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Naruto swore violently as he fell into the water for the umpteenth time. Though his clothes were beyond drenched, he wasn't even beginning to think of giving up the challenging exercise for the night. Not as long as Sasuke stood on the water almost flawlessly even as Kakashi created small ripples every few minutes that shook the two of them; the blond couldn't stand the thought of being bested by the Uchiha once more.

It wasn't really anything to do with who was stronger or better. It was his own pride at stake; over the time that they'd spent on top of the water he'd had an epiphany of sorts. Sasuke had beaten him every time they'd done something as a team, be it touching the bells at their first "team meeting," or more recently not being the cause that resulted in Team Seven being kicked out of the Chunin exams. Though he was convinced he hadn't cheated, he had still been caught and that meant that seemingly he'd done something wrong somewhere. Neither Sasuke or Sakura had managed to make the same mistakes as he had.

Then there was the smaller things—on D-ranked missions Sasuke never failed to be the best teammate save for when Naruto needed to use his Shadow Clones to do a big job in a small amount of time, or how he'd managed to scale trees with his chakra before Naruto. The young Uzumaki had come to a crushing realisation that every Hokage had been the strongest ninja in the village—the village's undisputed champions during their era. He didn't know all that much about the Shodaime or the Nidaime, but the Yondaime had often been described as the closest thing to a Sage of Six Paths in the last forty years. If that didn't speak volumes, the Sandaime, all jokes about his age aside, was still respected as an incredibly strong leader and ninja even today. Naruto was no fool, he knew that though the old man didn't look it, but sixty years ago he would've been much more mobile and so strong that he could've probably put anyone to shame.

Then there was him... Naruto Uzumaki. Where did he stack up against all that? He hadn't been a ridiculous prodigy the second he'd been born out of his long-gone mother's womb, he'd almost failed the academy and had just gotten kicked out of the first stage of the Chunin exams. What kind of a Hokage was so weak, so disrespected, that he could be kicked out of an esteemed exam for "cheating" when he hadn't been cheating? The only real special thing about him, he'd come to realise, was that he had an ancient demon stuck in his gut.

Sasuke on the other hand... he was almost the polar opposite of Naruto. He wasn't just held in high esteem by people, some immediately gave him their respect—and not because of his last name. It was the way he carried himself, the last Uchiha didn't go boldly proclaiming that he would keep on trying until he would drop. He would keep at it, giving it a hundred percent effort and gritting his teeth slightly when he didn't get the results he desired. And in the end he got them while Naruto was left to taste the bland lukewarm water of the hot spring.

"Hold on," Kakashi said suddenly, causing Naruto to almost fall into the deep pool again. "Neither of you have quite gotten the concept of water-walking down yet except for Sakura."

That was another thing, everyone seemed to get the whole chakra control thing but him. Sakura didn't just flourish in the field, she blossomed... it hadn't taken her more than ten minutes to cross the entire river. She wasn't even training at the moment, having apparently done enough water-walking to Kakashi's liking for the night, and was off getting them food.

"This is probably going to result in the both of you being submerged a couple hundred times more, but I want you to spar with each other. You both seem to learn best on the go," explained the masked man as he glanced from one Genin to the other. "Now as far as the ground rules go, if you're under the water for more than ten seconds you lose and you may not use any lethal attacks during the spar. Ninjutsu is allowed since it's your chakra we're trying to control. but try and not go all out with it, and you can also not hold the other person down under the water; you're only allowed to knock them down into it."

"So basically, we try and fight while keeping afloat the water?" Sasuke asked for clarification, Kakashi nodding in response. "Well this should be interesting."

"Now, any other questions?" asked Kakashi, a more serious tone than the unenthusiastic one they were used to coating his voice. "Good. Three, two, one, go!"

Naruto immediately threw his hands into a half-hearted block as Sasuke sprung forward with a wild fist, managing to prevent it from connecting with his stomach before attempting to shove the dark-haired boy away. However, a quick strike to Naruto's gut prevented the aspiring Hokage from succeeding in his endeavour, almost causing him to double over and grab his stomach in pain.

Shrugging the blow off, Naruto jabbed Sasuke's chest lightly with his right hand before snapping a knee up in an effort to strike him in the solar plexus. The strike was swiftly blocked before Sasuke and Naruto both jumped backwards to catch their breath. It would be at that moment that Kakashi decided to up the ante on their little game by sending a ripple through the water. Unlike the prior times though where the swell had only surged a few inches, this individual ripple could be classified as a wave.

Being closer to where Kakashi was standing, Sasuke reacted to the surge of water first, leaping over the wave and landing on the other side. As his chakra control wasn't spot on, his left leg dropped below the surface to his knee before he managed to correct himself.

