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…

"Impressive, Hanabi," said Hiashi with the slightest hint of a smirk on his face, as he watched her demonstrate her use of the Gentle Fist on a training dummy. It was a particularly special one that had fake tenketsu under a thick layer of fake skin, so it required a decent amount of skill with the Byakugan to strike it correctly. What was more impressive, however, was that she'd managed to do it all one-handed despite her broken arm.

"Thank you, Father," she bowed slightly, but didn't dip down too deeply because her ribs still weren't the strongest. "Do you think that might be up to the standards of Neji nii-san?"

"Maybe not quite yet, but you are certainly getting there," Hiashi chuckled as he ruffled the girl's hair in a fatherly manner. Though he had never been one for such gestures, Orochimaru's little stunt had made him nothing if not more protective of both his children.

"I hope he does well during the exams," she said as her voice lowered slightly. "I think he deserves it."

"That he does," Hiashi found himself agreeing with his youngest. The boy had not walked a fun path, and Hiashi had taken no great pleasure in knowing that the caged bird seal had been placed upon the boy the same day his father had sacrificed himself for his older brother… but it was necessary. "I also hope that Hinata places well."

"Nee-san's really going to shock everyone," declared Hanabi with a chuckle. While it would have been a strange sight for anyone to see the two Hyuga act so casual, it wasn't all that uncommon for Hanabi to loosen up in the presence of her father. "I mean look how easily she beat me; she's never done that before."

While Hiashi knew that despite Hanabi's great strength considering her age, his eldest could have easily beaten her at any time, he didn't exactly feel it right to crush her spirit by informing her that Hinata had pulled her punches every time the two sisters sparred. "She has progressed a great deal, but only time will tell. As it is, the exams start tomorrow so we should not have to wait too long to find out."

"Who do you think would win if Neji nii-san and Hinata nee-san fought against each other?" asked Hanabi as she ran through some stretches to cool down from the small workout.

"I can't answer that," replied Hiashi even though he was pretty sure what the proper answer to that question would be. "Anyway, I think that tomorrow we should visit the hospital and get that cast of yours off - it's about time now. Your sister might like to see you without it before her first match."

…

Neji's Byakugan flared to life as he flashed through the hand seal which would activate it. Though Gai-sensei had instructed him and the rest of his team to take the last few days before the exam off to rest, the Hyuga was never one to slouch.

For some inexplicable reason, he found himself slightly worried about the exams. He wasn't sure why and it didn't make much sense at all, since there was no-one there who could give him a run for his money besides Lee and that strange red-headed kid from Suna. He was fighting that guy straight off the bat but had spent the month prior practicing for the match up. Gai-sensei and himself had gathered from a couple of loose comments made by some of the other Genin when the matches had been announced that the psychopathic Genin had some kind of strong defence. Naturally the Hyuuga had spent much of the past month perfecting what was probably a much stronger defence, the Hakkeshou Kaiten.

As strange as Gaara sounded, Neji felt pretty confident in his ability to beat the boy. No matter what defense the boy used, the Gentle Fist would be able to bypass it as it was tailor made for fighting such enemies. Gai on the other hand seemed a little worried about the match, likely because Neji hadn't revealed the full extent of his abilities to the man, but nonetheless believed that his student would be able to emerge the victor if he channeled 'the power of youth'.

With a quiet grunt, Neji went through a few basic katas that had been passed down even to members of the branch family. They were flawed, naturally - the main family kept the best katas to themselves - but that didn't matter too much unless you were up against someone who was both fast and skilled enough to properly exploit those weaknesses. Making a mental note that Lee was, in fact, fast and skilled enough to exploit any weaknesses, Neji resolved to use only his most practiced and refined Taijutsu techniques he had available against his teammate. With that thought in mind, the Hyuga suddenly burst forward and unleashed a devastating combo of strikes on his mental opponent, hands blurring as they struck out at dozens of precise targets with great speed in just a handful of seconds, only coming to a sudden stop as the combo ended.

