Told you I'd update. NewSon, thanks for the input on Naruto's costume. I'm ditching the coat this chapter. When I looked back on it that did make it seem a little gaudy. :p And thanks everyone for the great reviews. Um… Oh yeah! I probably will let you know how their training was, but mostly in flashbacks. Sorry, but I'm lazy. And just to warn people, this will eventually be a NaruHina. Oh, and just for future reference, until I totally leave the set in stone events of Naruto, I will occasionally use a  to skip through scenes everyone knows and that I won't change.

"What happened to your coat, Naruto?" Sakura asked her fuming teammate. Naruto had his arms folded in front of his chest and he was obviously huffing about something, presumably his missing coat.

"The teme chopped it up with that stupid jutsu of his."

"You should thank me. That thing looked god awful on you, even if you did finally fit in it." Naruto took his arms away from his orange tee shirt, which without the coat on you could see a dark blue spiral made of nine tails adorning his back.

"You'll just have to take your anger out on the exam," Sakura (sort of) comforted her teammate. At the mention of the Chuunin Exam, an almost scary grin spread across Naruto's face.

"I guess so."

"Don't encourage him Sakura, we have enough trouble keeping a leash on him already." Naruto flipped Sasuke off as they finally made it to the academy where the exams were to start. A shiver of excitement ran down Naruto's semi-large frame.

"I can already feel it, this is gonna be fun." Sasuke smirked.

"Well, of all things, you've never been wrong on that."

"I'd like to disagree…"Sakura mumbled and rubbed her forehead with her gauntlet-covered hands as she took a quick stroll through her memories of the past month. "I still can't look at a rat without reaching for a kunai." Naruto shrugged sheepishly.

"Hey, even you were smiling while we fought those things."

"I was smiling because…" Sakura stopped there, but Naruto continued for her.

"Okay, so your fun didn't come until Sasuke had to take his shirt off so you could treat him. Same difference." Both aforementioned shinobi blushed and quickened their pace, trying their best to ignore Naruto's raucous laughter.

"Please let us through!" Two 'genin' in front of the door to the waiting room shoved a green clad genin to the floor.

"We're doing you guys a favor!" The one in bandages shouted.

"Walk away while you can. This is exam is a monster in itself. Some of you won't make it through a live and the others will go mad."

"Already runs in the blood. Move it." Everyone in the room turned to face the new entrees. Sasuke stood there, Naruto and Sakura on either side. "And at least put up a better genjutsu. Even Naruto noticed that this is only the second floor." Naruto had to bite his lip to avoid shouting at his teammate and ruining the moment. Sakura didn't even wait for the 'genin' to dispel the illusion themselves, and instead did for them with barely a flick of her hand. A wave of muttering swept through the other genin as the two 'genin' guarding the door smirked.

"Think you're tough, huh?" The one with bandages on his face charged in an attempt to strike Sasuke. With a smirk of his own, Sasuke retaliated with a kick. Small gasps elicited from the crowed as a green blur caught both attacks with ease.

'I had a feeling he was faking,' Sasuke thought briefly before examining the green genin. He sweat dropped the moment he began his examination. This weirdo…was wearing a spandex jump suit? The sweat drop doubled in size when the genin was first berated by his teammates for blowing their cover, and then doubled again when he asked Sakura out, and she quite flatly refused. Naruto's face looked like it was about to explode from held in laughter by the time Lee was crying in the corner.

"You, what's your name?" Sasuke turned a lazy eye towards his inquisitor, intentionally aggravating him.

"It's polite to introduce yourself before asking another's name." The white-eyed boy narrowed his eyes at the Uchiha and glared.

"What did you say?" The white-eyed boy turned on his heel and walked through the door. His other teammate, a girl in a pink shirt, giggled at the interaction between the two boys, and eyed Sasuke's sword before following her teammate. And I mean the metal one, pervs.

"That guy looks to be a bigger bastard than you," Naruto observed as the trio left entered the next room through the door together.

"Wait!" All three of them swiveled around to face the strange green genin. "I am Rock Lee. It is polite to introduce yourself first, is it not, Sasuke Uchiha?" Sasuke smirked at Lee. He knew where this was going.

"I presume you want to fight me?" Sasuke's statement fell on deaf ears as Lee kept trying to blow kisses at Sakura, who kept dodging as if her life depended on it. Eventually going so far as to smash her head into the ground to duck the last one. The biggest sweat drop in the history of sweat drops grew on Sasuke's head, and Naruto was curled up on the floor busting a gut. Sasuke coughed to get the somewhat depressed Lee's attention.

"Did you come here to fight me or not?" Lee nodded rapidly and assumed his stance.

"You sure you want to waster your time, Sasuke?" Naruto turned to face Lee. "No offense, Bushy-brows, but I saw you move, and you don't stand a chance." Sasuke activated his Sharingan.

"Who knows Naruto, maybe this will be the fight that moves me up to the third tomoe. I've been on two for long enough."

