I know people have been waiting for the chunin exams chapter for awhile so here it is. I also rushed this so it may not be my best work.

*extra long chapter this time

Chapter 23: Chunin exams, Part 1: Survival.

Kushina found herself in the huge Suna exams arena. Two small 12 year old boy and girl were on the bottom of the stadium with a Suna exam instructor. Naruto gave Kushina a hug and tried to run down to them but was stopped when Kushina grabbed his shirt. Kushina pulled him back into her hug and put a kiss on his cheek.

"Be careful Naruto." Kushina said putting a huge smile across his face.

"Don't worry I'll be just fine." He said pulling away from her loosened grasp. Kushina smiled and new he'd be just fine. Hinata and Tayuya appeared soon after for Naruto's team meeting. The suna instructor turned to Naruto and so did his team mates. His team mates where one boy and one girl. The girl wore a blue and pink dress and had her hair tied behind her head. Her sleaves went over her arms as to conceal her hand held weapons. Naruto could see she carried a short sword (slightly bigger then a dagger). She also carried some kunai and shuriken in her other sleeve. Her eyes were brown and her hair was pink and came down to her shoulders with a curve.

"So this is the idiot that Kakashi-sensei described." Her voice was a bit cold and harsh. She was like Sasuke, always thinking she was the best and only thought of the mission and sometimes her team mates if she thought it was worth it. 'idiot… what has Kakashi been saying behind my back?' Naruto asked feeling a little enraged at the thought of Kakashi spreading rumors about him.

"He isn't an idiot, Kakashi -sensei said Naruto-san was really powerful and because of his missions and stuff was never able to complete the chunin exams." The boy said in protest. The boy wore genin leg guards and small non shiny metal deflectors on each of his arms and legs. His shirt was black like Naruto's and had small holsters on each of his hips to give him a good capacity of kunai and shuriken. He had black eyes that reminded him of Sasuke and a long blade on his back in case of short ranged fighting. His hair was flat on the top and slightly spiky on the sides.

"Whatever he doesn't seem to be good to me, but if he can prove to me he is useful I might be able to make some use of him." Her talk of using him was arrogant and pissed Naruto off. Naruto didn't show it though, he didn't have to prove to her anything. It should be the other way around. The fact was he was going to be a Jonin soon enough and wasn't going to let her ruin it by her rash assumptions. The Suna instructor was being agitated at the lack of attention he was getting.

"That's enough from all of you." Everyone turned to him. "Now your team will be assigned an area in the dessert to surivive for five days with no food or water that you can bring. You will carry a device that you will use ONLY if you and your team can not make it. If you press it, your team will be emliminated from the competition and will not advance. If you make it back in five days, then you will advance." Naruto raised his hand. The instructor sighed wondering what a ninja of his age wanted. "Yes what is it?"

"What if another team was to come into our territory?"

"Not a bad question, If an enemy team comes into your territory, you are allowed to subdue, or if you can not or they will not give up, you may kill them. I'd suggest you have the aspect of killing them from the start since they willing invaded your territory." He looked around at the three and no more question. "Alright, here is your territory." He handed the boy a scroll and he opened it.

"So we are the northeast territory." He said sealing the scroll back up and bowing before the instructor. The two other team mates did so shortly after.

"One other thing, if you leave your territory and come back to the village before the five days are up, you are out. Dismissed." He said. All three stood at attention and in unison replied.

"Hai!" They left after that for the exit. Hinata, Tayuya and Kushina stood at the entrance.

"What now?" The girl responded thinking this was another team walking at them. Naruto ran over to Hinata and gave her a hug. Tayuya tried to do her routine of 'I don't give a damn' by pretending not to notice the two of them. Hinata and Naruto locked lips. Naruto teammates sweat dropped.

"Get a room you two." Naruto's female teammate said almost annoyed. Hinata, Tayuya and Naruto laughed when she said that, all of them thinking about what had happened in that room.

"By the way what are your names?"

"My name is Daiki." The boy answered with a small smile on his face.

"My name is Aimi." The girl answered a quite a bit of smug on her face. "that's the only thing your'll call me unless I tell you got it?" Naruto wasn't scared of her but at the same time didn't want to start a fight with her.

