Kasek: I don't really have anything to say right now, so I'll just go straight to the story.

Disclaimer: I own neither the manga/anime/video game series 'Naruto', nor the video game/manga/comic/cartoon series 'Legend of Zelda', nor any of the affiliated characters.


Legend of Naruto: Hokage's Pendant

Chapter 3: First Exam: The Troubles Begin!

It had been a little more than a week since they had arrived at Sunagakure, and Naruto was depressed. And I mean REALLY depressed. He had finally finished searching Sunagakure from top to bottom, looking everywhere he was allowed to go, and even some places he wasn't, and he hadn't found a trace of a single ramen stand having EVER been established in Sunagakure. Sure, the general store sold some instant ramen, but 'Cactus Flavored Instant Ramen' just didn't cut it with Naruto.

Naruto took the time to think for a moment. A little more than a week... meaning the Chunin exams were going to start. Today, now that he thought about it. Good thing it was still early morning. He went over the past week in his head. Searched for ramen... searched for ramen... bugged Gaara... searched for ramen... saw several members of the competition... searched for ramen... wait, rewind! He had seen several members of the competition! What had they been like? Uh... darn it, the images were already gone from his head. Oh, well... he'd beat them all, anyways, so it didn't matter too much.

---

The two teams of Konoha looked at the rather plain looking building that passed as Sunagakure's Academy. When they had entered, they saw a few other Genin walking into another room, so they decided that that was where they were supposed to go. Upon entering, all but Naruto couldn't help but gasp at the sheer number of Genin that were in the room. Most of the older participants threw murderous glares at the younger newcomers, as if saying, "How dare they even think that they can become Chunin at that age?" Younger participants were either throwing similar yet less terrifying glares at them, or were withering under such glares themselves. Naruto just shrugged it off and walked towards the last unoccupied corner of the room, Sheik and Hanabi wisely following, and after a minute, the Konohamaru Corps. came over as well. Konohamaru started talking to Naruto.

"Hey, boss,some of these guys look pretty freaky," He motioned towards some of the aptly described participants, "Did you have to deal with anybody like that last time?"

Naruto chuckled. "Boy, did I. Of course, I don't think these guys can compare to most of the freaks I've met before on missions, so I wouldn't worry too much. But, Konohamaru..."

Konohamaru looked up at Naruto, surprised to see the look of seriousness on his face. "Yeah, boss?"

"Just remember, as soon as this exam starts, I am your enemy as well. Don't ever forget that, okay?" Konohamaru nodded, and was about to turn back to watching the crowd when Naruto resumed talking. "Hey, Konohamaru, about how well do you know my skills?"

Konohamaru was a little surprised at the question, but answered anyways. "Uh, let's see... I know you can do the Oiroke no Jutsu and the Haremu no Jutsu, but that's about it... why do you ask?"

Naruto bonked him on the head. "Didn't I just tell you to not forget we're enemies now? And here you are, giving away information like that. Now I now just how much about me you know, so I can use different techniques to catch you off guard."

Konohamaru lowered his head in shame. "Sorry, boss..."

Naruto chuckled. "Don't worry about it, not that I'd actually use those techniques in battle anyways."

Hanabi looked up at Naruto in astonishment. "You know those abominable techniques?"

Naruto caught the hatred in her eyes, but before Naruto could say anything, Konohamaru spoke back up. "Yep, he's the guy who created them!" Hanabi's eyes narrowed, and Naruto could've sworn that the Byakugan was beginning to activate.

"Uzumaki, I've lost all respect for you."

After Naruto hung his head in shame (not in the shame of knowing those techniques, but of losing his teammate's respect), he went straight into looking at the crowd, since he hadn't really bothered to observe them at all during the past week like he should have. He noticed that the Mori kids had camped out their own corner, and that, true to Sheik's word, Mido's two teammates dressed like him; they all had an obsession with green. The girl stuck out more than her two teammates- green hair will do that to you. She had a green tank-top over top of a dark green turtleneck and a pair of green shorts, a dark green hairband in her green hair, and her hitai-ate attached to the one non-green piece of cloth on her body, her black belt.

The other boy on the team- Naruto was fairly sure that the Genin was a boy, but that green skirt wasn't really helping things- looked almost exactly like Mido. Blond hair, blue eyes, green cap, green short-sleeved shirt, green boots, and a black belt with the Mori Hitai-ate attached as a belt buckle. He also had a some kind of sword and shield strapped onto his back.

