm so conflicted with myself right now. I should have been stronger, done more against Orochimaru so he couldn't have cursed Sasuke. The sounds of his screaming haunt me, I can still hear it. If I used more jutsu, fought harder, something, I could have helped Sasuke not have to go through that pain. I also feel elated in the best kind of way. It's horrible I feel like that, but I can't help it. Even though Sasuke got cursed, he didn't give into the darkness of the curse mark. It hasn't activated yet on him. Something I did along the way changed Sasuke enough that he isn't willing to turn to the darkness to get power that means he wont leave and become the heartless dick he was. The problem with that is I think his curse mark is hurting him more now because he is rejecting it, it needs to be sealed soon, Sasuke's willpower is strong enough to not break the seal now.

The fire crackled, but something felt off. I began meditating, and stretched out my chakra along the forest, sensing for any unknown or unwanted presence. Behind me and to the left, I found my source of unease; an unknown chakra. The person moved closer to me and I tensed up, ready to strike with my gentle fist. When the person was right behind me, I spun, my palm ready to strike, but my hand was caught and held in a firm grasp. I looked up to see my attacker: Kabuto.

"Ah ah ah Hinata-chan, I'm not here to hurt you right now." He was sincere, creepy and I wanted to punch him in the face, but sincere, so I lowered my hand but kept my guard up.

"What do you want? I don't like you, you don't like me, why are you here?" Kabuto smirked, his glasses reflecting the fire. Giving his dangerous presence and equally dangerous look.

"Yes, well I wanted to see how you fared after your fight with Lord Orochimaru. You sure did a number on him, I haven't seen him that beat up since he fought Itachi. You truly are something, his injuries were difficult to heal, especially from the work you did harming his chakra. I also wanted to check in on his new vessel, to see how Sasuke is handing the cruse mark. I've heard Sasuke hates his brother, I wonder wehn he'll use the power and join Lord Orochimaru, even if only a means to kill Itachi." Kabuto mused, his tone sounding kind and caring, jovial even. He truly is a master spy, if I didn't know him beforehand, I would have bought into his nice defenseless guy act. I just crossed my arms and turned away slightly, grunting at the pain in my body. Something I know didn't go unnoticed by Kabuto.

"You dick. Go away, I don't want you near Sasuke or me for that matter. My teammates are going to make you leave anyways." Kabuto placed his hand on my cheek, dragging it down to my collar bone in a freakily gentle way, but I could feel the threat behind it. If he activated his chakra scalpel, he could kill me in my weakened state.

"We'll find that out right now wont we?" Kabuto said lightly, his hand was gone and a concerned look passed over his features, his eyes looking me up and down. To other's it looked like he was checking me for injuries, not filling his interest with assessing my body. A kunai was thrown and landed right in between us. I knew Sasuke threw it, I sent a smug, Shisui-like face to Kabuto, he just kept the innocent act up. Putting his hands in the air and making a calm down motion to them.

"What the hell are you doing here, leave Hina-chan 4 eyed bastard." Naruto called out, pointing at Kabuto. Damn, we're supposed to be quiet and hiding, but Naruto just yelled and announced our presence to anyone near us. I know Sasuke and Kabuto were thinking the same thing.

"Shh, keep it down, you don't want to attract any attention. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to come off as a threat, I was passing by and I saw Hinata-san alone. I came to check on her.

"Hn. You're just after our scrolls." Sasuke said, his voice deep and monotone in his special duckbutt way. Kabuto then pulled out Heaven and Earth scrolls.

"Hehe, I actually have both already. I got separated from my team and I thought I could join yours."
"So your scared?" Sasuke said, an eyebrow raised. Kabuto nodded, faking the defeated and ashamed look well. They believed it. Naruto snickered.

"Yeah well I'd come to me for protection too dattebayo!" The blonde bombshell stated confidently, his thumb pointed back at himself.

"How are you going to make us want to help you?" Sasuke questioned, wanting compensation for the perceived dead weight we are taking on.

"Well, I'm a medical ninja. I'm not great but I can help heal the more superficial wounds you've received." I did my best not to roll my eyes at the understatement of the year, his healing sills are exemplary. But damn, I need some lessons on how amazing he is at lying to people, like damn he is a master. Sasuke looked intrigued, Naruto was basically jumping for joy.

