A New Hope
Disclaimer; I don't own Naruto.
Today was the day of the beginning of the chunin exams. Minato had a bad feeling about this. The sandaime had filled him in on the recently created sound village and this year they would finally be participating in the exams. Not only that, but he has mentioned the rising of a criminal organization. They have kept a low profile, for now, but what concerns him is what their after. Jinchuurikis, meaning Naruto and he would be damned before he ever let them touch him. But they are not the main focus now.
Minato looked at Naruto, who was walking on his left and full of excitement, then he looked towards Sakura, who was at his right, with an unreadable expression. They would be meeting Sasuke at the academy for the exams and Minato was not happy. It had nothing to do with Sasuke's attitude, which has improved for the past few months, it has nothing to do with Naruto, who seems to always be full of energy and excitement, no, it has to do with Sakura. Or more specifically, Sakura's actions towards yesterday's second meeting.
She had changed her outfit a bit too. Her long-sleeve red shirt was now cut off at the end of her ribs and had not only her white clan symbol on the back, but the Konoha symbol on the front of her chest and her stomach was covered in black fish netting. She also changed her form-fitting shorts to black spandex with a white skirt, with slits on the side, over it. Finally she had gray knee-high boots, that matched her two pouches and kunai holster.
Yesterday, however is when they had just finished dropping off their enrollment forms for the chunin exams, Sasuke had decided to leave, while they were all heading towards Ichiraku. along the way there, they had run into Konohamaru and his friends, who was under Naruto's guidance. Minato resisted the urge to shudder at the thought. The kids had wanted to play 'ninja' and eventually Naruto agreed, dragging Sakura and himself into the game. It was fun, until Konohamaru literally ran into a sand shinobi, named Kankuro. Said boy did not take to kindly to it, but Sasuke appeared in a tree and stopped him from hurting Konohamaru. Minato however, felt one of the most blood thirstiest aura ever, coming form the boy on the other side of the same tree Sasuke was on, causing his eyes to immediately, which seemed to surprise him. They exchanged names and he got Sasuke's as well, after he apologized for his sibling's behavior. Sabaku no Gaara and his siblings Temari and Kankuro. He would need to keep an eye on them.
But that encounter did not bother him as much as the second one did.
Oo~Flashback~oO
After the sand siblings left, Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon had to get back to the academy for afternoon classes. So team seven made their way to Ichirakus' without anymore disruptions and with Sasuke this time. They were all seated in the following Sasuke, Naruto, Minato, and finally Sakura and were all eating and chatting happily about the exams tomorrow, when a voice spoke up.
" Whoa, pink hair. That's not something you see everyday." stated an interested voice. Team seven turned to see a boy with short curly brown hair and olive green eyes. He was wearing a green t-shirt under his white jacket and had standard black shinobi pants and shoes, with a white belt to match his jacket, a girl with short dark purple hair, that spiked at the ends and bangs, with dark yellow eyes, she was wearing a purple tank-top, black mid-thigh skirt, and had matching purple leggings on, along with the standard sandals. A white hair boy, who had short hair pulled back into a pony tail and thick bangs, with light blue eyes.(think of Suzuka, from Code Geass and Len from Vocaloids for the men. Also Shiro is wearing Len's outfit except instead of yellow outlining, its blue and he has blue shinobi sandals. Sorry, but his outfit and hair was too hard to describe.)
" Excuse me?" questioned Sakura, not sure if it was an insult or not.
" Oh, sorry, i didn't mean it in a bad way." he quickly apologized.
" No, I understand that it's unusual." she assured, which caused the boy to grin.
" Nice to meet you, my name is Kazune, from the waterfall village and these are my teammates, Urahara Reika and Tatsuki Shiro. Were Team Nine." he gestured to the two behind him.
" Nice to meet you as well, my name is Haruno Sakura and these are my teammates Uzumaki Minato and Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke." Minato nodded, Naruto grinned and waved, then went back to eating, and Sasuke grunted.
Kazune and his team took a seat next to Sakura." I know you've probably get this often, but is your hair natural?"
" Hai, it is. So are you guy here for the chunin exams or just to support comrades?"
" Were taking the exam. Our sensei didn't want us to enter until she thought we were ready, so this year were in." answered Rieka as she ordered for her team.
" Ya know, I was a bit skeptical to come to the leaf, with all that's been going on here for the past few years, but I, must say this place is pretty nice. Especially if it's got you here." spoke Kazune adding a playful wink. Sasuke snorted silently and Naruto huffed as he began eating again.
Sakura smiled, even though the line was a little cheesy, Kazune's charm worked it like magic. Plus it was not everyday Sakura was hit on, so it help with the self-esteem.