As he continued the light workout, he let his mind wander slightly towards the other types of opponents that he could end up facing. There was the Aburame, and while his insects could prove to be troublesome, he seemed too inexperienced to be considered a threat. Then there were the other two ninja from the Sand, the girl with the oversized fan and the boy garbed completely in black. The girl's fan and village of origin indicated that she was adept in Wind Jutsu, meaning that she was probably a long-ranged expert, but he could easily negate the problems that would arise from that with the use of the Kaiten and by rapidly closing the gap before she had a chance to start throwing ranged techniques around. He didn't know too much about the boy in black, but his red-headed teammate looked like the bigger threat. Then there were the sound nin, but Neji knew that he wasn't thought of as one of the greatest prodigies since Itachi of the Uchiha for nothing. He would show them just why he was deserving of such a title.

That about summed up most of the competition he was facing. The only real threat from a Konoha nin came in the form of his spandex-wearing teammate, which was a match that Neji was admittedly looking forward to. There wasn't another Konoha ninja that he'd have a tough time against… except perhaps for his cousin.

Neji would have thought the notion of him getting close to his cousin foolish a month ago, but things had changed. He'd grown to form a mutual respect for her, whether the seal upon her neck was the catalyst for such a change he was unsure, but he now knew that he held her dear.

There was no doubt in his mind that he'd be able to crush Hinata like a mere bug if he tried, and while he might have once almost fantasised about the thought, he knew he wouldn't be able to bring himself to do such a thing. More pressing, however, was the question of whether or not he could bring himself to defeat her if he found himself pitted against the girl.

She hadn't been in the best state of mind for the past month, and Neji knew that he had only seen the brunt of it. Was he prepared to beat her and crush her spirit which had only just begun to improve?

Suddenly, he found himself looking at the object of his thoughts as she appeared behind him, the three hundred and sixty degree vision of the Byakugan proving to be valuable yet again.

"N-Neji nii-san?" she said gently as she prodded her fingers together. "I just came to wish you good luck in the exams."

"Thank you, Hinata-sama," he said with a formal bow as he spun around. "I wish you good luck as well."

"And I also w-wanted to say something else," she stammered, nodding her head slightly in appreciation as her face took on a more serious look. "D-Don't you dare go easy on me!"

Neji blinked a couple of times as he replayed Hinata's words through his mind. Did she truly believe that he would have gone easy on her in front of the whole village? Thinking about it however, he really couldn't be sure what he would do in a fight against her, especially if the seal she bore began to act up. "You have my word," he finally said.

This was one promise however he wasn't sure he could keep.

…

"Say, Naruto, what has Jiraiya-sama been teaching you?" asked Sakura. Though she definitely had her own suspicions, some kind of concrete answer sure wouldn't hurt. "You two have had a couple lessons together now, and you guys took down that creepy red-haired ninja from Suna pretty easily the other week."

"I guess you could say that," said Naruto as he sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "We've just been doing the usual, summoning toads and all that."

"You make it sound like summoning things all day is normal for a Genin. I doubt Sasuke or I would last an hour at something like that. It sure is a shame that your reserves are so much bigger than ours," Sakura struggled to keep a straight face as she tried to pass off her next statement as idle thought. "I wonder if there's a reason for that…"

Kakashi's eye peered over his reading material as he listened in on the conversation. Somehow he felt like he should keep an eye on this conversation in case it ventured into dangerous territory.

"Yeah, come to think of it the Dobe's pretty slow when it comes to everything else," said Sasuke, clearly understanding what Sakura was up to. "It's strange that he has so much chakra compared to anyone else his age."

"I guess my parents… ate their vegetables or something?" Naruto suggested lamely, struggling to come up with a proper excuse. He focused on the path ahead of them as his teammates shared a knowing look. There were no trees for them to hop along but Kakashi-sensei had said that they were likely going to reach the edges of the desert soon. Hopefully a change in scenery would distract his teammates and make them forget about this line of questioning.