"Yeh alright." He said taking Hinata's hand. He didn't care much for Aimi but she was his teammate. All he could think about right now was Hinata and Kushina. Tayuya was his but he didn't really have many feelings towards her personally. He hated using her for only sex and her skills as a ninja but it wasn't by his force that she stayed with him. She chose to stay with him. She could just slip out any night she wanted to and he probably would have noticed but not done anything. Tayuya and Kushina followed the two. Hinata and Kushina had a small talk before about each other so everyone go off on the same page but Naruto, in his oblivious form, forgot to introduce them. "Oh this is…"

"Kushina Uzumaki. We know everything Naruto-kun so don't worry about it." Hinata said softy. Naruto was kind of relieved that Hinata already knew everything.

"I insist that all of you come over tonight for dinner." Kushina said trying to get to know everyone better.

"I think we'll pass." Aimi said walking away.

"Speak for yourself. I want to see Naruto-san in action later." Daiki said with a little smile on his face.

"Alright fine. We all meet at the gate tonight at 10pm alright?" Naruto just looked confused.

"We don't have to be at our zone until tomorrow around 6am." Naruto said questioning her ability to think.

"Look if you don't want to take this seriously then meet here at 6am, see if I care." She said walking off. Naruto just walked off as well with his group.

6am

Naruto had a great time, despite the death glares from the Sanin and had to check everything Kushina did before Naruto yelled at both of them. Other then all of that, it was a great night. He was at his camping spot to find that a tent was set up. He could assume Aimi and Daiki where both inside.

"HEY!" Naruto screamed at the tent. "Aren't you guys gonna let me in?" Aimi stuck her head out with a pissed off expression on her face with a shout nearly twice as loud as his.

"Stop yelling!" Aimi disappeared inside the tent again. Naruto sighed and walked into the tent to be pushed back out by Aimi. "Sorry only people who helped build it, get to go in it."

"Then where am I suppose to go?" Naruto asked thinking of how to strangle this kid and get away with it.

"I don't know… go find a hole to sleep in." She said closing the flap behind her head. Suddenly Naruto's arms moved with no command of his own. He started doing hand signs faster then he remembered he could. His arm slammed down into the sand. After a few seconds he regained control of his arm and felt the shifting sand beneath him.

"What the hell!" He screamed as the ground around him formed a moderate sized castle, complete with doors and sandstone bricks that formed a perimeter around the castle. Naruto smiled and thought of only one … thing that could do that. 'You're welcome kit…' a voice inside his head said. Naruto smiled and mentally thanked the fox then proceeded to lock himself in the castle. It was flawless in design. Everything from curtains to doors to a bed all of it was right there. 'ok… how the hell did you manage to pull this off?' The fox grumbled. 'must you know everything?' after a few seconds of thinking and pleading without words ' fine… most of the stuff was buried under the sand… including this castle. The only thing I did was raised it. Now I want some sleep and before you ask and thinking I've gone all soft, I want to sleep… meaning not be cold at night, burning your feet on the sand so when I come out, I find the body I'm sharing with u frozen or burned but probably the reason most of all is… I wanted you to be quiet.' Naruto figured at least the last part he could give him. He walked around the castle to find it in pretty good shape other then it being very confusing to get from place to place. Naruto heard a distant banging. At first he thought that the stupid fox might have given him a haunted castle. He soon found himself at the front door he had come in on and the banging coming from it. He opened the door slightly to find his two team mates standing outside in the cold. While the castle wasn't that much better, it did seem to have a little more heat.

"So what do you two want?" He asked as his two teammates stood infront of him obviously in distress. Aimi was the first to speak.

"You ruined our tent with this … thing of yours. We demand that you pay us back by letting us in and…" She was stopped when Naruto closed the door on her. Aimi seemed like a good kid but 'demand' this and 'demand' that got on his nerves and didn't feel like dealing with it. He heard the banging continue on the door and answered it again. This time Daiki held his hands over Aimi's mouth and did the talking.

"I'm sorry to disturb you Naruto-sama but you obviously know more to survival then we first thought. We would appreciate if you would let us stay with you." Daiki said bowing before Naruto. He looked over to Aimi who hesitantly bowed. He opened the door a little more to let them in.