"You said that a day after you got the second tomoe."

"Shut-up." Sasuke assumed a stance of his own before charging Lee in a burst of speed. Lee gasped as he barely avoided the first blow, and then definitely didn't avoid the second one. The two danced00 in combat for awhile, Sasuke leading with his slightly superior speed.

"You are very good, Sasuke," Lee commented as he blocked several more punches and kicks. "But now I will show you why a genius like you can't stand up to a true genius…a genius of hard work!" Lee seemed to blur out of existence, and Sasuke could barely dodge his nearly invisible blows, even with the Sharingan. Lee had yet to land a solid hit, but Sasuke was already hurting from only grazing after grazing he was getting. Naruto's eyes widened as he smelled the sudden increase of fluxing chakra.

"Sasuke, this guy's serious! He just opened the first gate!"

'I'm sorry, Gai-sensei. But I have to use that move!' Sasuke barely had time to register the information Naruto was giving him before Lee's foot connected with his chin. Sasuke soared into the air until Lee appeared behind him, the bandages around his arms unwrapped. A pair of shuriken struck said loose bandages and pinned Lee to a wall, leaving Sasuke to land on his feet.

"Lee! You know that move is forbidden!" Three jaws dropped as a giant turtle walked into the room.

Team 7 was utterly flabbergasted at the display they had just witnessed. "What…the Hell…was that?" Naruto breathed, but unfortunately, that was all that was needed to remind Gai that they were there.

"Well hello, my spring time blossoms of youth! So you are the students that new guy stole from my eternal rival Kakashi, hm?" They vaguely remembered Himaru telling them that their original teacher was going to be some guy named Kakashi. "So tell me…" Gai vanished and seemed to reappear behind them almost instantaneously. "…Is he as fast as me?"

"Faster." Gai did an anime fall down.

"No one is faster than Gai-sensei! He is the greatest!" Lee shouted in defense of his mentor.

"Now, now Lee. If this sensei of theirs is truly so bursting with youth then we should be happy for him! Now come! To the exam!" Both spandex-clad shinobi disappeared in twin rushes of speed, leaving Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura still wondering what the Hell had just happened.

"That guy trained a lot," Naruto said, and he unconsciously rubbed his own arm bandages. "You get a look at his hands?" Sasuke nodded and large smirk found its way to his face.

"This exam is getting interesting." Sasuke took the first step to the last door between them and the exam.

"Everybody ready?" Naruto and Sakura nodded. Sasuke smiled briefly before he wrapped his fingers around the handles and pulled. Almost every eye in the room fixed on them before returning to each other.

"This looks promising," Naruto stated as he observed the competition, occasionally sniffing the air.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sasuke barely had time to sigh before Ino came out of nowhere and glomped him. She curled her arms around his chest and rested her head on his shoulders before smirking at Sakura. Confusion flashed across Ino's face at Sakura's new appearance, but she quickly regained her composure.

"What's the matter, Bill-board Brow?" Ino gestured at Sakura's hair. "Finally realize you don't have a chance with my Sasuke-kun?" Sakura clenched her fists, but was cut off by Sasuke before she could speak.

"Actually, I like short hair better anyway." He smoothly pulled himself from Ino's shocked to limpness arms and wrapped his own around Sakura's waist from behind her. Sakura grinned triumphantly at her rival.

"This is going to be troublesome," Shikamaru mumbled as he finally caught up to Ino.

"So it looks like the whole Rookie 9 made it." Team 8 rounded the corner with Kiba in front. "Better watch out because we're gonna blow you guys away!" Naruto's sharp laugh brought the group attention on him, and there were a couple muffled gasps from the other two teams. Naruto grinned. He was taller than all of them, though his other features struck them almost as much, especially for Hinata and Ino.

"I'd like to see you try, Dog-boy." Kiba attempted to regain his tough composure.

"Finally invested in high-heeled shoes, Naruto?" A surprisingly menacing growl escaped Naruto's throat.

"For your information, Naruto did have a growth spurt," Sakura said in Naruto's defense. The blond fox boy grinned at her. "I admit it was a somewhat freakish growth spurt, but that's all him." Naruto's grin faltered slightly, but he held most of it up.

"You rookies might want to keep quiet." All heads turned to the oncoming white-haired genin. "Tensions are a tad high, and these genin will tear you apart."

"Oh? And like you're an expert?" Naruto asked. Kabuto whipped out his deck of cards.

"Yes I am. These cards hold all the information I've gathered in my four tries on the exam. Tell you what, out of the goodness of my heart, I'll lend you rookies a hand."

"Four tries? You must stink." Kabuto's eye twitched at Kiba's remark.

"Yes, well, the exam is trickier than one might think."

"So those cards have information on all of genin here?" Sasuke asked. Kabuto nodded.

"Anyone you want info on?"

"A guy from Suna named Gaara and Rock Lee."

"You know their names? That's no fun." Kabuto shuffled his cars and applied his chakra before whipping out two cards.

