IV

Chuunin Exams

Part 1

As Sakura pulled her hood back up, she headed off toward the direction where she felt Naruto's unmistakable flare of chakra. Her face blank, she found herself wondering how strong everyone had become. Masking her chakra, she carefully crouched in the branch of a large tree, watching team 7 argue.

Sakura's gaze first went to Naruto. The baka's the same as ever. Inner observed as Naruto continued to annoy his team mates, the grass, the trees, the air, the earth, the heavens, and even god…heck, he was annoying everyone and everything in general.

Next, her gaze drifted toward the lazy pervert of a teacher, the one and only…Kakashi!!! Sakura could practically see the pervert aura glowing from his book and his head. That book so has to go. Inner hissed.

Then her gaze turned to Sai. He was calmly drawing something that looked a lot like a girl? …Must be the mistake…Sakura thought, while Inner said, Or maybe he's in love!!!!

Finally, her gaze turned to the last male member of team 7. Sasuke. Sakura thanked Kami-sama that Sasuke wasn't wearing the horrible outfit that he used to wear at Orochimaru's; it had been quite an eye sore, and Sakura had gotten a major headache from Inner Sakura lamenting constantly in her head.

They seemed to be arguing about something. Sakura didn't bother going closer. Why would she when she could hear just perfectly right where she was? Being a vampire sure had its quirks. Gathering all the information she gained by listening to their conversation, Sakura learned quite a few things.

It seemed that Itachi was not yet killed, but Sasuke had decided that he would get a better chance in Konoha to kill Itachi, then anywhere else. Of course, he would never admit it, but Sasuke had, deep in his heart, missed his friends. No matter how hard he had tried, he just couldn't seem to break his bonds.

When Kakashi, Sai, and Naruto had come and asked him to return to Konoha, Sasuke had agreed, but to one condition. They had to beaten by him in an all out battle. In the end, Kakashi, Sai and Naruto had won, and Sasuke had ended up returning with them.

Konoha had given him a surprisingly small punishment. It was probably because he was the last Uchiha, not counting his brother, and because he had killed Orochimaru, that they had given him such a light sentence.

All that they did was, not allow him outside of Konoha until Tsunade said he was allowed to, to put him on probation for a year, before he was truly trusted, and they didn't allow him to go on any solo missions, even if it was a simple D-ranked.

Kakashi, Sai and Naruto all in turn got punishments as well, because the three of them had gone off to find Sasuke without the Hokage's permission, they had to be punished. Sai and Naruto's punishments was that they were lowered back to Genin rank until they took the Chuunin exam, Jounin exam and ANBU exam and passed, AGAIN!!

Kakashi's punishment was the cruelest. He had to house Naruto, Sasuke and Sai in his own house. As far as Kakashi was concerned, Tsunade was a mental old bat for making him, him out of all people to house the troublesome three, as he deftly labeled them, but Kakashi had no choice.

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At the moment, all three were arguing about the Chuunin exam. Sasuke, Naruto and Sai wanted to take the one that was starting in two days, but Kakashi on the other hand, wanted them to wait a until the next one so they had time to prepare, but the three objected. Kakashi was fighting a losing war.

Finally, Kakashi gave in. Sakura had to sweatdrop at how easily he let the three push him around.

"Fine. You can take it." He sighed.

"Yes!!!! Chuunin exams here I come!!!!" Screamed Naruto.

Sakura on the other hand agreed with Kakashi. Why? Because it would be easier for them if they gathered information on the exam before taking it, but because they wanted to take the exam that was starting in less then 48 hours, they wouldn't have enough time to gather the necessary data.

Straightening her hood, so that it covered all of her hair, and most of her face, Sakura unperturbedly jumped down from her perch and landed in behind the four men. All three of them instantly got into a fighting stance as they eyed her cautiously.

"Who are you?" Kakashi asked while holding back a jumping Naruto from attacking at once.

Sakura sighed at her team's antics. Lowering her hood, Sakura said, "Hm…I wonder who I am. Maybe you can tell me?"

Her team's eyes grew wide. "S-Sakura?" Naruto yelled in shock.

"Ah…" she replied calmly.

"Sakura-chan!!!"

"Sakura…when did you return?"

"Ugly…?"

"…"

All four of them said at the same time eyes wide, staring at Sakura in shock, amazement, disbelief, or with no emotion at all. Sasuke was the one who didn't seem really effected, but inside he too, was in shock.

