Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any anime/manga as such. Enjoy the story.
Chapter 15 – Chunin exam
The next morning's training was canceled with Gai's team out on a mission. Naruto and Hinata trained lightly without them as Hinata was still a little sore from her injuries from the last mission. They then headed to the meet up with the team. Kurenai came late but she told them that she was submitting them for the Chunin exams. They just needed to fill out the forms and return them in a couple days at the academy in room 301. After talking to the team specifically Hinata if she wanted to do the Chunin exam and if so was it because she was ready or because she wanted to do it for the team. She took her time and said "I want to do it to prove that I have changed. I of course want to help the team but I want to show everyone that I have changed and am stronger now."
The next morning Naruto and Hinata met Gai and Lee in the training grounds and asked them if they were entering the Chunin exams. Rock Lee gave his usual thumbs up. "Affirmative, of course Tenten, Neji and I are going to enter. But please do not let the others know about my strength or anything you have learned here with Gai Sensei and I." Naruto and Hinata both agreed to Lee's request.
As Hinata and Naruto are walking around they are followed by a square shaped rock that has eye holes in it. As they try to ditch the rock, it continues to follow. They finally stopped and looked at the unusual rock. "Ok Konohamaru, you can come out now. We know you are in there." Hinata giggles at Naruto having his hands on his hips talking to a fake rock.
"How did you know it was me boss?" The fake rock covering is thrown away as they reveal themselves. "I am Konohamaru, she is Moegi, and he is Udon. Together we make the Konohamaru corps."
This causes both Hinata and Naruto start laughing. "Well I am glad you are doing well Konohamaru, I missed you while we were out." Naruto happily said.
"Yes I missed my eternal rival." Looking over Hinata, which caused her to blush a little "so is she your girlfriend?"
This caused Hinata to turn beat red and start to sway. Naruto quickly caught hold of her and steadied her. "She is my teammate. We were heading to the Chunin exams. Konoha…"
Konohamaru was suddenly hit in the back of the head by an angry pink haired Sakura. "I am not his girlfriend."
Nursing a large bump on his head "you are scary…" Konohamaru quickly shouts back.
She walks towards him and he starts to bolt. Hinata starts to recover from nearly fainting at being called Naruto's girlfriend. Konohamaru starts to run and hits something.
"Hey punk, watch where you're going." A hand grabs him by the scruff of the neck and pulls him into the air.
"Let him go!" Naruto exclaims.
"Or what?" The sand shinobi asks. "Will you call your mommy?"
"Let him go, we do not want to cause trouble, Kankurou." A blond female sand shinobi speaks up.
A rock suddenly hit Kankurou in the hand and he releases Konohamaru. "Listen to the lady, you are guest and should act like such." Sasuke says from a nearby tree.
'Wow the locals are not half bad.' Temari, the female sand ninja thinks.
"Kankurou, leave them alone." Everyone looks for the source of the voice. A red headed sand shinobi was standing on the bottom of a branch by Sasuke, with the kanji for love on his forehead.
Looking more frightened than anything, Kankurou puts his hands up defensively. "I was only playing around Gara."
Gara jumps down to the ground and joins the other sand shinobi. Looking back at Sasuke "what is your name? I am Gara of the sand."
"I am Sasuke Uchiha." Sasuke smirks.
Naruto just looks annoyed at the whole altercation. Hinata is holding Naruto's arm looking rather worried as the sand shinobi walk away. Sasuke quickly left with Sakura following closely behind. Konohamaru left quickly after thanking Naruto for helping him. Naruto and Hinata continued towards the academy as Hinata did not let go of Naruto's arm. They eventually met Shino as they neared the academy.
Team 8 was able to meet with Shinbo and Yugito at the academy between their classes. They were apparently teased about being the related of the number 1 prankster Naruto Uzumaki. When team 8 entered the second floor, Hinata and Shino said there was something wrong, more than likely a genjutsu. The really silly thing was Rock Lee was getting pushed around by a couple of older Genin. They kept on saying that they would not let them into a room labeled 301. But this confused Naruto as they were on the second floor and all rooms were number by floor then number. So they decided to watch Lee play with the Genin. Sasuke pushed past Naruto rather roughly. Kiba had a, sorry but he is a jerk, look on his face.