"Thats so cool dattebayo! I want to watch, heal Hina-chan first, heal her, heal her." Naruto begged, bouncing up and down in childish excitement. I felt a smile grow on my face for the fact that Naruto want's me to be healed first. I know Kabuto isn't going to try to hurt me right now, so I bit the bullet and let him put his hands on me and heal me. He gently laid be down, hovered one hand on my stomach and the other on my upper chest area. Naruto and Sasuke both watched in amazement as Kabuto's hands glowed a pale green. I could feel Kabuto's chakra entering me. It's always a weird feeling, having somebody else's chakra inside of you, but usually I just ignore it. His chakra was so different from the other medical ninja's that have healed me. His felt cooling, as much as I didn't like him, his chakra was so cool and calming. It was one of the most amazing feelings, I could feel my pain slowly fade away, and with the sensual and coolness of his Chakra, I began to fall asleep, enjoying the momentary bliss, blocking out the fact that Kabuto's healing and his chakra could feel so good.

I woke up in the morning feeling the best I have the whole exam. All of my injuries were gone, we were alive, and we were going to finish this test not right at the last minute this time. I sat up, throwing my hair into a ponytail and looked around. Sasuke and Naruto were sleeping with me in between, and across the makeshift fire pit, Kabuto was sleeping, maybe. He could just be pretending. Although my body feels great, I'm kind of annoyed I'm awake first, so I need to have some kind of enjoyment waking everyone else up. I rolled over, laying like a dead fish right on top of Sasuke. I've slept with him enough to know how to wake him up in the most irritating ways possible. I was laying on him, and I could feel the grumble in Sasuke's chest as he groaned. He does not like weight on top of him at all, he feels claustrophobic and I think it makes him feel like a Uke to have somebody else on him, it's emasculating for the ever prideful Uchiha. Sasuke sat up, forcefully moving me with him, then he not-so-gently shoved me off oh him.

"Ugh get of me freak." His eyes were still tired, his hair droopy, making his annoyed look towards me that much better. I giggled, trying to quiet my laughter.

"Good morning Duckbutt!" I smiled cheekily, then handed him a toothbrush and water to clean himself, the clean freak would lose his mind if he couldn't brush his teeth. Sasuke Hn'd at me and went to the side to get himself ready. I turned to my blond ball of sunshine. He was sleeping sprawled out, his butt in the air. It was comical, down right hilarious. The sleeping cap he had made it that much better. Naruto is a deep sleeper most of the time so I need to wake him up somehow. It'd only be fair I woke him up in an annoying way like I did for Sasuke. I leaned down to Naruto's ear, my lips lightly brushing it. I inhaled and...

"NARUTO THERE IS NO MORE RAMEN!" I shouted in his ear, loud enough to let him hear, but still quiet enough to not alert anyone nearby. Naruto gasped, shooting up, banging our foreheads together.

"RAMEN! Hina-chan we need to save the ramen dattebayo!" He said, panicked and rubbing his forehead. I deadpanned, then fell back laughing at his panic.

"You haha you woke up because of ramen hahaha" I stated in between laughs, trying to calm myself down. Naruto was stunned silent for a second before whining like a child.

"Not cool Hina-channnn." I pulled Naruto up, handing him his toothbrush and sent him off. Last but not least, Kabuto. I know Naruto is going to make him come with us, and I guess since he healed me, I can put aside my distaste for now. I mean he's an asshole, but an asshole with nice chakra. I grabbed my water bottle and silently made my way over to Kabuto. When I was right over his face, I poured all of my water right onto him, drenching his hair and face. Kabuto sent a fist at me, but I caught it. He looked at my devious smirk and realized a bit, but couldn't hide the annoyed aura I caused. He took off his glasses, wiping away the water, then looked back up to me.

"I would love to repay the favor, but Lord Orochimaru would not want me to hurt one of his new subjects. I can always just put more of my chakra into you, you seemed to enjoy it last night." He smirked at my shocked face. I just decided to leave him, at a loss for words once in my life. What does he even mean by that? Did Kabuto just make an inappropriate joke to me? Aghh. I grunted and walked away, gathering up all of our stuff. The boys returned, arguing about something, and then we all took off. Using our speed, we arrived to the Tower relatively fast, and thankfully we had no run-ins with other teams. Kabuto's team showed up and they began to leave.