"Aimi-san, you really need to learn to work with you team on cooperation. Should you be demanding whatever you want instead of properly asking for them, you'll find yourself without a team."

"I could take care of myself." She snapped back. Naruto let Daiki enter but just as Aimi tried to enter he stopped her.

"You said you could take care of yourself right?" Naruto mocked her which got her agitated.

"I also said you destroyed my tent… I think that's reasonable enough that you should give me a place to stay without asking for it."

"But if you are going to be rude about it why should I?" Naruto and Aimi had a staring contest before Aimi sighed.

"I'm starting to get tired to these games. Can we agree that you should let me in and in exchange I'll be a little bit nicer to you?" She asked almost knowing that she would die if she didn't start changing her attitude. Naruto moved his body so she could pass inside and closed the door behind him.

"The bedrooms are on the upper part of the castle. Find one that isn't the one I have and claim it." A pounding happened at the door after the two genin had went out of sight. Naruto pulled a kunai and slowly opened the door to reveal a Sand Jonin who had a clip board.

"Uzumaki Naruto?" He read off the clipboard. "You team moved out last night ahead of schedule and was not present for the start of the exercise. May I ask where you where?"

"My two other teammates went ahead of me at 10pm last night to set up a camp and to scout the area. At around 6am this morning, we met up and began preparations for the day and pooling our information on the area." The jonin wrote down everything he said before making a small note to the side.

"Thank you. Now is this where you will be setting up camp for the next 5 days?" He asked. He tried to hide the fact that he was trying to peek inside. Naruto before answering, decided to invite him in.

"You can come inside if you want." The Sand Jonin walked inside and Naruto shut the door behind him. The sand ninja tried to hide the fact he was surprised that someone like genin could build something like this but he could feel Naruto's chakra and figured that Naruto is a Jonin or higher ninja that never got had time to pass the chunin exams and now is doing them. He remembered what Garra told him about Naruto. That Naruto was not to be treated like any other genin cause he had too much of the Kage's respect for that. He figured that doing something like this was one of those ways. Naruto showed the sand ninja around really quick before hearing another knock on the door.

"Your friends?" Naruto asked the sand ninja.

"They are all out at the other camps marking their locations."

"Then who else would know we are here?" Naruto looked into the eye of the Sand ninja who who like he was preparing his mind for battle.

"No one else would be here right now." They looked at each other The knocking continued.

"Cover me when I answer the door." Naruto said running over to the door. Looking behind him he saw the sand ninja hiding behind some cover. He opened the door to see three hooded figured in black coats. "Who are you?" The figures didn't flinch instead the biggest of the group, who was the closest to Naruto responded.

"The real question is… who are you?" The man asked.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto. So answer my question who are you?" The man didn't answer. Just remained cool and asked another question.

"Ok Naruto-san, do you know a girl named Aimi?" Naruto flinched which the figures took quick notice of.

"Sorry I havn't heard of her. Who is she?" The figure approached the door, placing his hand on the door.

"It wouldn't be wise Naruto-san to lie to me. We aren't very nice to those who aren't nice to us." The man watched as Naruto turned around cause he heard footsteps coming down the stairs. It was Aimi.

"Naruto-san, we found a bedroom and we…" Aimi stopped when she saw the cloaked figures. Naruto screamed out to her.

"Aimi-san RUN!" Naruto said hearing the door break and an excertaiting pain as the man shoved a long sword through the door and through Naruto. Aimi watched as Naruto fell to the floor and the bloodied sword pulled back through the door. The three figures walked through the door. Aimi screamed as she ran up the stair. The three figured continued to walk when one disappeared. The Sand ninja was about to strike when the cloaked figure appeared behind the sound ninja.

"Stay back and don't move and you'll walk out with your head and maybe your life." The sand ninja nodded. 'Sorry Naruto-san. They spotted me.' The sand ninja thought. The two figures where almost at the stairs when they stopped. Naruto, who held his shoulder as blood flowed through the crevistes between his fingers, blocked their path.

"Naruto-san, please don't take this the wrong way but, stop interfearing otherwise I'll have to kill you." Naruto released his hand from the wound to visably show that his wound had already healed.

