AN

DarkRavie, Serenity Maxwell, Caliko, I dub the- the fangirl squad- anyone else who wants to be one, lemme know-

Grey0Mage: Namikaze is Naruto there was a real Naruto, but he and his mother died in the Kyuubi attack as I'm writing it. So when Namikaze became an infant again by taking in the Kyuubi, he took the name, and essentially- he IS Naruto, after living 17 years as Naruto, he doesn't plan to change soon. As for Kisame- yeah, I was kinda saddened to have to kill him too. But at least he went down with a cool fight, and Itachi has his badass sword now- which will lead to fun stuff when Suigetsu finds out :smirk:

Caliko: no, nobody striped, so Sakura can live with it…

IsabelCortez: But wasn't it so perfect, I mean, by now Kakashi finished Icha Icha Paradise that Naruto gave him, but Naruto HAD read it too…

Dragonrider666: yes you must :hypnotic stare:, now I must write more for you to read

End AN

The first test wasn't that eventful, after some quick studying with Sakura, they all got at least a couple questions right, and knew not to drop out at the last question. In fact, the team was all very happy the exams were here again so that they'd be so familiar. Anko gave Naruto a slight wink that Sakura missed, but Matsuri caught with a confused glance. The eight groups signed their waivers and entered the forest.

After they were a ways into the forest, Naruto stopped them all- "Wait, I have a plan, here"

With that he handed two different scrolls to Sakura and Matsuri-

"Naruto, how did you have time to make these?"

"I told you before, I carry all kinds of scrolls, and these look like the same kind of scroll. If either of you get into trouble, give these in exchange for your escape, you two see if you can scare up another real scroll, and I'll see if I can get us a backup or two in case we run into someone smart enough to not buy it."

"How will we know it's you?"

"Remember last time someone tried to Henge as me?"

"Yeah, they were stupid, the wound was on the wrong hand and they were even more brash then you even were."

"Well you know what my seal looks like, right?"

"Yeah, Tsunade showed me a picture."

"Okay then, I'll show you that. Or you can ask one of a million questions no one else is dumb enough to know."

"But wait- how will you know it's us?"

"That's why you're together, no one could successfully henge you, and if you're always with Matsuri, I don't have to worry about someone henging as her."

"I'm still not sure this is a good idea?"

"If it isn't we have four more days to come up with better ones."

Naruto walked off after that. Matsuri was actually kind of glad now that Naruto was gone-

"Ah, Sakura, you're a Medic-nin right?"

"Yeah- you're not sick are you?"

"Well, it's- it's hard to talk about, even to another girl-"

"You missed a period?"

"Well, two actually, and I've been getting sick on top of that- when it was just one I wasn't worried, but now, is there anyway way you can check?"

"Who would the father be?"

Matsuri went crimson at that question, "Gaara-sensei," she practically whispered. Holding her hands against herself in a blatantly embarrassed stance, "Sakura, I've only missed two- but it's actually been- well, I'd only just had one when Gaara and I-" her body flushed red again as she couldn't finish.

"So it's been almost three months?"

Maturi nodded, "I couldn't say anything while Naruto was around, and I was too embarrassed to ask anybody in my village- I don't- I don't know how anyone would react."

'GAH! I can't do THAT!' Inner Sakura began to rage. While outwardly Sakura seemed contemplative- "There is one thing I can do," she began to reach into her bag…

naNAnaNAna

Naruto dashed from one treetop to the next. He suddenly stopped when he felt something off. He let himself land on the ground-

Naruto looked up in time to see a scroll thrown at his feet.

"This brings back memories…"

Naruto's eyes bulged as he realized whose voice it was, turning towards him he spoke, "Sasuke! How'd you get here?"

Sasuke pulled a fake face to reveal his own. Another person landed beside him, and two more behind him.

"Tell me what you know about Akatsuki."

"Sasuke, it's not too late, you don't have to do this."

"Have you seen Itachi?"

"Sasuke…"

"Behind you…"

Sasuke turned suddenly to face the cold eyes.

"Samehada," Suigetsu spotted Kisame's sword instantly, "Why do you have it!"

Itachi lifted the sword from his back, and pointed it towards Suigetsu, "Kisame and I had a falling out, along with the rest of Akatsuki." He turned the sword towards Sasuke next, "You may not believe me now, but you've misdirect your hate, I wanted you to hate Akatuki. For killing our family."

"SHUT UP!" Sasuke cut him off. Sasuke charged nodatchi first, which Itachi blocked easily, breaking the sword in two.

"Sasuke, WAIT!" Naruto called out, to be cut off by Ice, his blue hair drooping down at his ears.

"Sasuke jumped back, he looked at his broken sword then tossed it aside. He glared at Itachi, his own Sharingan eye staring into Itachi's. Sasuke seemed to charge up like a lightbulb, lightining crawling all over his body as he began to full body Chidori then charged Itachi. Itachi jumped aside and ran the blunt end of Samehada, drawing all the Chakara away from him.

Naruto started to make a move towards the two of them, but Ice gave a bit of a bestial growl as his black splotches started crawling over his body, as they touched his hair they turned it red, and from his waist sprouted a tail, much like Naruto's Kyuubi manifestations. Behind him Shiev landed and waited, it was clear, to get at Sasuke he'd have to get past both of them, and the man in front of him was a Jinchuuriki as well.

"So, who are you," Naruto asked.

Ice glared at him, a half tail starting to spout at his waist, "Ice."

"You realize I'm like you, don't you?"

"Of course, Sasuke told me about you and your bleeding heart."

Suigetsu took out Raiga's combined sword in one hand, and the water one in the other, it was forked with three blades, Sasuke held out his hand to block him off.

"This isn't why we came, we found what we were looking for. Naruto most certainly knows where to find Itachi it seems," he smirked.