As that occurred, Naruto saw what was going on and reacted in a similar manner as the wave came towards him. In a single bound he leapt over the wave; unlike Sasuke, however, he channeled nowhere near the right amount of chakra and instead of simply landing on top and losing his balance, Naruto found himself completely submerged underneath the water, left to quickly swim back towards the surface.

As his head broke through the water, his lungs were filled with sweet oxygen as he quickly worked out his bearings. Channeling chakra into his palms, he managed to push himself using the water as leverage, working out that from this angle if he were to charge chakra into his foot he could effectively take steps towards the surface.

This time, however, he pumped in too much chakra.

From his position, Sasuke watched as Naruto bounced and skipped across the water before coming to rest on the riverbed where Kakashi was. The black-haired Genin knew that it would only be a matter of seconds before Naruto was on top of the water and once more sparing against him; hardly anything ever seemed to get the blonde down. This was something that Sasuke somehow admired and he couldn't help but wonder how Naruto managed to keep such a good vibe about him despite being mistreated against.

His train of thought, however, came crashing to a halt as he had to defend and protect his face from being struck by Naruto's fist. While unpredictable, Naruto's attacks were slow and packed a lot of power behind them. Sasuke couldn't help but wonder if like how Naruto had been sabotaged in the Chunin exams whether or not he had been sabotaged during the academy as well. He couldn't see why not, but like with the exam he had no proof to back his theory, other than the fact that Naruto didn't even seem to know the basic academy style of taijutsu.

Even though Kakashi had said that after Sakura had come back with food they would call it quits for the day, he would check whether or not Naruto wanted to go through some basic katas with him. While they would be simple ones, he knew that he hadn't quite mastered them either and going over the basics would help the grander techniques of his fighting style. He recalled the fight he had had with Rock Lee before the start of the first part of the Chunin exam and the defeat he had suffered. From that defeat he knew that he had to work on things such as speed, strength and endurance, which would all come in time provided he put the effort into it.

Landing a light blow to Naruto's shoulder, Sasuke had to lower his guard as Naruto's knee came up to strike at his stomach, and whilst he was able to block that blow, he took several quick jabs to the chest as a response. A small smile crossed his lips that went unseen before his passive face washed over his expression once more. Perhaps both of them could learn from one another later this afternoon.

As he delivered an uppercut to the blonde, Sasuke quickly recalled that they did have a third member of their team in the pink-haired genin. Between the three of them, she was the one who was physically the weakest and he was well aware that a chain was only as strong as it's weakest link. If the next Chunin exam they took required an all-rounded team effort, then he could not afford himself to be pulled back due to his teammate not being able to keep up. Even though she would see it as something else entirely, he would ask her to train with Naruto and himself after eating. While it wasn't the most direct path to getting revenge on his brother, this was the path he would need to take in order to proceed... it wasn't just about throwing his life away to avenge his family, it was about living it in such a way that they would also be proud of him.

Sasuke's foot dropped below the surface before he steadied himself, his chakra reserves starting to wear thin. Quickly readjusting himself, he knew that he had to finish this spar quickly otherwise he would soon collapse from chakra exhaustion and he was well aware he had nowhere near enough stamina to go on with Naruto; admittedly his teammate was like a chakra battery that never ran out of energy. Sasuke's eyes focused as he saw Naruto charging towards him and as the blonde got in range he shot his fist straight out towards Naruto's nose, yet the blow never struck home.

Showing that he was getting the grasp of the situation, Naruto had cut off all chakra to his feet for a split moment, gravity pushing Naruto down so that he dropped just below Sasuke's strike. With the Sharingan-wielding genin in range, Naruto pumped chakra back into his feet and pushed forward attempting to spear tackle his teammate. Once again, however, he put too much chakra into the soles of his feet and instead of hitting Sasuke with a normal tackle, the black-haired boy was struck with all of Naruto's weight crashing into his chest at an unregistered pace. Blood and bile escaped Sasuke's lips as the two of them came crashing down into the water, neither of them staying above the river as liquid flooded their mouths.

Both of the genin burst through surface of the water at the same time, one much more damaged than the other. Their eyes were shielded from the afternoon sunlight by Kakashi who was standing above them. "I think we're done with training for today," he said from behind his mask. Before Naruto could complain and say that he could keep going, Kakashi continued, "If you two keep at it then the food Sakura brought for you will have gone cold."

As if emphasising his point, Kakashi pointed to the riverbank where Sakura was waving at them with her spare hand, her other hand holding a plastic bag full of take-away food she had purchased for them to share. Deciding to save their chakra, both Sasuke and Naruto started kicking forward and swimming towards the shoreline where the campfire and hot food awaited them.