Minato on the other hand, did not like all the attention Kazune was giving Sakura. He was by no means jealous, he just didn't trust foreign ninja at the moment. Yeah, that's it. However his dislike for the guy only increased at Sakura's next few words.
" Your pretty cute yourself, kazune."
Said boy grinned. " So what are you into?"
" Well, aside from training I like many kinds of art and music."
" Really, I'm into music. I play the guitar and violin, what are your favorite types of music?"
" I play a few instruments myself, though I'm still learning on most of them. As for my music preferences, I don't really have a type, just as long as I like the beat and flow I'll listen to the song."
" That sound just like Kazune." spoke up Shiro for the first time. His mood went from distant, to lightly relaxed, though Minato could tell he still did not trust them yet." One hour he's listening to pop, then the next he's blasting rock music, I think he has musical mood swings."
" Hey! I so do not."
Sakura and Reika giggled.
" Is that even possible?" asked Naruto, working on his third bowl.
" Just think of it like mood swings, but with music, dobe."
" Oi teme, I am not a dobe, dattebayo!"
" Dobe?" asked Shiro.
" Teme?" questioned Reika.
" Dattebayo?" echoed Kazune.
" Just ignore it, it's how they show they care for each other." explained Sakura, to which Minato nodded.
" You leaf-nin are so weird." blinked Kazune as he and his team watched Sasuke and Naruto argue back and forth.
" You don't know the half of it." muttered both Minato and Sakura. Seriously, with their tardy, perverted, and aloof sensei, ice-cube, stuck up teammate, idiotic blonde teammate, who inhales ramen like air, female teammate with split personalities and pink hair, and finally time-traveling grown man turned into a child, well that doesn't exactly spell normal. And their not even getting into the rest of their graduating class and superiors. Yeah, the leaf is weird, but it's a warm and welcoming place as well.
" I can't wait for the exams, our team is going all the way!" announced Kazune.
" Well, you're gonna have to get past us and there's no way that's gonna happen!" retorted Naruto.
" We'll see." stated Shiro.
" Hn." answered back Sasuke.
" Good luck in the exam." wished Sakura.
" You guys as well." replied Rieka. Team Nine stood up after paying for their meals.
" Hope to see you soon, cutie pie." called out Kazune before he left the stand.
Sakura giggled and shook her head." Something tells me, I'm gonna like those guys."
Minato could not say he felt the same. And from the looks on Naruto's and Sasuke's faces they weren't far from agreeing with him.
Oo~ End of Flashback~oO
Minato finally snapped out of his thoughts and realized that they had made it to the academy for the exams.
" I'm so psyched! I wonder what the first part will be like?" wondered Naruto.
" Well find out soon enough, dobe, now let's get moving." said Sasuke as he began to walk away.
" Oi, shut up, teme!"
" Boys we are not about to do this today, especially before the exam, so mouths shut and eyes forward." said Sakura sternly as she walked ahead of them, along with Minato.
He had to agree, that listening to the same fights over and over, get tiresome and a bit annoying. So before either of the boys could protest, he spoke up.
" She's right guys, in this exam we need to depend on each other. Everyone is an opponent and at some point we might be each others opponents, so don't cause a scene, stop arguing, and let's do this."
The boys, though still upset, kept their mouths closed and moved forward.
They walked up the stairs and were met with a large crowd of genin. Two males were blocking the door and had just punched a girl with twin buns onto the floor.
" Horrible!" called out someone from the genin group.
" You think this is bad? This is nothing compared to the real exams." spoke up the guy with a strip of bandage running across the bridge of his nose.
" Yeah, were just weeding out the weaklings, you'll thank us later." spoke the other guy with brown hair covering his right eye.
" That may be, but you will let us pass." stated Sasuke.
" Also release the genjutsu." ordered Minato.
" Yeah, were not gonna waste our time at the wrong room." put in Naruto.
" This is the second floor, but we need to get to the third." finished Sakura. Mutters broke out as people said that they were on the third floor, but when the disguised chunin chuckled and released the genjutsu, the crowd was shocked.
" Not bad, but all you did was see through it!" spoke the one with brown hair, Izumo, while the one with spiky hair, Kotetsu, smirked as Izumo aimed a kick at Sasuke, who sent one back.
However, before either could hit the other a boy, with a bowl hair cut, in a green spandex jumpsuit, caught both their attacks. Much to both Sasuke's and Izumo's shock.
" What are you doing, I thought you wanted to keep a low profile." hissed and upset boy. He was obviously a Hyuuga, with his white eyes and long dark hair.
" I know but..." the spandex boy trailed off as he looked at Sakura, who did not like where this was going.