Naruto looked around at some of the other participants. The only people who really stood out immediately to Naruto were these three tan-skinned, red-haired girls from Suna that looked like triplets, and some girl that could pass as Hoshigaki Kisame's daughter (which in and of itself creeped Naruto out) from Mizu. As Naruto looked around, he spotted the team from Kemuri. Naruto was very surprised at Kaijin's teammates; they looked to both be five years older than him! Naruto was curious; why would they place two fifteen-year-old Genin with a ten-year-old Genin? Naruto looked down at himself and came to his own conclusion; the boy had probably been a spare from the Academy graduation and had gotten placed onto their team. Not many other explanations you could go through, right?

He examined the male teammate. He was pretty tall, and he almost looked like a mummy; every part of his body that Naruto could see was covered in bandages except for his eyes and the top of his head, his long, brown hair (which kinda reminded Naruto a bit of Orochimaru's) sticking out. The skin looked kinda... burnt. He wore the same grey vest and black pants that Kaijin wore, but his vest was unzipped, revealing more bandages. Although he looked like a tough guy, his eyes kinda looked soft and gentle.

The girl also wore the same gray vest and black pants, and also had the same gray hair and eyes that Kaijin had. The first thought that entered Naruto's head was, she must be Kaijin's sister. In fact, she looked a lot like he imagined an older Kaijin would probably look like- with some obvious differences, of course. Her hitai-ate was placed around her neck. Unlike her supposed brother, who's eyes practically leaked pride and arrogance, her eyes were more like the mummy's, full of kindness.

Just looking at the three of them, the little one leaning against the wall, surrounded by the two bigger ones, evoked an image of a crime boss and his flunkies in Naruto's head, even though the two older nins did not give the impression of such. As his eyes started to scan the room once more, the door burst open, and in walked... Temari? Following her were several random Suna shinobi. All of the occupants in the entire room immediately stopped what they were dong to watch her.

"Alright, Genin, line up and draw numbers from this box, and then go into the next room and sit at your assigned seats!" A random shinobi stepped up, said box in his hand, and all of the Genin lined up and started drawing numbers. As the line dwindled down, Konohamaru started whispering to Naruto.

"Hey, boss, what's this all about?"

Naruto shook his head. "I'm not going to spoil anything for you guys. It wouldn't be fair to the other Genin who haven't taken these exams yet, either. Besides, the only people you can rely on from hereon in are you, yourself, and your team."

Konohamaru nodded his head in understanding, although he sweatdropped at the fact that Naruto had told him to trust only himself twice. Soon enough, all of the numbers were drawn, and everyone had taken their seats; Sheik and Hanabi had both scored seats in the far back, while Naruto was somewhere in the middle, with Konohamaru, Udon, and Moegi sitting in the middle, front, and back, respectively.Temari walked to the front, while the other shinobi started handing out papers.

"Alright, weaklings, listen up!" There were several glares from said "weaklings", but she didn't let it bother her one bit. "This is a written exam, if you haven't gathered that by now. You have 1 hour to answer 10 questions, and before you say anything," shooting a glare at some poor newbie who had started to raise their hand, "yes, there are supposed to only be 9 questions on your sheet. I'll give the tenth question at the 45-minute mark. Each question is worth 1 point, with a maximum of 10, and if you're caught cheating, you will lose 2 points, which accumulates every time you're caught. You must have at least 1 point by the end of the exam; if you don't, your entire team fails. Begin!"

Pencils were brought out, and the first exam had begun. Naruto didn't have any problems, seeing as he had had Jiraiya teach him several different spying techniques over the years, not to mention that he could answer a few questions himself. However, his mind started drifting to his teammates; maybe he should've told them about this exam. Then again, Hanabi was a Hyuuga, so she could use her Byakugan to scan the other papers. And Sheik... well, Naruto knew first-hand that the boy specialized in this kind of thing, having been victim of endless hours of "I Spy" games. His focus returning, he noticed that Udon, who was a few rows ahead of him, seemed to already have half of the questions. He would've smirked, if he didn't already know that the examiners would probably take off points for that.

Naruto wasn't too far off about his teammates. Hanabi was leaning forward, having figured out the meaning to the test immediately, her face facing down towards the paper, letting her hair shade her eyes from all angles. She was- surprise, surprise- using her Byakugan to get the answers off of some poor chap who wasn't guarding his answers, while her hair prevented anyone from getting a good look at hers.

