Super awesome betas who may have been laughing too hard to actually catch all of my mistakes: Igornerd, Blaizekit, Duesal Bladesinger
Chapter Two: Before
The day of the chuunin exams came far too slowly for Tsunade's liking. It was true Naruto and Sasuke were no longer pestering her to name an heir, but that was hardly any relief when it came with the abduction of the Kazekage. The only reason there hadn't yet been an international incident was because Temari, the starter of all the trouble as far as the Hokage was concerned, had explained everything to her brother. Together, the two of them had managed to soothe the Kazekage's guards.
It had been a nerve-wracking four days, during which the three had disappeared off of the face of the Earth. If they didn't show up to this chuunin exam, there was a very real prospect of a war with Suna on their hands. If they didn't show up, Tsunade was going to hunt them down and tear them apart limb from limb.
It was with such thoughts in mind that the Hokage paced in front of the window looking out over the academy entrance to the exam registration. Beneath her she watched the various Genin assemble for the exam. There were a few familiar faces but mostly she waited for the tell-tale blonde spiky hair. It was not Tsunade, however, who spotted them first.
"NARUTO!" an angry voice shouted, causing all the genin to turn their heads and watch an irate pink-haired jounin storm up to the approaching genin in bright orange. It was comical to watch as the blonde cowered behind his smaller, red-headed teammate.
"Gaara! Save me! She's gonna kill me 'ttebayo!"
The human shield barely spared his cowering companion a glance before nodding amicably to the jounin kunoichi. "Sakura."
"Hi, Gaara-san," Sakura greeted him sweetly, her face morphing from murderous to cheerful as if some sort of switch had been flipped. "Would you mind terribly stepping aside so that I might have a few words with my ex-teammates, please?"
Dark-ringed green eyes regarded her for a moment of consideration before giving the girl another nod and taking one purposeful step to the side, exposing the blonde behind him.
Quick as a snake, Sakura's hands whipped out to snag Sasuke's and Naruto's earlobes. Heedless of the bewildered looks they were receiving from the genin around them, the pink-haired girl dragged the two boys along behind her as she ducked back into the building. Gaara followed after them.
"Okay," Sakura began, having dragged them into an unused classroom on the upper level and placed a privacy seal on the door. "What's this I hear about you entering the chuunin exams?!"
Naruto rubbed his ear surreptitiously, as he eyed her warily for signs of another attack. "Tsunade obaasan said I can't become Hokage as a genin, so I'm taking the exams. I need a team of three and Sasuke-teme and Gaara never passed either, so... here we are."
"Sensei allowed this?!" Sakura gasped incredulously.
"Of course!" Naruto replied. "It was her idea!"
The door slid open, and in strode the Hokage as well as two teams of ANBU. One squad went to go stand by Gaara. "Kazekage-sama. Are you alright?"
"I am fine," the sand-nin answered in his typical monotone. "I will not require guards for the remainder of the exam duration. Your orders are to look after my siblings until they are over. Dismissed."
It was a sign of how well-trained they were that they made no protest before disappearing on their new assignment. Tsunade dismissed her own ANBU with a gesture and turned to regard the teens with a frown. "You guys are serious about this?"
She only waited long enough for them to nod before continuing. "Then I need to lay down some ground rules."
"Why do we get extra rules?" Naruto demanded, scowling unhappily.
"Because as future Hokage, you won't mind being held to a higher standard than everyone else," she snapped back at him. "Now first, I know that usually deaths in the exams aren't exactly uncommon. However, if any genin die before the final exam, your team will automatically fail."
"You expect us to keep them from killing each other?" Sasuke asked with a grimace.
"And I expect you to do it without the other teams realizing they're being looked after."
Gaara nodded in comprehension. "I see. This is practice for being Hokage, a protector of their village, while still maintaining the exam's life threatening atmosphere. I agree to this rule."
"Oh, alright," Naruto conceded. "Not like I would have let anyone die anyway. Now I just gotta make extra sure."