"Somehow I doubt that with the amount of ramen you eat," said Sakura playfully. "So did you guys do anything else? Looked like you had summoning down pat when you showed it to us."

"Nah, Ero-Sennin just went on about some kind of chakra muscle, I didn't really understand much of it," Naruto shook his head slightly. "He was about to try and teach me to use some kind of a chakra claw before Gaara showed up… nothing else really happened after that."

"A chakra claw?" Sasuke's eyebrows peaked, "Sounds like a bit of a waste, chakra's pretty weak once it leaves your body."

"With the abundance of chakra Naruto has at his disposal, it's possible that Jiraiya-sama was looking at unusual ways to take advantage of it," said Kakashi as he decided to butt in, knowing that Jiraiya had likely been talking about a different type of chakra than Sasuke.

"Well he didn't even let me try it, so I wouldn't know," said Naruto as he threw his hands behind his head. "So how's the Sharingan training coming along, Teme?"

Sasuke glared slightly at the name but if it affected him in any other way, he didn't let it show. "It's been coming along pretty nicely, almost hard to go back to normal vision now." After spending so many continuous hours with enhanced vision, the young Uchiha felt vulnerable now since Kakashi had ordered him to leave it off unless necessary in order to conserve chakra on the road.

"Just don't go copying any more of my Jutsu and we'll be fine," Naruto playfully stuck a tongue out at his rival.

…

Hinata gulped down a glass of water in an unsuccessful attempt to calm her nerves. While she had felt rather confident the previous night when she had approached Neji, an almost sleepless night of mulling over the day ahead of her had done much to tear down said confidence.

She had yet to run into her father and while she knew that he would be watching her from the stands during the exams, she thought that a word or two from him would help reassure her. However at the same time she knew that there hadn't been any time, as she was due at the stadium for the third stage of the exams in the next half an hour and she had only finished her breakfast five minutes prior.

Sighing, she quickly checked all the equipment on her person for the fourth time that morning. A few kunai were held within the holster strapped to her right leg, and there was a shuriken or two as well as an exploding tag scattered across the three hidden pockets in her jacket. Though traditionally the Hyuga were taught to only fight with their clan's Gentle Fist Taijutsu style, Kurenai-sensei had long since convinced her that a kunai could be the difference between life or death.

Suddenly the front door swung open much to Hinata's surprise. She turned around to see who the unexpected visitor was and found herself a little surprised to see her younger sister standing there with a very uncharacteristic grin on her face.

"I got my cast off, Hinata nee-san," the child said with enough happiness that she would have done Naruto proud.

Hinata's gaze fell to the ground and she found herself unable to make eye-contact with her sibling. The mere thought of what she had done to the girl a few weeks ago still made her feel like sinking into the ground. She shook her head as she tried to focus on what Naruto had told her through the note he had left, 'I want you to promise me that you'll never stop being you.'

It didn't really help much but it did give her the confidence to look up at Hanabi with a light smile of her own. "That's great Hanabi!"

"Oh and also nee-san, I hope you do well during the exams today," said Hanabi, her mood clearly having skyrocketed after the cast had been removed. "Good luck."

"T-Thank you," said Hinata modestly as her cheeks flushed. She couldn't remember the last time her sister had wished her good luck. "I won't let you down."

"I'm sure you won't," the elder frame of Hiashi came through the door and placed its hand on Hanabi's shoulder as the Clan Head looked his daughter in the eye. "Just do your best and remember your training sessions with me."

Though her daily sessions with her father had initially started off as a form of punishment, they soon progressed into intense training for the exams which greatly helped her further her techniques with her father, arguably the strongest Hyuga in all the clan. Hinata merely nodded in response.