"I hope none of you have questions on the Oto ninja. Otogakure is so small that I don't have much information on them yet."

"I think you're about to get some," Sasuke stated right before Oto genin launched from the crowd. Kabuto easily dodged the kunai and the bandaged genin's punch, but he didn't even have time to smirk before his glasses shattered.

"So it's that kind of attack, huh?" Moments later, Kabuto fell to his knees and puked.

"Enough!" A very large and intimidating jounin burst through the door. "There will be no fighting unless first permitted by a proctor, and even then killing your opponent is strictly forbidden!"

"No killing? So this is a girly-man's exam, huh?" Ibiki ignored the spiky-haired genin and introduced himself to the examinees.

"I am the proctor of the first exam, Ibiki Morino!" Ibiki waltzed back through the doors and the would-be chuunin followed en masse. "Everyone take a seat for the written exam!" Naruto barely heard the sadistic jounin as he explained the rules.

'T-test?'

"Begin!" Furious scribbling was heard, but Naruto was still above his paper.

"So, Himaru, you sure your students are ready for this?" Asuma took a deep drag on his cigarette while he awaited a reply from the lounging jounin.

"I'm quite sure, Asuma-san."

"Even with Ibiki as their proctor?" Asuma had hoped to make the new guy's knees knock, but Himaru barely even registered it.

"You mean the Head of Interrogation guy, right?" Himaru chuckled. "I'm not worried."

"The Head of Interrogation is proctoring the first exam?" Kurenai broke in, sounding startled. "That's a bit rough." Himaru waved his hand, dismissing the thought.

"Relax, Kurenai-san. Getting stressed won't solve anything."

"After all the fuss you put up with Kakashi to get these kids, you're not worried about them?" Asuma said, still trying to rattle Himaru's chain. He was a tad angry that this new guy pushed his old comrade aside like that.

"I don't worry, I help. And they don't need my help at the moment." Himaru turned a lazy eye towards Asuma in a starling imitation of Kakashi. "And they needed my help to save them from Kakashi. A great ninja, but a horrible teacher."

"And how would you know?"

"I studied his psychology profile. He has all the makings for a bad teacher."

"You broke into the records?" Kurenai asked, staring at the strange man. Himaru shrugged and brushed the hair out of his eyes.

"I gave it back."

'Sasuke and Sakura-chan are going to kill me!' Several failings later, Naruto was still knocking his knees together. Oh why couldn't Himaru have trained his brain more?

"N-Naruto-kun." Naruto stopped fidgeting and swung his head to the side.

"Hinata?" She smiled weakly at him and started sliding here paper over to him.

"Y-you can ch-cheat off my p-paper, i-if you w-want." A grin started to spread across Naruto's face, but suddenly a thought hit him like a hammer.

'Of course! That guy did emphasis the whole cheating thing!' Naruto reformed his grin and kept it aimed on Hinata, who was starting to turn a whole new shade of red under his slightly glowing gaze. "No thanks, Hinata. I'm going to keep my honor." Hinata tried to smile back at him, but had to look away. Once she wasn't looking at him, Naruto's grin turned into a smirk. 'Of course, that doesn't mean I'm not going to cheat. I just won't do it the easy way.' Naruto did a quick check of his surroundings, and sure enough, almost everyone was cheating. Lee and Tenten were using mirrors, that Neji guy was using his Byakugan, and Sasuke had his Sharingan activated. A smirk came to Naruto's face as he watched Sakura just writing everything down.

'Well, on to business!' Naruto started performing hand seals under his desk. Monkey-rooster-monkey-boar-rabbit. 'Omoi Kusari no Jutsu (Thought Chain Technique)!'

'Naruto?' Naruto grinned as he heard Sakura's voice echo in his mind.

'Hi, Sakura-chan!'

'This better be for something other than chatting.' Even in her thoughts Sakura scared him.

'No, no! I need help with the exam!' Sakura giggled.

'I was joking, Naruto. I was expecting you to call.' Naruto pouted at her. 'Listen up, Naruto, because I'm not going to repeat myself.' Naruto gave the barest of nods, and to anyone watching it would have looked like he was suddenly hit by inspiration as he calmly and quickly wrote down the answers.

Time seemed to slow down as the tension in the room increased. If you got the tenth question wrong, and you'll stay a genin forever. That thought kept ringing through their heads. Soon, one by one, teams quit and left, until the once full room was a mere shadow of its former self. A sudden smacking noise rang across the room as Naruto struck the table, creating a web of cracks. "Just bring it on, already! I'll become a kage even if I have to do it through sheer stubbornness!" Ibiki was torn between smirking and scowling. On one hand, the kid showed some real guts and even put some spine into the other entrees. On the other, however, Ibiki had really wanted to lose some more genin first, but none of these guys were going to budge.

"Well then," Ibiki's voice was loud and clear. "Congratulations to all of you for passing the first exam!"