Sheik was more than just using his "I Spy" skills, though; if one were to look him right in the face, they would've noticed that the very same mark on his chest had appeared in his eye- three black 'eyelashes' above his pupil, and one black 'tear' mark below it. Also, a small red dot appeared in the middle of his pupil, giving the appearance that it was another eye. He kept his face pointed as far down as he could while still being able to see the room, and started scanning the place for somebody to copy. Spotting somebody who looked to be hard at work, he immediately started writing what they were writing, as if he could see right through them... which he probably could.

Konohamaru, who was sitting a few seats down the row form Naruto, was having a bit of a mental breakdown. Alright, let's see, I have to answer at least one of these questions correctly, or else Udon and Moegi won't be able to become Chunin, and then I won't be able to become Hokage! But they're all so hard! And I bet that the last question is even harder, just to crush those who stuck around in hopes of getting it right. But if we get caught cheating, we lose points! Agh... And then it hit him like a ton of bricks. Wait, if we get caught cheating? If you put it that way, then that means that if you're able to get all nine questions, but get caught four times, you pass! But, if you don't get enough answers to out weigh getting caught, you still flunk! And I bet that those examiners are no slouches, either... With his mind made up, Konohamaru decided to try to cheat off of the guy right next to him, who seemed to have all of the answers already. Well, that's a relief, at least I don't have to really work for it. Now, as long as they don't see me, I'll be fine...

A random Genin boy stood up, the stress of the whole thing evident on his face. "Just how do you expect us to answer these questions?!?"

Temari snorted. "With your pencils, of course. Unless you want to write the answers in blood... I'm sure that can be arranged..." As she said this, she drew out a kunai, toying with it. "Now, if you don't want to fail, I suggest you get back to work. Oh, wait, never mind; that last stunt you pulled just cost you you last chance. You and your teammates are outta here."

The Genin looked stunned. "Hey, you can't just-" Before he could say anything else, Temari was standing behind him (on his seat), kunai at his throat. "I said you failed. You were looking at another examinee's paper during your little outburst. Clever, but not clever enough. That's five strokes against you. Unless I miscounted...?" A random Chunin shook their head. "Didn't think so." Temari removed her kunai, leaving the shocked Genin to numbly walk out the door, his two teammates following him out the door, none too pleased with him.

As time passed, more and more teams were kicked out, leaving the room half-empty. Eventually, the 45-minute mark came to pass, and Temari started her next 'speech' (if you could call them that, though Naruto thought her speeches didn't have anything on Ibiki's). "Alright, time for the last question! Before I give it out, let me explain some things. First off, you have a choice in whether or not you can take this last question." Some quiet murmurs started going through the crowd. "Hey, hey! Let me finish! As I was saying, you can either choose to take this question. If you choose to stay here, you're score will be compared to those of your teammates, and whoever has the highest score will continue on in the exams, while the other two will be kicked out and unable to ever achieve Chunin status. However, if you answer the question incorrectly, all three of you will be kicked out of these exams permanently." There were several outbursts from the Chunin hopefuls. A tic mark appeared on Temari's head before she took the fan off her back and slammed it into the floor, silencing everybody, not to mention scaring the younger ones half to death. "Like I said, that's if you choose to take this question. However, you may also choose to not take the question. If you do so, all three of you fail, but you will be able to come again in six months."

As some people got up, and other people looked indecisive, Naruto was about ready to burst. How dare they do something like this?!? Forcing people to sacrifice their teammates just so they could go on! Just as Naruto was about to cry out in anger, somebody beat him to it. Naruto heard a fist slam into a desk, and looked behind him to see that Kaijin had stood up, and there was rage in his eyes. "You expect me to just sacrifice my teammates for my own benefit?!? We didn't work all this time as a team just so you could separate us! We don't need people like you telling us whether or not we're worthy to become Chunin! Nukumi, Kokuen, we're leaving!" He then walked right out the door, his two teammates/flunkies following right behind him. Naruto was rather surprised; he didn't think he was the type to care about others. Hanabi also got up.

"He has a valid point. We were raised together, trained together, worked with each other, protected each other, and you expect us to throw it all away just like that?" Before Temari or Naruto could say anything, Sheik also got up.

"We were always taught to look out for the team's safety over our own; staying here would go against all we were ever taught, all we ever believed in." Naruto finally got up.