"Ah… You know, Kakashi's right about taking the exam later on, but…" Sakura shrugged at the end.

"Sakura-chan! I heard you were on a S-classed mission. What was it?" Naruto asked, his eyes wide and curious.

Sakura just blinked blankly at them before replying, her face blank, "Confidential."

Sasuke raised his eyebrow, and asked, "You went on a S-rank mission?" His tone was saturated with disbelief. Sakura just calmly replied, "Why wouldn't I? I'm an ANBU." With that said, Sakura started to walk away.

Hey!!!! Why are you just walking away? I thought we were going to kick their ass?!!!Inner Sakura ranted.

Outer Sakura replied,we can do that later, during the Chuunin exams.

While Sakura was walking away, Sasuke drew a blunt kunai and threw it at her to get her attention. Without even turning, Sakura snatched it, with two fingers, out of the air with lightening speed. She still hadn't faced them yet, but she did stop walking. Without any effort at all, Sakura crushed the kunai as if it was made from warm butter.

Her four teammates were frozen in shock, staring at her nervously. She was giving off a strange aura, an aura that practically screamed unknown power. Sasuke didn't know how it was possible, but the kunai she had crushed with ease was slowly but surely rusting and crumpling right before their eyes. Sakura's team watched in shock as she opened her hand, letting the iron dust blow away in the wind, the iron being the only thing left from the blunt kunai.

She slowly turned around and shot them a glance. The look in her eyes was blank, as if she was bored, as if she had no emotion at all. It was worse then the look Sai had when he first met team 7. It was worse then the expression Sasuke had when they had met him after two and a half years of his departure from Konoha.

Sakura raised one delicate eyebrow before turning away from them again. Her gaze had clearly been a warning. Even though there had been no emotion in them, they had sent a message. A message that said, don't mess with me. With that being done, she started to walk away again. When Naruto took a step towards her, Sakura's form flickered, before disappearing all together.

After Sakura disappeared, the male members of team 7 had just stood there in the clearing in silent shock. All of them were remembering her cold, blank gaze. Then without a single word spoken, they all left.

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Sakura had been meaning to get to her house to wash up and maybe do a little bit of training but now, after meeting her team, she changed her mind. She started to head back to the Hokage tower to discuss something with her former second teacher.

"Hokage-sama." Sakura politely murmured as she walked into Tsunade's office for the second time that day.

"Sakura? Why are you back so soon? It's only been, what, an hour, an hour and half, since I last saw you?"

"I have a favor to ask of you…" An interested look crossed Tsunade's face when she heard this.

"A favor? What?" Tsunade asked

"I wish to be one of examiners for the Chuunin exam starting in about 38 hours…" Sakura replied.

Tsunade had one of her elbows on her desk, and her chin was cupped in her hand. She had a smirk on her face as she took a large swallow of sake.

"I see… Permission granted."

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Sasuke, Naruto and Sai were at the moment walking down the halls in the academy building, heading towards room 301. Like before, there was genjutsu on room 201, tricking some genin into believing that it was actually the right room. The three of them on the other hand passed by the room without even bothering to spare it a glance. None of them bothered to correct the large group of genins. Why should they? They would just end up being competition.

When they walked into room 301, the trios were greeted by the same atmosphere that had hovered in the air when Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura had first taken the exam, fear, nervousness, cockiness, bloodlust and deception.

Just then, there was a large burst of smoke as a group of Jounins and Chuunins appeared. Sasuke noticed that the examiner from the last time he had taken the exam, Ibiki, was back again. Sasuke mentally cursed. It was just their luck that Ibiki, the head of torture and interrogating was their first examiner.

"Be silent, and look up here!" Ibiki commanded.

Everyone immediately froze. Everyone but Naruto that is.

"Ehh!?? Your our examiner again?!!!!" Naruto practically screamed.

Sasuke just closed his eyes and muttered, "Baka."

Lucky for him, Naruto didn't hear him. Sai on the other hand was confused; he had his fake smile on again. Ibiki just choose to ignore Naruto.

"Listen up! This exam is to test your patience. At the present, there are a total of 150 candidates. All of you will stay in this room and do nothing. No talking no moving. If you are caught doing anything suspicious three times, you will be immediately disqualified. You can only pass the test if you manage to finish it, the test will only finish when there are only 20 teams left. If one of your teammates are unable to continue, or if they are disqualified, your whole team is disqualified. Do you understand?!!!"