"Hinata-san, you're wrong about the hating one another thing." Kabuto said sweetly, his innocent voice ringing through the trees. Then they disappeared and instead of dwelling on it, I walked with my teammates into one of the doors. We were put in a bland room, with only a type of riddle as decoration. I read it aloud and we agreed to open the scrolls. Sasuke decided they were summoning scrolls, so they threw them to the ground and out popped... Iruka-sensei!

Iruka-sensei gave us all a proud smile, especially to his surrogate son Naruto, and proceed to congratulate us for finishing with a day left. He explained the whole Heaven and Earth scroll idea: how to have the perfect balance to be a good ninja. We must have good spiritual strength and physical strength, something we aren't lacking. Iruka then opened the door behind him and we obediently followed him. Since there is still a day left of the exam, we are staying in the tower overnight to recuperate along with all of the other teams that finished.

Naruto animatedly told Iruka of his version of what happened in the forest of death, while Sasuke and I just walked behind. Even if my injuries are all gone, I'm still exhausted, and Sasuke looks ready to collapse, probably from the pain of holding the curse mark back. We were led to a small room with three beds and a shower, with only a curtain as privacy, in the corner. Naruto hugged Iruka, thanking him for the room, then dove into the bed. Mine and Sasuke's lips twitched into smiles of varying degrees, and followed suit. Iruka laughed, left us a map to find the kitchen, and left us to out own vices.

Sasuke flinched and grabbed his shoulder tightly. Naruto and I both saw it and made him lay down.

"Teme, tell us what happened when you were out. What is that weird bruise that creepy snake dude gave you?" Sasuke took in a deep breath, his eyes were distant, reminiscent, he looked slightly scared or sad of something. Sasuke was reluctant to say anything, he kept looking away from us. Naruto's warm smile broke down Sasuke a bit, and when I squeezed his hand, he finally gave in to telling us.

"It gave me power, more power than I'd ever felt. It was amazing and I wanted to give in so bad. I kept re-living that night, the power was trying to feed of my dark desires to kill Itachi, like it was programmed. If I didn't know the truth I would have given in. It was consuming, all of my dark desires for power were being drawn upon, it was evil, and I scares me that I was so close to giving in." Sasuke gripped the bedsheets around him tightly, his internal conflict becoming evident on his usually stoic face. "I can feel it, feeding off my chakra, pushing me into the darkness. Every time I resist, it attacks me. I'm so weak!" Sasuke almost roared in anger at himself. He put his head down, looking away from us, ashamed at what he thinks is weakness. Naruto reached out and put his hand on Sasuke's shoulder.

"You're such a Teme dattebayo.." Naruto spoke out, this time not teasingly or angry. Sasuke looked up finally, a weak glare on his pale features. "You're not weak because it's hurting you, you're strong because you aren't giving in. The 9 tails inside of me is always fighting to break out when I'm angry and I become weak when I let it control me, it may give me strength I didn't have, but when I let it cloud my mind, it makes me weak." I smiled at the wise words and the exchange. They really have an irreplaceable bond, only Naruto would have been able to fix Sasuke the way he did. Sasuke looked slightly relieved after his talking to. "So stop being a whiny teme dattebayo. Don't start becoming a weaker link than you already are."

Naruto spoke out with a wide grin and a laugh. Sasuke glared at him and they began to verbally argue. I got up, leaving them to argue, and quickly took a shower, washing all the dried blood and dirt off of me. It took a lot of force to get the blood off, and I watched in silence and anger at myself as it flowed down the drain in a clear red mess. I put my dripping wet hair into a ponytail and changed into my spare clothes I sealed away. A red shirt and black ninja pants. While Sasuke and Naruto got ready to shower, I left to go see other teams and grab some real food.

I walked into the kitchen-type area and grabbed an apple to munch on while I found food I didn't have to cook. I was rummaging through the drawers when the sand bracelet on my wrist began to pulse and wildly react around my hand. I honestly forgot about it until now. It kept freaking out until I finally stopped looking for food, settling on some vegetables. The sand stopped, and I felt somebody watching me. I turned around and there was Gaara, staring at me with a blank expression on his face, but wild eyes. I raised my right arm in a lazy wave and gave him a smile.