…

Standing within the tunnels leading towards the arena was a surreal feeling for all of the Genin there, none of them having competed in an event like this before. Nobody spoke as many did their best to calm their last minute nerves. Lee was pretty much the only exception to this rule.

"YOSH! If I cannot become Chunin after today's tournament I shall run two hundred laps around Konoha with a boulder upon my back," he declared boisterously, making his teammates shake their head in frustration. Perhaps one day they would be able to convince him that youthfulness also came with an inside voice.

The only other real noise that was heard was from the sole member of the Akimichi clan to be present, the big boned kid munching away at some snacks that he had brought while wearing a dopey smile upon his face. Those who paid attention couldn't figure out whether the Genin was either incredibly confident with his skills or just had nerves of steel. His closest friends however would simply say that he was hungry, nothing more, nothing less.

Temari meanwhile had her attention on her red haired brother. While the three of them had been informed of the invasion plan, Gaara had reacted differently than what she had expected. As opposed to simply doing nothing at all he had seemed… aloof? She didn't really know how to describe it but it looked like Gaara was disheartened by the news. Just what, exactly, had happened to him over those few weeks when the youngest of the three Suna siblings had been missing in action?

"Will those participating in the Chunin exams please make their way to the arena," shouted a voice over the rabble of the crowd. Ever so slowly, the twelve Genin began to make their way out of the tunnel and into the sunlight, several of them shielding their gaze as their eyes adjusted to the brightness. "As the combatants are all aware, each of them were assigned an opponent exactly one month ago."

Tenten grinned slightly as she thought of all the preparations she had made to take care of Lee. While he was like a wild beast when it came to close ranged fighting, plucking him off from a distance was as easy as taking candy from a child.

"What they are not aware of, however," continued the announcer, "Is that those opponents are not the ones they will be fighting initially. Their true opponents will all be selected momentarily at random."

All around them the crowd roared in anticipation, shouting out the match-ups that they were eager to see and the names of who they believed would come out victorious. For the Genin however, the implications of the sudden change were far more serious. It suddenly hit home all at once that, in the ninja world, you always need to be ready for the mission parameters to change in an instant. They were participating in the chuunin exams after all, and a promotion would mean the right to lead a team in the field. Now, those contestants who had only made preparations to make a strong showing when taking on the target they had originally been assigned would be be facing an uphill battle if they couldn't think quickly on their feet. Funnily enough, one of the Genin had the perfect words to sum up this scenario.

"Troublesome."

...

"Whoa, look at all this sand!" shouted Naruto as he looked upon the seemingly never-ending plain of nothingness.

"It's a desert, what did you expect, Dobe, waterfalls and rainbows?" said Sasuke, irked ever so slightly by Naruto's happy attitude.

"There, there now, you two, settle down," said Kakashi as he hoped that the two students didn't start butting heads over something so pointless. "There should be an envoy meeting us soon, and I for one would not want to make a bad impression by acting like school children."

"So reading your perverted book is any better?" asked Sakura knowing that, however they acted, Kakashi would always be the one getting the strange looks.

"I know when to put it away," said Kakashi, his eye not leaving the literature he held. "Those times are merely few and far between."

"Of all the sensei's we could have had, why did we get the perverted one?" said Sakura with a sigh. Surely there couldn't be anything as bad with the team leaders that their fellow rookies had been given. Had she had the unfortunate luck to get Gai as a sensei, however… that thought alone sent shivers down her spine.

"Have you been here before, Sensei, or are we just going to be walking around in circles?" asked Sasuke not being all too enthralled by the possibility that they'd be lost in the middle of nowhere.

"Well, I believe that gentleman over there will be willing to show us the way," said Kakashi, pointing out towards the distance. Squinting, the three Genin could see what Kakashi was looking towards, and with great gusto rushed forward, none of them wanting to make a bad impression. Kakashi meanwhile stayed back for the briefest of moments.

Something wasn't quite right here.