"My thoughts exactly. See ya around." As Team Impa (That's what I'm calling them) left, Konohamaru quickly looked at his teammates, who looked like they wanted to quit also. He got out of his chair.

"Nothing's worth losing the respect of my friends. Not the promise of becoming a Chunin, a Jonin, heck, not even the title of Hokage is worth this! Come on guys, let's go!" And as the Konohamaru Corps. left the room, all of the teams started whispering amongst themselves. Soon, several teams that had been indecisive before had pulled out, and very few teams were actually left inside the room.

---

As Naruto walked down the hall, he met up with Kankuro, who was waiting in the hall. A smile crept up Kankuro's face.

"Hey, how'd the exam go? You guys passed, right?"

Naruto looked mad. "No! We pulled out when it got time to answer the tenth question. It was either fail now and come back later, or sacrifice our teammates just to get to the next part of the exam!"

An all-knowing smile made it up onto Kankuro's lips. "The team above the mission, right?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, but if you'll excuse us, we should go back to our hotel rooms and pack our stuff."

The smile didn't leave Kankuro's face. "Hey, hey, come on, maybe you should wait a bit. After all, don't you want to see who passed?"

Naruto looked down. "Well... I guess it couldn't hurt. Plus, I could glare at them for sacrificing their teammates." Kankuro just smirked, and they waited for another few minutes before they saw some of the teams that had dropped out earlier come back. Naruto was thoroughly confused. "Hey, wait , what's going on here?"

Kankuro just smirked some more. "You'll see." Just after he said that, the doors burst open, and several infuriated Genin walked out the door, looking like they were about to rip somebody's head off. As they walked out, Temari appeared in the doorway.

"Would everyone who chose not to take the tenth question come in here real quick?" Now thoroughly confused, Naruto walked back into the classroom and took a seat with his two teammates. He spoke up.

"Hey, hey, what's this all about? Didn't we already pull out of these exams?" Temari just sighed.

"You're as clueless as ever, Naruto... the choice of whether or not to take the tenth question was the deciding factor on whether or not you passed this exam. For those of you who need it spelled out to you, staying in here wasn't exactly the best choice those guys ever made."

"W-wait... you mean..."

Temari smirked. "Yep. You all have just passed the first exam."


Kasek: And this is where I stop things just for dramatic effect.

Boy, it took me a week to write this! I think... how long has it been since updated? Granted, I only spent an hour or two a day, and I had writer's block, but still... six pages' worth of story is a lot for me to stuff into a single chapter, although I know that people stuff a lot more than that into it. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this. And for those of you who are curious, I'll be trying to get my next "Why Ninjas DON'T Have Internet" chapter out by Feb 2nd.

Next chapter: As the second Chunin exam begins in the aptly named Canyon of Death, the participants not only face danger in the form of other teams, but also in the form of two mysterious foes who've decided to mess with the exams. Will Team Impa and the Konohamaru Corps. be able to make it through this alive?

R&R!


End of Chapter 3 Bonus: Traveling

As two ninja garbed in black and red cloaks and straw hats leapt from branch to branch, they were holding a conversation. The smaller one turned to his partner.

"Remind me again why we're visiting Sunagakure, a place where Akatsuki has already searched for Biju, and therefore a place where we'll be instantly recognized and attacked?"

The taller one shook his head. "You act like you have no faith in being able to find a Jinchuuriki there. The Chunin exams are taking place there right now, and if we hurry, we'll be able to reach the second exam."

"And just what is so special about this particular exam?"

The taller one sweatdropped (how you could see it through the hat, I'll never know). "I forgot your old village only recently entered the Shinobi Alliance. This exam will take place in the Canyon of Death."

If his eyebrows had been visible, the short one would've raised them. "And that's special because...?"

The taller one sighed. "I lived in Suna for almost all of my life. Before I had left, I was the examiner for the second exam. Meaning, I know how to get in there undetected. Once there, we can search for any Jinchuuriki that might be there. You never know what you can find in a place you've already looked. Besides, even if there isn't a Biju there, it might be fun just to mess with some of the Chunin hopefuls."

The shorter one tilted his head downwards, as if thinking about it. "...Fine. I guess we don't have anything better to do." And so, they continued towards Suna...


Kasek: Yeah, uh, for those of you who actually know who the short guy is, could you please point me in the direction of a fic that features him prominently, and in-character? I don't actually own the Zelda game he appears in as an actual character, so... yeah. I'd appreciate it.