"Hey Panda-kun. Glad to see you made it through. Whats up with the sand bracelet though, why is it freaking out?" I tilted my head in question. Gaara didn't respond verbally, instead he covered me in his sand and did some weird transportation thingie, bringing us to a room, alone. His sand was still covering me and was squeezing me tightly. Gaara's breathing became a tiny bit ragged as he stared at me.

"What happened, mother couldn't sense your chakra." Gaara growled at me, his sand tightening a bit more. "You promised not to die, yet your chakra was gone. I thought you died, you promised, if you die I'm the one to do it." He spoke out, I'm not sure whether it was to me or himself.

"I got in a really bad fight with a dickhead named Orochimaru and used most of my chakra, I didn't die though. I promised not to die until I can show you love, what kind of friend would I be if I broke my promise already." I said, my voice steady but quiet, he's acting crazy and I need to tread lightly, I don't need to become another victim crushed with his sand. I gave a small, caring (I hope) smile to Gaara. His anger seemed to melt away, but then was replaced with something else. He began laughing a pretty psychotic and creepy laugh, his eyes wild.

"You're alive" He had another laugh, staring at me as his sand brought me closer. "You didn't die, my existence has meaning, I will kill whoever hurt you, mother agrees. I will kill him! Nobody can take you away from me, you are my prey not anyone else's." The sand let me to the floor right in front of Gaara. I wasn't sure how to calm him down, but I was hoping that he might be like the orphaned babies who need contact to be calm, so I stood up and hugged tightly onto Gaara, my head tucked into his shoulder. Gaara's sand got ready to attack, but when he realized I was hugging him like I did last time, his sand calmed down. Gaara was still tense, so I grabbed his hands for him and wrapped them around me. When Gaara became more comfortable, his hug became tighter and tighter to an almost suffocating point. I didn't move though, knowing he needed it and it was his way of making sure I was really there. Sasuke and Naruto both do the same thing whenever they are worried or whatever. Gaara's ragged breathing finally calmed down, but he stayed holding onto me.

To fill the silence, I told Gaara a little bit about my life, hardcore training every day since I was 1, my issues with my family, my struggles with other people, the massacre, and my dream of saving as many as I can. Gaara finally became more comfortable and finally was willing to tell me more about his life. He told me all about how he killed his mother, his horrible father Rasa and how he attempted to have Gaara assassinated many times over, how the village hates him and is afraid of him, and his uncle Yashamaru and how he was the one who told Gaara nobody would love him and he should only love himself.

By the end of his story I was in tears, having Gaara explain why he is the way he is, and how he thinks he killed his mother really made me sad. It pissed me off even more to hear about how everyone else treated him. As angry and hateful as he seemed, he also showed the sad and hurt boy he actually was. Gaara's anger towards humanity was obvious and I didn't even know what to day, I was angry too. It was the same anger I felt with Naruto, for places that are supposed to be 'good' are so full of prejudice and evil, causing so much pain for people like Gaara. It is the same as my clan, a supposed noble clan puts cursed seals on members to control them and separates everyone by branch and main family members.

Gaara and I were talking when Kankuro and Temari showed up in the room we were in.

"G-Gaara-sama, you can't kill her! Come on, just c-calm down and let's go somewhere else and discuss the plan." Temari pleaded, her voice terrified and shaking, her eyes wide as she took in the scene. Gaara was sitting next to me, his sand wrapped around my waist as a way to prevent me from moving. To her and anyone else, it definitely looked like he was about to murder my ass, but really, his sand was holding me because he didn't want me to leave and he/his sand likes to feel my chakra all the time.

"Leave." Gaara's gravelly voice spoke out, void of any emotion except annoyance. He turned his beautiful eyes to his siblings, a cold glare sent their way. As scared as they were, Kankuro and Temari were both stunned as the usual bloodlust that radiated from their little brother, especially before a kill, was nonexistent. Temari got a little more confidence at his lack of blood lust and began to speak again.

"Let's just-" She attempted to talk, but Gaara's harsh look shut her up. He looked ready to attack, a growl present at the back of his throat. He really did not like his siblings untimely interference.

"Leave. Now. I'm not going to kill her. Not yet." Gaara rasped out. Releasing some of his potent KI. I shivered at the feeling, it was so strong but after Orochimaru, this still was less intense.