"I don't let anyone harm my teammates! Even if she isn't my favorite." Naruto said with dried blood.

(Seconds before Naruto got stabbed)

Tsunade, Hinata and Tayuya where in the living room when Tayuya screamed in pain. When she Looked at her shoulder it was bleeding but no wounds that she could find. She knew only one reason for this pain and everything. She looked over to see her new curse mark glowing blood red. Tsunade and Hinata noticed this and looked at each other.

"Naruto-kun…" The three of them said. Tsunade knew if that was true then they had to alert Garra before interfearing in the exams.

"We have to alert Garra-sama."Tsunade started. " We can't interfeare in the exams without Garra's permission. If we do then it might jeopardize our relationship with Suna." Tayuya glared at her.

"In case you forgot, I'm not a konoichi of Konoha. I'm going after him." She picked up her flute and ran out. Tsunade was pissed that she never enstated Tayuya as a konoichi, only gave her the right to live in Konoah. Tsunade turned to Hinata who was about to follow her.

"Kushina-chan, Hinata-chan, don't go with her, we need to tell Garra-sama. If we rush out there then we will only make things worse for Naruto-kun and us. I want nothing more to see Naruto-kun safe but if we don't do this right then helping him might make it worse." Hinata and Kushina didn't want to wait, they wanted to help Naruto ASAP but Tsunade was right, if they didn't approach this right then all of Naruto's work that he had worked so hard for would be gone. Hinata remembered that Naruto was so excieted when he came home and told him that he would have a one shot opportunity for Jonin. She knew no one was stronger then Naruto and when she thought about it more, he could more then handle someone who challenged him. If they rushed in then he would loose it all. Hinata nodded looked at Kushina.

"I know you havn't known him long but Naruto-kun could handle anything. We shouldn't ruin this for something he's worked so hard for." Hinata explained to Kushina. They nodded and ran with Tsunade.

(Back at the present with Naruto)

"That's commendable but she isn't worth your Konoah's protection." The man said.

"I have no idea what you are talking about but it doesn't matter what she did, she's my teammate now which means she's under my protection." The man looked at him with a confused look on his face.

"You don't know who she is do you?" The man asked. Naruto started wiping away some of the blood from his lips.

"She's my teammate, which is all I need to know!" Naruto said getting in a defensive stance. The man sighed.

"Hey kid, I can understand your commitment to your team but I can't stand here talking about why you shouldn't protect her. Move or else." He said pulling out his sword. The blood dried and shinning on the sword. Just then Tayuya came bursting through the door. The two figures turned around to see Tayuya with red slit eyes and her Hair turned orange, then red, then back to orange. As if her hair were a pile of ambers. Her eyes where glowing as well when she saw blood in Naruto's mouth. The two figures sighed.

"Why does everyone insist with interfearing in this?" The other figure said in a women's voice.

"I have no idea love. It's getting annoying though. Hey girl, I just wanted to get Aimi but you guys keep interfearing why is…"

"I don't care who your after!" Tayuya screamed. "You hurt Naruto-kun and that's all I need to get involved."

"Oh she's in love with the boy hon." The girl figured said. "I really don't think we should kill her. She's protecting you like I do."

"But if we don't stop these intrusions then how are we going to complete our mission?" The girl sighed.

"Yeh but can we try not to kill them."

"We'll see but she's our opponent now." He stepped forward and Tayuya pulled out her flute and before she could put it to her mouth, he appeared behind her and knocked her with his sword's handle. Tayuya fell to her knees and winched in pain.

"Tayuya-chan!" Naruto screamed and tried to get to her when the women stopped him.

"Sorry boy, he won't kill her but if she gets to rough with him, he might have to." She said. "But if you want, I can keep you busy so you can take your mind off her." She said unsheathing her sword. Tayuya jumped back from the man and started playing her flute. 'got you!' She thought as she got her genjutsu on him.