The clothes that they were wearing seemed to sway too much, as if the person wearing them was as thin as a pole. It almost looked as if it wasn't a person at all but a scarecrow, but why would they have a scarecrow out in the middle of the desert? It wasn't like it was protecting crops or anything of the sort.

Kakashi's visible eye squinted somewhat as he started looking around for any abnormalities that he could see.

"Ten, fifteen, twenty two, twenty eight, thirty four," he counted in a barely audible tone. He could have continued but knew there would be little point in doing so as it would only waste time. In that moment his hand dropped and he pocketed his favourite book before reaching up to his headband. Somehow he felt as if this was going to get very messy, very quickly.

The three Genin however came to a stop as they realised the same thing that had made Kakashi have second doubts. They had quickly closed the distance between them and their 'target' to find that it was just a scarecrow. For those who had not been following these three students over the course of the last month, they may have expected both Sakura and Naruto to shout obnoxious words as they vented their frustrations. To have Naruto go through several hand seals seemingly subconsciously would have caused a great deal of shock to go through the minds of anybody who knew the kid as he was during his schooling.

Beside him, Sakura looked over her shoulder as if surveying the landscape, while Sasuke's eyes shifted from their normal black to the red Sharingan. In that single moment dozens of bodies rose up from the sand, a kunai being shot forth from all of them as they tried to impale the Genin who were standing there like sitting ducks. None of them even attempted to move as the kunai soared through the air.

Confusion quickly reigned supreme, however, as all of the kunai veered off in different directions as soon as they got to a certain radius of the trio. Much to the ninjas' surprise, all of the projectiles landed harmlessly in the sand almost in a perfect circle around the original targets.

"What happened?" shouted one of them as they tried desperately to figure out what was going on.

"Fuuton: Kaze no Kyuutai," said Naruto as he allowed the technique he had used to simmer down into nothing.

"I guess using you as target practice for the last couple weeks was actually worth it, Dobe," said Sasuke giving a rare compliment.

"You can do it next time then, Teme," said Naruto playfully before turning a bit more serious. "So, what do you guys think is going on here?"

"There seems like far too many enemies here for this to be just a random ambush," said Sakura. "I count the better part of seventy ninjas here; Considering that more might be still be hiding, I would even go so far as to say a hundred."

"That's a lot," said Naruto, smiling as if looking forward to testing himself against those numbers.

"I reckon I can take out more than you, Dobe," challenged Sasuke, as he twirled a kunai with one finger through the ring in perfect synchronization with the rotation of his Sharingan.

"You're on, Teme," Naruto reflexively shot back.

"How can you two be so calm?" demanded Sakura. She had developed a similarly competitive nature lately, but it was new to her still and was easily overruled by concern at the danger of the situation.

"You can be in on the competition too if you want, Sakura," said Naruto as he smiled at the pink-haired Genin who only shook her head from side to side.

"We still can't be sure if they're friend or foe. We're in the Land of Wind now, we might have stumbled across a training exercise or something." Sakura reasoned, just before a shadow loomed over her. Noticing the look in Naruto and Sasuke's eyes, she dropped to one knee just as a kunai slashed through the space where her head had been moments earlier. In a heartbeat Naruto and Sasuke had sprung forward, both of them smashing their fists squarely into the assailant's face, harshly slamming the teenager into the ground over a dozen feet away. Standing upright once more, Sakura's eyes sharpened at the thought that had she not reacted in time, she could very well be dead.

"Foe," declared Naruto and Sasuke as one, taking defensive stances as they prepared to fend off the first incoming wave enemies while several of the higher ranking ones broke off from the pack to engage Kakashi.

The trap that Orochimaru had set for them was sprung.

Team Seven, however, weren't going down that easily.

…

Translations:

Hakkeshou Kaiten = Eight Trigrams Palm Rotation

Fuuton: Kaze no Kyuutai = Wind Release: Wind Sphere

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