So the pole for who Naruto should be paired with has SasuNaru as the vast majority, at about 70%. I'll be closing it once I post the next chapter. Sorry it's been taking so long for these updates. I'll try to update sooner if possible. Enjoy!

Chapter 4

"Welcome to the Chunin Exams," Gaara said to the gathered Shinobi in front of him. He looked over them emotionlessly, eyeing the sound village's Shinobi in particular. There were only three (four, if you counter their instructor), but that made him uneasy enough. All three wore masks of some sort and he certainly didn't trust Orochimaru one bit.

He knew Kankuro had their men on high alert, fittingly. The Kazekage caught some murderous glares being sent at the Sound nin from the Leaf 'a squads. Gaara honestly wouldn't mind if they killed Orochimaru's men, but he didn't want any fights outside the exams. They were already on thin ice as it were.

"The first part of the Exam will be in three days. Be prepare." With that, he dismissed them. Kankuro and Temari walked up as Gaara massaged his temple, fighting back the headache this whole thing was giving him. It was hard enough trying to keep from pounding the information out of them about Naruto. He needed to stay calm.

"Have our... Guests made any moves?" Gaara said, turning to face his siblings. Kankuro shook his head, "They are all behaving themselves. According to the men we have trailing them, nothing has happened, though a couple Leaf nin are acting a bit too high and mighty for their own good." The puppeteer said with a grimace. Gaara nodded and motioned for him to continue.

"We have men on our Sound visitors; who are being almost more polite then the Leaf as an aside." He handed Gaara a file, which the red-head promptly opened. "We're archiving any information our men find, but as they have yet to yet, there is very little information."

Gaara quietly looked over the après information, "Any particulars about them that we have found that I should be aware of?" Kankuro nodded, taking the file and flipping it to a page with the black-haired Sound Nin with an eye-mask. "Raven. Unknown speciality, but he acts calmly and seems calculating. Even his movement has a sort of flowing quality to it that seems to conserve his energy better than normal. He is obviously the leader of the three-person team and seems to be their strategist for them, besides their instructor. As such, it's likely he's weaker, but that's not guaranteed."

Gaara nodded, musing to him self, until he reached a stat. His eyebrows shot up m, "He is... Blind?" His older brother nodded, "It appears so. At the very least, his eye-mask is eliminated his vision. His hearing at least seems astounding, and his other sense must be equally incredible. He never stumbles and if it weren't for the fact that he can't read, it was very easy for our even men to forget he cannot see. It is highly likely that Genjutsu will be highly ineffective; any using eyes as stimuli will be useless."

Gaara sighed, "Keep up the good work Kankuro. I don't trust any of them. Not until I know Naruto is safe from them," he muttered. Temari concerningly (is that even a word?) spoke up, "Are you sure you can do this? We know how much Naruto means to you. It's hard having information about him so close, yet so out of reach. You sure you're going to be alright?"

Gaara was silent for a moment, staring over the crowd as it continued to file out. He looked over the Sound nin again, eyes resting on the fox mask wearing nin, who almost seemed to be straing back. The blonde had down so much for him. He very possibly may not be alive today if it wasn't for

Naruto. Naruto... Where are you?

Meanwhile, across the room, safely behind his mask, Fox was getting a bit guilty. The sadness, the weariness etched into Gaara's face as he stared at his team made his heart ache. He didn't mean for everyone to be so upset over his departure. Fox watched the Kazekage sigh and turn back to his siblings. It sucked really... He figured most people would be happy he had left and was out of their lives. And for the most part they were.

He had kept tabs on Konoha, both for his own sake and for his boss. Snake didn't care; really, Fox was 93% sure that if he hadn't come with his friend, Snake would've been consumed by hate by now. Having a friend acting as a moral buoy for him was the only reason Snake wasn't as far gone as he could've been. This slightly irritated his boss, as he was keeping Snake from reaching his "full potential". Orochimaru had nearly threatened to seperate them permanently... Until Fox thoughtfully pointed out that at the rate Snake was going, if Fox wasn't around, Snake might be stronger than Orochimaru. And then he'd probably kill the snake man.