"Come on release the genjutsu." Sasuke exclaimed. Most of the people looked at him questioningly. "I mean I am sure Sakura saw it a mile away. As you are the smartest one on our team." This elicited a sour look from Kiba.
"That's right. I saw it coming a mile away and anyways we are on the second floor so the number on the room was changed to intentionally fool us." Sakura said with a haughty attitude.
This caused one of the blocking genin to attack Sasuke and him to retaliate, but Rock Lee was there quickly and was able to block both attacks easily. "You fool we were supposed to hide our strength until later in the exams." Neji scolded Lee.
"I am sorry but we should not be fighting." Lee exclaimed. He then looked directly at Sakura his eyes turned to hearts. He then ran up to Sakura. "Will you be my girlfriend? I will protect you will my life."
"No way, not with a haircut like that and definitely not with those eyebrows." Sakura answered.
Lee just walked off with his shoulders slumped. The genjutsu then ended revealing that the door to 301 was actually 201. Naruto and Lee head back to the foyer. They notice team 7 leaving the building. Lee gets ready to jump down and challenge Sasuke, but Naruto grabs his arm and shakes his head no. Sakura looks back as this happens. "What Naruto afraid that he will be hurt by my Sasuke? He would not have a problem for him to defeat you Lee. You are just too weak." Sakura ranted.
"You are beautiful but ill informed Sakura. Do you think so little of me that you would be little me? I am offended. I was going to challenge Sasuke but I will not as he appears to think that he is the best, I am not yet ready to burst his bubble. I will let him find out the hard way. Just because you have a gift does not make you a genius. If you do nothing with your gift you just waste it. I also know the weakness of the sharingan. I will leave you as I need to get back with my team and we need to take this test." Lee comments.
Naruto nods and they start to walk back as they round the corner. "Good job Lee, I know you like Sakura but you need to understand that she may not be the girl for you. She has a very violent streak and will not take kindly to anyone talking bad about Sasuke even if what they are saying is true. I know as I have tried to be nice to her and only gotten grief. Let Hinata and I find someone who will treat you right. Does that sound good to you?" Naruto asked.
Sakura had hurried up the stairs to bash Lee for his comments to Sasuke. She heard what Naruto had to say and was at first mad then she was hurt that what he was saying was true. 'Is that true? Have I only caused him grief? I know I have been a little rough with him.' She had on several occasions hit Naruto for no reason, at the time she thought that he was saying things about her but he was not. She started to think 'am I that bad that I would hurt people for no reason other than to protect Sasuke or just to hurt Naruto?'
She was woken from her thoughts as she heard Lee comment. "I understand Naruto but I cannot help how I feel towards Sakura. She will have to reject me when I am able to show her my power of youth. If then she rejects me I will of course look for another to show my affection towards. Until then I promise to protect her with my life."
Naruto chuckled "as you wish my friend. Now let us go and finish this exam and become chunin."
Sakura was left stunned as she had heard Lee promise to protect her but she had no feelings for the boy. And Naruto who for all the years in the academy had lavished attention upon her no longer thought she was worth giving attention too. She knew that he was starting to like Hinata but was not sure that he did not still like her. Well what did she care she had Sasuke all to herself and also she had dog boy to help back them up. Naruto and Lee walked up towards the third floor as Sasuke and Kiba approached her. "So are we ready to take the test?" Both nodded as they followed about five minutes behind Naruto and Lee.
Team 7 and Team Gai eyed each other as they proceeded to the next floor. Neji especially looking angrily at Hinata, Naruto noticed this and put himself between them. Lee then put himself next to Naruto and smiled, which Naruto returned. They were greeted at the door by Gai and Kurenai. "Welcome children in the youth of life. I am glad to see you team and you too Naruto and Hinata." This raised an angry and annoyed look from Neji.
"I am glad to see you all came." Kurenai exclaimed, causing Naruto to look at her questioningly. "If you had not come as a team I could not let you into the exam. This exam is done as a squad not as individuals. And thus I am glad you are all here. Good luck to all of you."
They opened the door and walked into the waiting room not knowing what to expect.
A/N: Here we go with the exam starting. I hope you enjoy this chapter.