"Y-Yes!" His siblings gave one more glance at us then scurried off. Gaara looked tense since his siblings left, and I couldn't help but laugh at how awkward he was. His lack of human contact and his lack of understanding other people was adorable, he was like a blood thirsty little baby sometimes. Gaara's eyes sharply turned to me, narrowing as I laughed. The sand holding me tightened.

"Why are you laughing at me?" Gaara demanded, he seemed a equal mix of angry and confused, making me laugh harder at his naivety.

"I'm not laughing at you. I'm laughing because of you." I explained, a small smile on my face at his ready-to-kill position. I really might be crazy since I'm not afraid of a psychotic and unstable boy... well not as afraid as I should be. He still is planning on killing me in the battle rounds so that's something.

"I didn't say anything funny... did I?" Gaara's sand loosened again and his angry murderous demeanor was gone, he was now contemplative, I could feel the confusion buzzing off of him. Yet again, his Shukaku induced murderous boy was gone and I could see the shunned and alone boy he was. As sad as it was, it was also adorable to see somebody so tough begin to crack and let himself show. I finally am getting to see some more of the Gaara hidden behind the so called demon he created himself as. I tried to explain to him why I laughed, but just made everything more confusing and he was getting agitated. Finally, I knew it was time for me to go, I said my goodbye and left him to his own devices, probably plotting with his siblings on defeating the leaf or something. Yay, they have such good priorities and I'm such a fucking amazing person for letting them plan on destroying my village.

I made my way through the kitchen, heading to Team 7's room, when I felt a familiar presence. I spun around and nocked my target off of his feet, making him land on his ass. He let out a big sigh before engulfing me in a hug.

"Troublesome woman."

"SHIKAAAA. You passed!" Shika put his hands behind his head and laid back on the floor in the hallway, not bothering ti move somewhere else. I laid my head on his shoulder and we began talking. He told me the ingenious strategy he came up with to get the second scroll, defeating a team from Iwagakure by luring them into a trap they had set up earlier. Shikamaru let out a deep sigh, moving me off and sitting up to look me in the eyes. The atmosphere went from calm to tense in an instant. The tight grip and intense gaze Shikamaru had was his expression of fear, for what, I'm not sure. Whatever happened to him was big to get a reaction like this out of the sarcastic, prideful, lazy pineapple boy.

"What the hell happened to you and Sasuke, why was Naruto left to fight alone, and what the hell is Naruto, I've never seen something so intense in my life." Shikamaru asked, his voice void of the normal laziness, instead filled with pure intrigue...well as much as he could muster up. He still looked ready to drop and sleep right here and now. His eyes were flitting over my body, watching each movement I made to figure out what my reactions were, helping answer the questions without me even having to say anything. I first went through explaining what happened with Orochimaru in the briefest way possible, he's smart enough to put any of my clues together so I didn't have to explain all that much. A fire I didn't know Shika had lit up in his eyes at the mention of how I was attacked and knocked out.

"Naruto is special. I know you've heard about the asshole villagers talking about him. What do they call him?"

"A demon." Shikamaru stated bluntly, but I could hear the twinge of annoyance, he likes Naruto and doesn't like the treatment Naruto receives from the village.

"When's Naruto's birthday?"
"October 10th."

"And what was the fourth a master in?"

"Sealing." The gears started turning in Shika's head. He was analyzing and coming up with every probable answer.

"And if I told you a tailed beast cant be killed, only sealed..." I trailed off, seeing the understanding and shock flash across Shika's face. Instead of his usual annoyed sign or half lidded eyes, he gasped sharply and his eyes were wide as saucers.

"Naruto's a jinchuriki for the 9-tails demon fox isn't he." Shikamaru stated, a definitive answer, not a question. I nodded, watching closely to gauge his thoughts he wouldn't tell me. He was tense and looked contemplating, but unlike most of the village, there was no fear or hate at all. The veil that was covering him, preventing his understanding was finally lifted, but Shikamaru is smart and I know he knows that even if Naruto is a jinchuriki, he wouldn't purposely hurt any of his friends. Naruto is too kind hearted for that.