"Is that you got?" The man said breaking the genjutsu. Tayuya started playing again, this time summoning three figures as she felt the fox's curse mark release it's power. All three attacked and suddenly everything went dark as she felt all three of her own summons attack her. He.. reversed my genjutsu…' A few seconds later she regained consciousness and couldn't move her body. The man standing over her, looking down on her as her eyes flowed with fear. "I'm sorry it had to end like this. I wished that you could've lived life to it's fullest." He raised his sword over his head. The sword reflected in her eyes as she saw his muscled tense, one mighty downword swing. 'Am I really gonna die? I can'y die… not here not now!!!' "I'm sorry." He stated as he brought his sword down. 'NO!'

"NO!!!" NAruto screamed proforming a jutsu. The downword blade hit flesh causing blood to flow from the blade dropping on the ground and a sray of blood everywhere in a 3 meter radius. Tayuya expecting a blade never got it. Instead when she looked up she saw Naruto standing over her with a sword in his shoulder going down into his chest. Naruto smiled at Tayuya. The man stood there. "Are… you alright Tayuya-chan?" Struggling to get a breath after asking that question.

"Yeh…" Tayuya's face dropped. She was on the verge of death and he took the killblow for her.

"I'm glad." Naruto said falling on top of her with a smile on his face. The man could relate as he looked over at his women. Just then hundreds of shinobi came flooding through the doors and sourrounding the two and the third.

"I'm not in the mood anymore for this mission how about you hun?"

"Well, you're the boss. You wanna call it?" The man looked around quickly but made a mental note of the boy and girl that he just ruined.

"Yeh let's call it for now. We can always do it some other time." A few seconds after that all three of them vaniashed as if they wheren't even there. The Sand Shinobi didn't know what to do. A sand shinobi went up to Garra and Tsunade. Kushina and Hinata just arriving.

"Garra-sama, the intruders got away sir, but … we didn't manage to arrive soon enough for Naruto-san." The sand Shinobi slowly walking out of the building. The last Shinobi walked out as the last part of the report was told. Tsunade rushed in to find Naruto's body over Tayuya who was uncousious.

"NARUTO-KUN!!!" Hinata screamed. Tsunade was about to think he was dead until she turned him over and he sprung back to life.

"DAMN IT!" Naruto screamed. "Baa-chan! I have a sword in my shoulder and you roll me on my shoulder!" Naruto yelled catching his breath.

"Then don't scare everyone half to death BAKA!" Tsunade exclaimed. "Here let me help you." Before she could gert her hands to flinch Naruto stopped her.

"Help Tayuya-chan first!" Naruto said putting his hands against his ribs.

"Naruto-baka she's fine!" Tsunade NAruto looked over to Tayuya who seemed fine other then the fact she was covered in his blood. Tayuya nodded.

"I'm fine." She stated. Naruto nodded as well. Tsunade gripped the end f the sword.

"I have to pull this out now." Naruto looked away as she hesitated. She couldn't bare causing him the pain that she knew he was going to have when she pulled the sword out. She bit her lip and pulled out the sword in one pull causing Naruto to scream that sent a tear down Tsunade's face. She quickly pulled out a thick gauze pad and placed it over his shoulder which quickly bled through the pad she added more preasure as she began to try and heal the wound. She watched as she called out to him. "Naruto-kun stay with me! Naruto-kun?" She pushed hard against his wound. "NARUTO!" She screamed as she applied more chakra. She just noticed how much blood was coming out from the pad. It was soaking in his blood. She applied as much chakra and felt the fox's chakra help finish the job. Tsunade's forhead was sweating and was grateful for once, for the fox being in Naruto and helping to heal him. Tsunade rolled him over to find him unconscious but alive. She was grateful. "Garra-sama, he'll live, but take him to the hospital. Make sure to restain him otherwise he'll escape." Garra nodded and had medics moved in. They placed a cloth stretcher down and when they moved him he kept rolling and then started getting up.

"No way am I going yet!" Naruto said Naruto holding his shoulder and his arm limping. "I'm not going to leave and lose my chance to get out of becoming Chunin. Shinobi get hurt! I can take it Baa-chan!"

"Now is not the time to play hero Naruto-kun. You are hurt." Tsunade yelled at him.

"Baa-chan I will not lose the chance that you have given me!" Naruto's eyes almost scared her. "NO MATTER WHAT!"

End of chapter.

a/n: BTW Shizune was left behind to do Tsunade's work. Poor girl. Anyway Chunin exams, Part 2: Finals and preparations!