Sakura eyed the dripping wet forms of Naruto and Sasuke as they approached her, Kakashi lagging slightly behind them. They quickly closed the gaps between them, the promise of food seemingly much greater than their levels of exhaustion. Sakura's hold on the plastic bags failed to maintain their grip for long as both Sasuke and Naruto took a bag each and started plowing through the contents; thankfully for the pink-haired girl she had already put her portion to the side.

"Slow down you two, there's no rush," said Kakashi as he joined his students.

"We've gotta get our strength up so we can train some more," said Naruto in between mouthfuls. "Next exams we're going to show them that Team Seven is the best!"

"As I said, there's no rush," said Kakashi. "Skill simply doesn't appear in a matter of days. You start with the fundamentals and it can take weeks and even months to get specific techniques down pat."

"Hey Kakashi-sensei, could you teach us the jutsu you used to make the waves in the river?" asked Naruto thinking of the possibilities.

"I could teach you the seals, but if your elemental affinity wasn't water based like my own, then you'll find the technique much harder to master then somebody with the right affinity."

Sasuke paused from his eating momentarily as he absorbed this information. He knew that with his Sharingan he could practically copy any and every technique used against him. That being said, if he didn't have the chakra capacity to use the techniques to their fullest potential, then they effectively became useless. Likewise, if he didn't have the elemental affinity for certain techniques then he'd have to look at alternates, which wouldn't drain him of so much chakra. Speaking of which. "Kakashi-sensei, how would one go about learning what elemental affinity they have?" asked Sasuke.

Kakashi eyed Sasuke at this point before his gaze passed over the rest of his team. Theoretically, fresh genin weren't meant to use elemental jutsu at this point other than simple "D" ranked techniques that anybody could use—despite the fact that none of the three seemed to know any at this point. However, considering that they were his students and thus his responsibility, he figured he was free to do as he wished. "Well, considering the three of you have just about mastered the water-walking exercise, I guess I can show you what elements you have tomorrow."

"Sweet... what's elemental affinity mean?" asked Naruto, the blonde having slept through the class which covered that in the academy.

Before Kakashi could respond, Sakura spoke up. "Kakashi-sensei, could I speak to you in private for a moment?" she asked.

"Sure," said the team leader. "Sasuke, could you explain elemental affinity to Naruto for me while I talk to Sakura?" Sasuke nodded in acceptance as Kakashi and Sakura walked away from the two other members of the team, finally coming to a stop out of hearing range. "What is it Sakura?"

"I figured out what I want to focus on," she said boldly, looking Kakashi in the eye.

"Did you see something in town which helped you decide?" asked Kakashi, wondering how this had quickly come about. Sakura's eyes focused as she told Kakashi what had happened in town.

Sakura sighed as she walked along the dusty roads of Konoha, unsure of exactly where she was going. Though she had gotten the take-away she wasn't headed back to the training grounds right away, that much was certain. Her chakra had been depleted for the most bit and she was sure that the only thing that would help it recover would be a good night's sleep, so her plan was to waste as much time as she could without arousing suspicion. She had no doubt that if there was enough time, Kakashi wouldn't hesitate to make herself train until she couldn't stand... it was an odd change from the Kakashi that she had known before, and during the last few days she had often found herself questioning if it was a welcome one.

"I can't tell you what to specialize in, this is something you'll need to do yourself." Kakashi's words reverberated through Sakura's mind. It wasn't often that it got locked in a state of deep thought like it had. What was she meant to do? Where was she meant to go in life? She had a plethora of questions, and according to Kakashi, she was the only one who could answer them.

She sighed as she watched a couple of young girls run around carelessly; they were her age if not a little younger, but it didn't take much to realise that they weren't ninja. Of course they weren't. The way in which they composed themselves made it obvious: they looked happy and worry-free... instead of having to put on the little muscle that Sakura had needed to, they looked slim and pretty.

The majority of the group had blonde hair, but Sakura's eye was drawn towards the one brunette in the group. Though her hair colour was the only distinguishable difference from the rest of them, she looked like the odd one out. Kind of like how Sakura was amongst others with her large forehead... the only thing was that the brown-haired girl didn't look out of place. She seemed as though she was having the time of her life despite the minor difference in hair colour from the rest of her friends, but then again brown was a much more common colour than pink. It wasn't a pleasant feeling knowing that you'd never stick in with the rest of the crowd no matter how hard you tried for something physical.

Since she had been a child, Sakura hadn't really ever had any real friends because anyone she attempted to get close with laughed at her weird hair and her enormous forehead. Eventually they stopped with all that once they had matured a little bit, but Sakura found herself unable to make friends with people who had pointed at her and laughed in such a way. She supposed she was kind of unique with her odd hair colour, her large forehead and now even her hair itself was screwed up thanks to Naruto. Making a small mental note to get it cut properly so it didn't look anywhere near as disfigured as it currently did, she sighed slightly. It seemed as though she wasn't destined to live the life of a normal girl; instead of having slumber parties and chasing boys, it was looking as though she'd be infiltrating dangerous bases and locking horns with enemy shinobi who wanted nothing more than to leave her as a corpse on the battlefield.