His fists clenched tightly, the anger that I feel was evident, Shikamaru was sad and angry that someone like Naruto has to deal with such difficult problems and is hated for something he couldn't have controlled. Knowing that one of my and Naruto's closest friends didn't hate or fear him for what he is, made me smile wide and tackle Shikamaru in a hug, thanking him over and over for being the person he is. "It'd be too much of a drag to dislike that idiot anyways, especially now that he can kick my ass." Shikamaru stated bored, while hiding his slight blush. I giggled and stayed sitting, my legs thrown over Shikamaru's, his arm behind my back.

"Shika, you know I finally figured something out to make you even more unstoppable, especially with your Shadow jutsu's." His lidded eyes tilted down a bit to look at me, I had his undivided attention now.

"Whenever you trap someone in your shadow possession, if you reach down to grab a kunai, they do too. You both grab kunai's making throwing it so fucking useless because it'd hit you too, but what if you wore your kunai pouch around your waist or something else, then when you grab a kunai, they are grabbing air, leaving it so you can hit them, but they cant hit you. Then right before it hits them, you release the possession, giving them no time to dodge." Shikamaru's eyes widened more and more each word I spoke and his mouth was hanging open, gaping like a fish as I finished. I grinned triumphantly, knowing I'm right and that I just blew his mind yet again today.

"What a drag woman." He groaned, dragging his hand down his face. "That is such a simple and ingenious solution. That completely erases the possibility of their kunai harming me, giving me an advantage for instant kill that I never had before. When Otousan hears about this, he's going to go into depression for not thinking of this himself." Shikamaru took of his thigh pouch and re-hooked it on his waist on his right side. "You really are something, troublesome woman." He told me fondly, a small smile on his face.

"Aww, you know you lovvve me Shika." I joked, laughing a bit. Shikamaru grunted in agreement, the frog in his throat to big to speak, and laid all the way back again, pulling me with him to lay my head on his chest.

I traced circles in his fishnets as we strategized about each opponent we know that we could possibly fight in the final rounds. He helped me decide which opponent's ninjutsu would work best against, which one's my taijutsu would work for (most them basically, minus Gaara, he needs a mix), and what skills I should keep secret for now. We decided to keep up the limiting of my skill level until the finals. I will show only what I need to win, not show off like I so badly wanted to. Shikamaru, especially since he trains in taijutsu with me every once and awhile and Asuma is a freaking taijutsu beast, is pretty proficient and is going to use his taijutsu to fight until he has the perfect opportunity to shadow possess or strangle them. If he is going up against heavy ninjutsu users, he will have to hold off, let them use chakra, figure out a weak spot or break in the justu's and beat them then.

I told him if he goes up against Gaara, to forfeit. He agreed, talking about how much of a drag it would be to fight someone so bloodthirsty and scary. After a little bit, we got up to go say hi to Choji, and to find Naruto because Shikamaru want's to talk to him and indirectly let him know they are still friends. He's to cool to just say it, the prideful ass. I was a bit disappointed though, I know Kiba and Shino were one of the first teams to finish, so I was hoping to see them, but I wasn't aloud to go looking for other teams on purpose. I really needed a kiss from Akamaru, some fun verbal sparring with Kiba, and Shino's speech patterns always made me feel better, especially when it would be to tell Kiba he's an idiot.

Naruto, Sasuke, and I were all back in our room finally. I was exhausted and wanted sleep, the looks on their faces they did too. Sasuke looked a bit more calm, but I could see the pain mentally and physically. As much as I wanted to ply it off, I was still shaken from the terrifying time in the forest, Sasuke and Naruto were too. Their eyes were traumatized, showcasing the fear no amount of grins and hn's could cover up. I didn't want to sleep alone, so Naruto and Sasuke both pushed their beds together with mine, making one giant bed. We all piled together and slept in a tangled mess of arms and legs.

Even though I usually hated the heat to sleep, this time it was warm and comforting. Naruto was on my left, pressed tightly against my back, spooning me. His legs intertwining with mine. He had an arm wrapped around my waist and was holding one of my hands. Sasuke was on my right, my head was tucked into his chest and his arms were holding me protectively, his legs were wrapped with Naruto's and mine, the slight shake in his body from the pain finally subsided. I snuggled deeper into them, all of us were connected with one another, feeling a sense of security we haven't had in a while.