Sasuke made a noise that sounded vaguely like a 'if the dobe can do it, I can do it better.' He was good at non-verbal, monosyllabic speaking.
"Good," Tsunade said, moving on to the next rule. "Second, you can't eliminate any more teams than absolutely necessary for you to pass. I already know you could quite possibly knock out every other team in the second, if not first, exam. Just because you guys are S-class power houses doesn't mean everyone else shouldn't have a chance to pass. Since you're aiming to become Hokage, I hope you can see the wisdom of this and use good judgement accordingly."
The last part was aimed specifically at the two leaf-nins but Gaara nodded along with them anyway. He was a part of the team, the rules applied to him as well as far as he was concerned.
Tsunade took another few moments to try and think up anything else that needed to be covered, but nothing else came to mind. She sighed. "There may be more rules added as the exams progress, but for now... you guys may proceed."
She turned and left with a grumpy mutter to herself, "I need a drink..."
The first obstacle on their path almost proved too much for the team of living legends.
"Whaaaaaat, this is ridiculous, dattebayo!"
"Hn."
"Registration ends in five minutes."
"I know, Gaara, I can see the clock right there!"
"Then what's your plan, dobe?"
"I don't- Just let me think, alright!"
"Think faster, idiot."
"Teme-! I don't see you coming up with- Oh, hey, Gaara, don't you have anyone that could...?"
"No. All of my subordinates are otherwise preoccupied or too far away."
"Right, right...," the blonde let out a frustrated huff as he ran a hand through his messy hair and turned to scan the room for something, anything, that might help them. He ignored the looks of utter bafflement -and in the case of some of the brighter ones, dawning horror- on the genin around them, and, just as he was about to think their cause hopeless, he spotted her.
There, standing against a backdrop of light that almost seemed to make her glow with divine radiance, stood the pink-haloed answer to his prayers. His face split into a wide grin.
Sasuke noticed the expression and, when he'd followed Naruto's gaze and drawn the same conclusion, he hissed, "No! We are not that desperate!"
"Four minutes."
"Yes, Sasuke, we really are that desperate," the blonde replied, then stepped forward. "Sakura-chan!" he called out in the most charming voice he could muster.
The kunoichi straightened from where she had been scolding a pair of genin for scuffling in the halls to fix her ex-teammate with a wary look. The two errant shinobi took that opportunity to slink off, but she hardly noticed as she watched the teens approach.
"Have I ever told you how beautiful you are lately? How much of an amazing medic you are and how-"
"What do you want, Naruto," she interrupted him flatly. It wasn't a question so much as a demand. Her expression made it clear that he'd better get to the point quickly or else.
"Eheheh... well, you see... we ran into a bit of a problem trying to register our team, and I was wondering if you could help us with it?" He fixed her with his most adorable puppy dog eyes as he handed her their registration form, pointing to one line in particular.
Her expression turned to one of puzzlement as she read the form, then to a frown, then realization. When she glanced up at the blonde with an 'are-you-serious?' look and received a 'dead-serious' confirmation in return, she burst out laughing. As in, doubled over, had to use the wall beside her for support and could barely breathe, laughing. "You...! Want me to...! AHAHAHA-!"
"Three minutes."
"Yes, it's hilarious," Naruto spoke quickly, rolling his eyes. "We're in a hurry here, so yes or no?"
It took her several moments to contain her mirth, and every second that passed made Naruto fidget, and Sasuke's scowl to deepen. Gaara seemed the least affected, yet his gaze never wavered from the clock.
After what felt like an eternity, though it had to have been less than a minute or Gaara would have said something, Sakura straightened and sighed, looking at them thoughtfully. "I don't know... that sounds like an awfully big responsibility..."
Naruto groaned at her exaggeratedly slow words. "Oh, come on!"
"Well! If you're going to be that way about it, I'm sure I don't want such troublesome genin!"
"Two minutes."