Passing by the Yamanaka flower shop, she paused to sniff at some lilac-coloured flowers that were on display. Sakura wasn't sure what the next part of the Chunin exam was and as such was unsure when she would likely see her blonde friend again. Smelling the flowers was one way to remember that even with the hectic life of a ninja, she needed to spend some time to herself and enjoy the times when she wasn't on missions.

"Hey Sakura," said Inoichi as he stepped outside the store door wearing a dirt covered apron. "I thought you would have been Ibiki coming to pick up his order."

"These flowers are for Ibiki?" questioned Sakura, wondering what the proctor of the first exam would want with such delicate-looking flowers.

"Partially for the flowers, but mostly for the roots," said Inoichi. "If you crush up the roots and mix them with hot water you get a mild poison that can cause a slight fever. From what I heard he's interrogating some guy, but doesn't want to go overboard so he's just using serums that aren't lethal. Yet knowing him he just plans on making the poison in front of the guy and saying that it's highly toxic and that if the antidote isn't given within a certain amount of time, then there is no guarantee that their life will be safe."

"That's...interesting," mused Sakura as she eyed the flowers. "Is it just these flowers or are there other species in your shop that are more than just pretty plants?"

"Come in," gestured Inoichi as he stepped out of the doorway. "I'll teach you just why my shop is the most successful flower shop for the ninja community."

"...and that's pretty much it," concluded Sakura.

"I have to say, this wasn't the path I was expecting you to take, but it just goes to show that Naruto isn't the only one who can be unpredictable," said Kakashi smiling behind his mask. "Learning how to utilise poison will take you on a different path to your companions, but if this is how you believe you can be the most effective then I have nothing against it."

"Thank you Kakashi-sensei," said Sakura beaming slightly.

"I'll bring you a couple of books tomorrow that can help you get an idea on how to construct a successful poison," said Kakashi. "Research, proper measurements and correct ingredients will be necessary and I will help you as much as I can. Now go have your food with the other two before they devour your portion as well."

"Again, thank you," said Sakura with a light bow, turning and running towards the food as her stomach gave a small complaint from the lack of intake it had had.

Kakashi remained where he was as he observed his team and summarised what the most likely scenario would be. His three man squad consisted of a blonde that would be right in the thick of things; alongside him would be the best of his class who could also support with ranged jutsu; and then there was the female of the squad who would weaken the enemy with poison-laced weapons. A smirk went unnoticed across his face; Kurenai could have her tracking team and Asuma could have his capture-based squad, he was quite content to have the assault squad.

It didn't take long for Team Seven to finish their meal and even though Kakashi told them that they were done for the day, rather than running off back to the village, none of them moved from where they were. Curious, Kakashi asked what they were planning and they broke it down for him. Sakura was going to push herself water-walking again with one of Naruto's shadow clones for support while Sasuke felt that the "dobe" would only slow the team down if he didn't know any basic taijutsu katas to base his offence around. Kakashi couldn't really help but beam at his students; it seemed that the fun and games from the academy were finally over and things would be getting a little more serious now.

When Kurenai appeared in front of her team, she had been filled with praise for Team Eight having made it past the Forest of Death by the eve of the first night of the five day competition. While the team from Suna had already made it through, she had no problem with her team actually having made it through safely.

Yet "safely" was the optimal word.

Shino and Kiba were barely standing, much of their skin covered in cuts and bruises. Even Akamaru hadn't gotten through unscathed, the small dog licking at it's wounded paw. While many, the wounds that those three had gotten would heal in time and undoubted they would be ready for the next part of the exams.

Hinata, however...

Before Kurenai could even ask what had happened to the unconscious girl that was being supported by both of her teammates, a venomous aura seemed to envelop her as she started to stir. From her position, Kurenai could see a seal on the young girl's neck start to react, pulsate even as strange tattoo like markings began to spread forth like wildfire.

"Hinata, are you okay?" asked Kiba nervously as the Hyuga supported herself with her own two feet. Internally, Shino could feel his remaining insects react violently, each of them fearing the aura that Hinata was leaking. This in turn made the member of the Aburame clan nervous. Unlike Kiba, he had been holding onto the faintest glimmer of consciousness in the battle against Orochimaru and had watched as the member of the Sannin had bitten his teammate. Clearly now he understood that that bite was only the beginning of something much worse.

"Hinata," said Kurenai cautiously when the girl didn't respond to Kiba's question. Never before had she seen something like this occur and had no real idea how to act to such a thing.

"K-Kurenai-sensei... I feel... strange."

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