"Sasuke-"

"DON'T speak to me like you know anything, YOU set me on this path, and when I'm ready, I will kill you, no matter what it takes."

"I still want to know why Samehada let you wield him," Suigetsu demanded.

"Because a blade is a blade, all it takes is a firm hand to wield it," Itachi mocked, anything to keep them just a little longer-

"We're leaving," Sasuke commanded. Shiev left first, Suigetsu glared at Itachi before he left as well. Ice took a tentative step back before leaping away. Lastly Sasuke turned from Itachi to Naruto, "You knew all along didn't you? All my pain, that it should be a sham. You almost took his place you know. But I must kill my brother, and if you had taken his place I'd have had to kill you instead. Instead I'll kill you first."

Sasuke smiled as he moved away in a blur of motion, leaving both Itachi and Naruto. Naruto bent down to pick up the scroll Sasuke had thrown. Only then did Anko finally arrive with Iruka and a pair of ANBU behind them.

"Damn," Anko looked in the direction Sasuke had left in, then turned to Itachi, "You were following Naruto weren't you?"

"I had my suspicions."

"You should have shared them!" one of the ANBU yelled, "We might have caught them."

"Not without having to end the test, Sasuke would have seen to that."

"Do you think he'll come back," the other ANBU asked almost sarcastically.

"Doubtful, he wasn't expecting to find me so quickly; his plans were to use Naruto to track Akatsuki, now he knows that'll do him no good."

"You all should go now, before someone else shows up."

Itachi nodded, and Itachi, Anko, and Iruka left. Once they were gone the two ANBU followed, obviously upset.

Naruto moved off at last, looking for another group. When he found them he sent in few dozen Shadow Clones. Waiting in a nearby tree to try and see which one fought how. By the time he noticed one fighting purely defensively and letting the other two fight, they had taken out four of his clones. He released the Jutsu and left the three of them dumbfounded momentarily. They all started looking around to find him. He summoned a trio of Shadow Clones, drawing their attention to him. He stuck out his tongue and pulled down his eyelid. "Be-Da!"

Once he knew they were chasing him he ran off, his three clones running ahead and setting traps. First was a pit, which caught the first person, the second stopping and threw her arm out to stop herteammate- "MY LEG!" The one in the pit cried out painfully. The clone that had set the trap vanished and Naruto slapped his ass to taunt them some more. Neither of his pursuers made another move. They just stared at Naruto from across the pit. Naruto smiled as a wooden cage came crashing down with both his other clones on top holding to large stones to weigh the thing down. The third- the defensive one, jumped back and managed to avoid being caged.

Naruto leapt over the pit, was caught by one of his clones and thrown over the cage, when both clones vanished and the flying Naruto landed in front of the third Shinobi.

"Your scroll," he asked, hoping to sound somewhat polite.

"What makes you think I have it," he scoffed, crossing his arms.

"Because you keep saving your strength, your team mates are protecting you."

"So they have, and you've been wasting yours, what makes you think you can beat me?" The nin took out two tonfas and took a fighting stance. Naruto smirked and pulled out a pair of Kunai. After a brief Melee the Ninja with the Tonfa's jumped back, "Alright, so you still have your strength too. Celene!" he called to the girl in the cage, "Give him the scroll."

"But, if we give him-"

"We can get another, but we're not at this guy's level." He turned to Naruto, "You're the Jinchuuriki, they guy they named a bridge after, Naruto, aren't you."

Naruto shrugged, "So I am, who are you by the way?"

"I'm Lyle, that's Celene in the cage, and Nora in the pit."

Celene pulled out the scroll and held it through the bars. Naruto took it, then jumped up on top of the cage, he threw the two heavy stones off then leapt into the trees, "Good luck!"

saSAsaSAsa

Sakura smirked as she held up the scroll they'd just gotten in triumph. Matsuri looked at the two guys she'd knocked out with a single punch, then the one she's struggled to the ground and was sitting on to hold in place. "Wow."

"Let's go Matsuri, it's late, we should get back to camp."

"Yeah."

The two of them arrived at the campsite to spot Naruto struggling to get a decent fire going.-

"Sa-ku-ra-CHAN!" Naruto perked up.

"How many?"

Naruto held up two scrolls, "But wait- there's something else you should know now that you mention it."

"Oh."

"Wanna guess who snuck in and tried to fight me?"

"Oorachimaru- or Sasuke."

"Bingo Bingo. But he got away again," Naruto frowned now, suddenly turning serious, "He promised to kill me first, now that he knows Itachi's not Akatsuki anymore."

"So, since we have four of the eight scrolls, we'll have to be extra careful."

"I think we can assume at least one group will try to open the scroll, which means so long as we can keep our scrolls, we'll only have one other team to worry about in the third test. Our best bet is just to haul out for the tower tomorrow, before everyone else starts getting desperate."

With so few teams this time around, it wasn't too hard to evade the other teams, at least one of which Sasuke had to have taken out. They passed only one team on the way, and they were unconscious and unresponsive, a black scroll lay open beside one of them. Naruto chuckled as they hurried passed.

When they finally got to the tower they opened the two scrolls and out popped Temari, she smirked as instead of immediately congratulating them, she joked that they shouldn't have taken so long…

Naruto got into an argument with them, but Sakura interrupted them before it got violent. At last one the fifth day- less than an hour before time ran out, the second and only other team made it to the tower…

"Hey, it's you!" Naruto praised as he spotted the three Rain-Nin, "Lyle! Nora, how's the leg?"

Sakura stared up in annoyance, "when did you meet these three…"

"During the test, I got one of my scrolls from them. They must have taken both theirs from other teams."

"It wasn't easy, we had to spend the whole rest of the first day getting out of your traps and binding Nora's leg…"