With that being said, Ibiki and the rest of the examiners sat in chairs that were placed up against the walls. Sasuke couldn't help but smirk. The object of this test was so obvious. They weren't testing your patience; they were testing your silent fighting and silent defending skills. They were seeing how well you could attack and defend without anyone realizing it. Sasuke could tell that Naruto had got it too because he turned his head and flashed Sasuke, who was coolly sitting next to him, a grin. Sai got it too, because he had looked Sasuke dead on in the eye with a look that said he understood. The three of them started their work.

Ibiki was watching with a curious eyes as candidate after candidate fell to the ground either unconscious or dead. The examiners were calling the names of the fallen teammates to leave the exam, nonstop.

Sasuke, who was wearing a long, loose sleeved, white shirt, summoned some snakes without any sacrifice or hand signs. Usually, these snakes were used for assignation missions, but they would work here as well. When the snakes slithered out of his sleeves, no one noticed because they were invisible. Quickly, and silently, they navigated through the sea of legs, and bit the ankle of the person Sasuke wanted to get rid of. The poor victims would pass out at once, because of the poison in the snake's fangs.

Naruto, whose natural element was wind, was sending out quick, unnoticeable gusts of air towards other candidates. The slash of air would silently hit a pressure point, and with that, they would fall unconscious.

Sai had let a small blob of black ink, slide down his body, down to his legs, and into the crevices in the floor. After that, the ink traveled through the cracks, between the wooden floor, and climbed up people's pants until it reached the victim's neck. At the neck, the blob of ink would transform into a small snake and bit the victim's pressure point in the neck.

Quickly, team by team were disqualified. Soon, only 20 teams were left.

"Stop!" Barked Ibiki. Everyone in the room froze.

"All of you pass." Ibiki calmly stated.

"I don't think I need to explain the true concept of this test do I?" he asked.

Just then, Sakura walked into the room. Her beauty caused many of the males in the exam to get nosebleeds. Sasuke, Naruto and Sai just ended up glaring at the perverted males, though they too were fighting nosebleeds. Sakura seemed different from before. She had a large smile on her face and her eyes were glowing with admiration. A mask. All three male members of team 7 realized. They knew that the smile and the look of admiration was fake, it was only there for a purpose, though they didn't know what it was.

"Wow! You guys are so amazing! How were you able to trick so many examiners?!!!"

Some of the guys in the room proudly started to tell her how they were able to fool the examiners, while some girls haughtily bragged as well. Naruto, Sasuke and Sai didn't though. They knew something was up.

Their hypothesis was soon proven true when Sakura's fake smile suddenly disappeared, and the look of admiration in her eyes disappeared rapidly as well, leaving behind a blank, emotionless, look. All of the teams stopped talking at once. They stared at Sakura in shock as she icily called out, "Team 4, 12, 50, 39, 23, and team 13 are disqualified."

"What!!!!!" The stated teams cried out in shock.

Sakura gave them a blank look before replying; "A ninja must never brag and give out information about themselves, and their teammates, to the enemy. A ninja should always be alert, even when the danger seems to have passed, a ninja should always be ready for the worst. That is why you all fail."

The teams were then led out of the room, either in shock, anger or just amazement.

Sakura then turned to the rest of the teams left, and counted that there was still 15 teams left. Fifteen teams meant that there was still 45 contestants left.

"Sakura-chan." Naruto called out with a large grin on his face. His grin immediately disappeared when she barely gave him a glance, her gaze cold. She looks like an ice goddess. Many of the contestants thought.

"My alias is Cat, it is not Sakura, Sakura-chan or Saku-chan. I'm your next examiner. It seems that there is still 45 contestants left… I'll be cutting that down to 21 at the most. It is also possible that only 1 team may pass my exam, so I advise you to be ready."

She then swiftly turned and called out, "Follow me, we're going to the Forest of Death."

Naruto's eyes widened as he cried out, "What! Again?!!!!"

Sakura coolly turned to look at him. She blinked and smirked,

She gave a rather chilling laugh. "Ah…are you afraid? You should be."

Good luck children!!! Inner crowed evilly.

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A/N: I want to thank everyone who read my story, and everyone who reviewed. Thank You!!!...this may sound a bit annoying but please, I would love it if you would review.