Needless to say, Orochimaru had realized how true Fox's words were and had let him stay on Snake's team. Figures.

Anyways, Fox had been keeping tabs on his old village; he was not impressed. At all. Very few mourned their loss. Sakura was the hardest hit with Tsunade behind her. Hinata apparently was also pretty shaken, which Fox didn't expect. The guys he knew and that had cared about him kept it hidden a bit better. He had found out that Kiba was deeply saddened by his "kidnapping" but didn't cry except at home. Apparently the dog boy had vowed to avenge Fox's capture. If he only knew.

Apparently, Snake's fan club had dispersed... Kind of. They had split into two groups. Girls who still pined away after the Uchiha existed, for sure. But a smaller portion had reformed into a new group, a anti-Sasuke group if you will. Sakura, Ino, Hinata had all joined this group for whatever reasons. They vowed revenge for the pain Sasuke had caused them. When Fox had told the team this, they all (Kabuto, Raven and Fox) had laughed as Snake's face went white and he muttered something about crazed fan girls.

Other people seemed quite happy that Fox had been taken. Quite a few more than Fox would've liked. But, it was not unexpected. He hated the things they did back when he was little... But at least now he knew why. It was plus. Kind of.

But Gaara, Gaara's face. It was stabbing Fox straight through the heart. Gaara had deeply cared for the blonde and still evidently did, and to be honest, until a year or so ago when they had started planning this, Fox hadn't even really thought about him. It sucked. Fox swallowed painfully.

"What's wrong?" Snake said as they stood outside the building. Fox smiled under his mask; to most he may be a cold heartless bastard, but they were good friends. Snake always knew when something was up with his and his mood. Though for the first month it was hard not to, Fox being the loud kid he was back then.

"It's just... I feel bad about Gaara," Fox said, ignoring his friend's small growl. The raven haired teen had been doing that more and more lately. "I mean, I'm the only friend he had, then I just up and disappear on him. It majorly is guilty tripping- Snake! Stop growling!" Raven turned back to look at the two, "Quiet. We are in public."

Kabuto chuckled, pushing his glasses up, "That's quite true. Who knows what would happen if someone heard you? It'd be so unfortunate. Lord Orochimaru would be quite... Displeased at you," Kabuto's aid with a smirk as an involuntary shudder went through all three of his team. Oh the joys of scaring his young pupils.

Then they turned a corner and Snake ran into someone. Oh dear.

"This is so cool!" Furasshu chirped as they walked down the streets of Suna. He turned around so that he was walking backwards m, hands behind his head, a bright smile on his face, not really paying attention to where he was going. "Did you see how young the Kazekage?! That's amazing!"

Fumei shook his head at his friebd's antics while Kakashi gave his hyper team member an eye-smile. Sakura hung back a few steps behind, silently musing to herself like she usually did.

"Oof!" Furasshu yelped as he accidentally ran into someone as they came around the corner. Both people fell onto their butts in the sand as loud laughter rolled over them, "That's what you get Snakey! Bowled over by a brat!"

Sakura's eyes narrowed at the group before them. Furasshu jumped up energetically and point an accusatory finger at Fox, "Who are you calling a brat!?" Fox laughed and extended his hand out to Snake, who grunted and let his teammate pull him up, his ego already bruised. The mask wearing Sound nin glared at the younger genin, "Watch yourself kid."

"Maybe you should watch yourself, scum." Sakura said angrily, cracking her knuckles loudly as she glared at them. Kakashi put a hand on her shoulder and whispered into her ear softly, "Calm down Sakura. We are not supposed to fight anyone right now. Keep your cool."

