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Author rebooted.

Reviewer's Corner!

Matt and T.K: Probably won't be any Kaka/Rin pairing here. I wouldn't get my hopes up, in any case.

N: Konoha senpuu is a stronger version of Konoha Repuu. That's basically it.

PsychoB: You have my permission to use the prank idea, but technically it's not mine. The reviewers were the one who suggested them. I'm too braindead to think of very elaborate pranks.

A big thank you to all of those who continue to read my fic! I also thank you for not beating me up with blunt objects to threaten me!

Now with that out of the way, we will now return to your regularly scheduled chapter.

Disclaimer: ... I give up. This disclaimer thing is annoying me. Seriously, if I owned Naruto, for a start, I'd be rich. Also, I'd most likely use my free time to work on the manga, not some fanfic.

Chapter 15

"That... was way too close," panted Naruto.

Managing to escape from the horrifying scene, Team Seven found themselves in a room filled with chuunin hopefuls.

... Who were focusing their killer intent onto the three for causing a scene.

"Well... This is awkward," muttered Sasuke.

"I'd say troublesome would be a better word for it," drawled a lazy voice.

The three turned to see Team Ten (minus Ino) heading towards them.

"Shikamaru-san, what happened to Ino-san?" asked Hinata.

"Her? I think she went off to fight with Sakura or something again. Eh.. It's too troublesome to know." He shrugged. Chouji continued to munch on his (Maybe) endless supply of chips.

"For the last time, Sasuke-kun is MINE!" Shouted a voice that suspiciously sounded like Ino.

"No, he's mine!" Snapped a voice that sounded suspiciously like Sakura.

Sasuke merely slapped his forehead.

"Naruto! It's been a while, dobe!" called out a voice. A small bark accompanied this.

"I may have been the dead-last, but yes, it has been a while, captain obvious," replied Naruto.

"Wha... Well, it must have been so hard to pass the genin exam. What, did you manage to fail so badly that you passed?"

And so began another insult battle.

"Why, thank you for your input, we're all challenged by your unique point of view."

"When you pass away and people ask me what the cause of your death was, I'll say it was your stupidity."

"Your house is so nasty, I tripped over a rat, and a cockroach stole my wallet."

"Hey! Don't insult Akamaru! Also, you had nothing in your wallet worth taking!"

The rest of the group sweatdropped at the statement. "So... His house does has a pet cockroach..?" murmured Ino.

"I heard your parents took you to a dog show and you won."

"That was a one-time thing! They did it to test my henge abilities! Also, I heard that you went to the haunted house and they offered you a job."

"My, Kiba-sama, you are very smart, aren't you? You have brains you never used."

"Hey, hey, knock it off. You cute lil' genin lost sight of your surroundings or something?" The nine genin turned to look at none other than Yakushi Kabuto. Naruto tried hard to suppress his instinct to kill.

'You know.. If you want to kill him, I'd advise against it for now. Though, I'd most likely try to stop you half-assedly if you did.' said Kyuubi.

'Odd... I thought you died since I haven't heard you in a while, Kyuubi-sensei.'

'I thought you were supposed to respect your elders. I was merely.. napping.' The fox in Naruto's mind turned chibi again and gracefully... blew a raspberry. 'By the way, you should pay attention to what the traitor is saying. It's not in character for you to be spacing out.'

'... I knew that.'

'Sure you did.'

Snapping out of his trance, Naruto returned to hear Kabuto finishing his explanation about his info cards.

"Now, as for the sound village... They don't pose much of a threat. The only thing you should watch out for is their attitud-"

The gray-haired "Genin" was interrupted by a swipe from a ninja who was covered in bandages, which he seemed to have dodged easily. The nine were surprised (Except Naruto, who feigned his surprise) to see that Kabuto then coughed up blood.

"Write this in your pathetic cards... We sound-nin are stronger than you think," he growled and walked away.

"These exams are getting a lot tougher than I thought.. maybe I should just quit.." whispered Ino to herself. Sakura seemed to be thinking along those lines.

Naruto knew what to do there.

"HEY YOU PUNKS! MY NAME IS UZUMAKI NARUTO AND I'M GONNA KICK YOUR ASSES! REMEMBER THAT!"

Sasuke punched Naruto in the head. "Baka, you just made enemies with everyone in this room. What did you want to do, kill yourself?"

However, his bold statement did the trick; many of the chuunin hopefuls seemed to have relaxed a bit.

.. Which was why the first examiner, Morino Ibiki, was slightly unnervered to see that none of his victims were nervous.. yet.

'Looks like we've got an interesting bunch this year.'

"Alright, you brats! My name is Morino Ibiki, and I shall be your first examiner. The first exam is very simple.. It's a written exam!"

He was greeted by the typical moans of distress by the examinees. One particular genin was unlucky enough to voice his opinion.

"What? This is pathetic! What will this do-"

He was silenced immediately by a kunai thrown near his groin. "Next time, I won't miss," said Ibiki with a smirk.

The room was instantly quiet, save for a few sobs of fear by the unfortunate genin.

"Now, since you're all quiet, I guess I should start to tell you the rules. As I was saying, this is a written exam, and if you cheat, you lose marks. If your marks are nil by the end of this exam, you will fail. As for the blank space for Question 10, you shall get it in an hour. Now, BEGIN!"

The room was quiet, save for the furious scribbling of pencils. (A/N: Did they use pencils? I've already forgotten)

The genin had realised that the questions were harder than it should be, and knew that the aim of the exam was to cheat.

Sasuke used his Sharingan, Hinata and Neji both used their Byakugan, Sakura used her extensive knowledge to answer to her own ability and Ino used the Shintenshin no jutsu (1) to copy Sakura's work.

Others used less subtle methods. Kiba used Akamaru, who barked the answers, Shino used his insects, Tenten used an array of mirrors to copy, while Lee copied the answers with that. Shikamaru used his Kagemane no jutsu (2) to mirror his movements with Chouji, while Naruto... fell asleep.

In actual fact he was pretending, and counting down until his plan fell into place. 'My friends should be coming in 3... 2.. 1...'

Suddenly, the entire room was filled with an array of birds, foxes, and other different animals which proceeded to attack the proctors. While the room was in chaos, Naruto quickly used a Kage Bunshin and transformed it into a fox. The fox then swapped a blank examination paper with one of the chuunin's (who was assigned to be acting as an examinee) answer sheet. Naruto recieved the paper from the bunshin, where the fox saluted and poofed out of existance.

Just as quickly as they came, the animals were gone. The room was silent yet again.

Crickets chirped. Someone coughed.

Ibiki wiped the fecal matter off his face and nodded towards where a hand was raised.

"Um.. Can I go to the toilet?"

That's the end of the first examination, because I cannot be bothered to write what happens next (The same thing happens in the manga and anime, if you wanted to know). Besides, the second exam is way better, isn't it?

Notes:

(1) Shintenshin no jutsu - Mind Body Switch Technique. One of Yamanaka's trademark attacks, this technique allows the user to enter a target's mind, taking control of their body and senses.

(2) Kagemane no jutsu - Shadow Imitation Technique. A trademark technique used by Shikamaru, his jutsu allows the user to control their own shadow and merge it with their opponent's shadow, combining them. This links the movements of the user with the target; the target is subsequently forced to make any movement the user makes.

I'm not dead yet, but I procrastinate too much. Let's hope that I'll be able to write the next chapter more quickly. I respond quite well to threats and reviews:3