"No! I'm sorry, I'll be good 'ttebayo!" Naruto pleaded, an edge of hysteria to his voice. "Come on, guys, help me out here!"
Sasuke looked like he'd swallowed something terribly unpleasant before schooling his features. "Sakura, we need you. Would you please be our Jounin-sensei?"
Even Gaara broke eye contact with the clock to fix her with a serious look. "We would be extremely grateful for your assistance in this."
Sakura actually blinked in surprise. That was... unexpected; they must have been really desperate. Huh, she wondered what she could get out of them for this. "Oh, alright-"
"YES! YOU'RE THE BEST, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH RIGHT NOW!" Naruto shouted, wrapping her in a tight hug.
"BUT-!" Sakura was quick to interrupt, "You have to address me accordingly."
"Yosh, Sakura-sensei!" Naruto obeyed immediately.
Gaara inclined his head, "Sakura-sensei."
They both looked at Sasuke who reluctantly muttered a quiet, "Sakura-sensei."
Sakura smiled cheerfully. "And of course you realize that, as your superior officer, you will have to obey all my orders, correct?"
"So long as it does not conflict with my duties as Kazekage, yes," Gaara replied, the first to answer this time.
"Oh, I didn't mean you, Gaara, I meant these miscreants. Thank you, though," Sakura quickly assured him. She was just teasing her ex-teammates, she didn't actually presume to boss the Kazekage around.
Naruto and Sasuke exchanged uncertain glances, and the redhead resumed staring at the clock.
"Thirty seconds."
That spurred Naruto to action. "Yes, of course, I'll do whatever you say! Just sign already, dattebayo!" At her raised eyebrow, he hastily added, "Please, Sakura-sensei?"
"What about you, Sasuke-kun?" she asked, ignoring the paper the blonde was holding out to her and turning to the brunette with deceptively sweet smile.
Sasuke glared at her. He disliked being patronized.
"Fifteen seconds."
Of course, he disliked being a genin even more.
"Fine. Sakura-sensei," he bit out, only a slight pause before he remembered to add the last part.
"Yay! My first genin team! Make me proud, boys," she chirped, signing the paper with relish.
Before the ink had even had time to dry, Naruto snatched the paper and flashed across the room to slam it on the registration desk "Are we on time?!" he demanded anxiously.
The chunin kunoichi eyed the new hand-shaped dent in the desk disapprovingly before carefully lifting the paper and making a big show of examining it carefully. She then placed it neatly on the stack with the others and glanced up at the blonde. "Yes. You may proceed."
"YES!" Naruto cheered, pumping his fist and heading through the double doors. "First exam, here we come!"
Their new jounin sensei watched them go before turning around and humming happily to herself. "Let's see... what can I make Sasuke and Naruto do, hm?"
And that is how Haruno Sakura became jounin sensei to an S-rank genin team.
A/N - Phew, chapter two done. Sorry to say, but you probably won't get another chapter to this for a while. :S M:TABD takes precedence and I really don't have time to do both at once. Maybe I'll try to take a weekend off of M:TABD every once in a while and write this? I don't know. Depends on the response to it I guess? XD
Oh! So, I have a small dilemma. I need about thirty genin OC's, and really don't want to make them all by myself. -_- SO! Who wants to make some genin OC's for me? Eh? Eh? I pretty much need a name, village, combat styles, and maybe some background if you're feeling up to it. Bloodline limits are okay, within reason, different strength levels would be nice... I reserve the right to change anything about them to make them fit better in the story... also they may be knocked out of the exam at any point in time. XD
Anyway, if you feel like sharing a genin OC with me, I'd be much obliged. :3
Story Rec -
I can teach you if you want by Got a jar of dirt - "A few simple sentences can change a persons life; for better or for worse. Kakashi utters one of these simple sentences to a five year old Naruto in a chance meeting. How will this effect both their lives and the shinobi world as a whole? Brotherly!Kakashi, Believably Strong / Smart Naruto." Adorable. I love Kakashi in this one. XD
-Py