She kept glaring angrily at the masked Sound nin in front of her, "Theu work for that Bastard that took Sasuke and Naruto. Why shouldn't I punch their lights out and interrogate them? What if they know something, Orochimaru's location, maybe where Sasuke and Naruto are being held!"

Meanwhile,Firasshu was yelling at Snake angrily, "Who you calling a kid?! My cousin taught me everything I need to know to beat you jerks into the ground!"

This got Fox laughing, "Sorry kid, but we've been up against people tougher that a rookie fresh out of the academy. You couldn't beat us, no matter what you tried." Fumei was now literally holding passionate teammate back as Furasshu waved his fist around angrily, "Yeah, try it, let's go, I'll take you assholes down a notch or two! I'll show you what Nara Furasshu can do!"

This surprised Furasshu so much that he was momentarily silenced by his own surprise. Snake picked up the slack for him, "And here I thought that all Nara's were calculating... Or at least calm. Guess we were wrong. Tch, come one, these guys are a waste our time."

This ticked Nara off even more. "Yes we are wasting time," Raven said over the shouts of the furious genin from where he stood off to the side with Kabuto. "If you're quite down, we should be heading to our lodging and planning." Fox and Snake nodded, heading over to their team's leader and Sensei.

"See you in the exams!" Fox cheerfully said to the Konoha team, giving them a thumbs up. Sakura just glared at him before replying coldly, "Trust me, you do not want to."

Fox sighed as they walked away. After they were a good distance away, Kabuto glanced back at Fox and Sasuke with a smirk, "Seems like the 'utterly useless fan girl' is a bit stronger, hmmm?" Raven chuckled a bit, causing all of them to look at him.

"I scanned her while you all were talking. She is stronger than originally suspected, that much is true. But her teammates are weak and I cannot be fooled by cleverly hiding weaknesses," he muttered as his hand unconsciously adjusted his mask. "She is not a problem."

Fox and Snake nodded before Kabuto added in, "Also, I need you to be ready for testing when we get to out rooms Fox. We'll start about ten minutes after we get there."

Fox groaned, "I thought you would leave me alone while we were on this trip! You and your freakin experiments hurt man!"

Kabuto smirked evilly at the teen, "Yes, but the exam isn't for a few days. That means I can sneak in a good solid two days of resting before hand."

Fox muttered cursed at the smiling medic while Snake chuckled. "Don't laugh," Raven said with a wide, yet fake looking smile, "We have plenty of tests to do too."

Snake paled a shade underneath his mask. Raven was even more zealous in his researching than Kabuto was. Fox was protected from his inquisitive clutches, the bastard. His Master, Pain, had threatened Raven with bodily harm if he studied Fox. So the scientist focused on his favorite topic; Dojutsu. So now Snake was forced through experiments. He hated it incredibly, as he was practically giving away the secrets of the Sharigan. But when he had challenged Raven, the researcher had beat him easily and forced him to do them.

The only conciliation was that Pain didn't seem to have any issues with Kabuto experimenting on Fox, as long as his pupil wasn't injured too terribly. Kabuto had been ecstatic about that, much to Fox's dismay. He had tested Fox's chakra, the Kyuubi's chakra, even the healing factor that the Kyuubi had given Fox. He had a collection of Fox's organs and DNA. He had been desperately trying to recreate the healing factor. But since it was from the Kyuubi, it couldn't be done by any except a Jinchuriki.

So instead Kabuto had turned Fox into an organ donor. He had seven ribs, two kidneys, a liver, two stomachs, four lungs, and various muscle tissue. Fox complained quite loudly and said that the Kyuubi nearly took over his body last time Kabuti had taken out his organs. Kabuto wisely had decided to stop for now.

"Although Kabuto," Raven said, "Perhaps it would be best to postpone any tests. We must prepare for the exams. We can experiment later." They had arrived at their rooms for the exams. Kabuto sullenly agreed, causing Fox to cheer happily.

Next time... The action picks up as the Chunin exams begin!