" Here we go." muttered the bun-haired girl.
The boy released his hold on the other two males and walked up to Sakura." My name is Rock Lee, please be my girlfriend. I will protect you with my life." he finished with a nice guy pose.
Naruto's jaw dropped, Sasuke scoffed, and Minato slightly narrowed his eyes.
" My name is Sakura and sorry Lee-san, but I just met you and I didn't exactly come here looking for a boyfriend." Lee's face fell, so Sakura quickly added." But, I hope we can be friends." Lee brightened up instantly.
" Yosh! I will show you, that I am worthy to be your friend and lifetime partner! Just you wait Sakura-san!"
" You have no idea what you just did. I'm Tenten, by the way." she said holding out her hand.
" Sakura, nice to meet you." they shook hands. While this was happening Neji questioned Sasuke for his name to which he replied with a snarky comment, pissing off the Hyuuga. Naruto was making fun of Lee's outfit, to which Lee criticized Naruto's in return. Minato came over towards Sakura and grabbed her hand, gently tugging her.
" We need to get going, if we want to make it on time." he then turned to Tenten." Nice meeting you, I'm Minato." he looked over towards Naruto and Sasuke trying to get their attention, so he missed what Tenten whispered to Sakura.
" Is that your boyfriend and the reason you turned Lee down?"
Sakura blushed." No, he just a friend."
" Riiiiight. Well then, I'd get with him soon, you two suite each other." she winked, much to Sakura's embarrassment.
Minato turned back towards the girls." Okay, let's get - eh, Sakura are you alright? Your looking a little red there."
" I'm fine." she said quickly, then began pulling towards the stairs." Let's go, like you said we don't want to be late."
Minato said nothing about her weird behavior, but he did squeeze her hand back and let her lead him to the third floor.
Once there, they were met with Kakashi.
" Kakashi-sensei, what are you doing here?" questioned Sakura. Kakashi raised his hand lazily.
" Yo. I am here to congratulate you all and wish you luck in the exam."
" We don't need it Kakashi-sensei, cause were going all the way!" exclaimed Naruto.
" Hn. For once the dobe is actually right."
" Shut up, teme."
" Don't worry Kakashi, I'll make sure to keep them in line."
" Good luck with that." Kakashi wished to his old teacher, while Sakura sighed as she was watching Sasuke's and Naruto's antics." By the way..." he trailed off giving a pointed look at Minato's and Sakura's linked hands.
Minato looked a little surprised himself. He forgot that he was holding her hand and from the looks of it she did as well, though Minato could not blame her, cause to him it just felt unusually natural.
" It's nothing." he finally answered.
" I see. Well, you guys better get in there, if you don't want to be late."
" Yeah, we don't want to be like you Kakashi-sensei."
" That hurt, Naruto." replied said man, with fake sadness.
" Come on you guys, the door is right there." said Sakura getting a little impatient. ' Cha! What's with all these problems and interruptions, before we even start the freaking exam?!' asked an annoyed inner. ' Don't know, but let's move.'
Kakashi waved good-bye as Naruto and Sasuke opened the doors to the exam room. The second they stepped trough, heads turned, eyes glared, and the door closed behind them, with a loud bang.
' Well, were off to a great start aren't we?'
Sakura ignored her in favor of surveying the room, along with Minato.
" Sasuke-kun!" a blob of purple whizzed by and latched onto Sasuke's back." Oh Sasuke-kun, I missed those devilish good looks of yours." she cooed.
" Ino, get of me."
" Aww, don't be so shy."
" What a drag." came the lazy drawl of Shikamaru. Chouji was next to him, munching on his favorite potato chips.
" Hey, it's the idiot trio." called Naruto as he walked over towards the two boys.
" Don't call us that!" hissed Shikamaru.
" You'll have to excuse Naruto, he left his manners at home." Sakura ground out giving Naruto a pointed look. He sighed.
" Sorry guys."
" Whatever. Though, I'm shocked you were able to get him to apologize, Sakura."
Sakura smiled slightly." Well, as you always said Shikamaru, girls can be scary." said boy rubbed his head sheepishly and gave a lazy smile.
" I'm surprised you remember that."
" Well, you said it often enough. Plus unlike some girls, I pay attention to my surrounding and other people."
" Excuse me?!" shrieked Ino, just as Kiba, Hinata, and Shino, made their way over to the group. Ino turned to glare at Sakura, but she then noticed her her hand." Humph. So, you finally decided to pay Minato-kun off to be your girlfriend after he turn you down one too many times, how desperate can you get?" she asked flipping her long pony tail behind her.
Sakura narrowed her eyes." For you information, pig, we are just friends and I never asked him out." she said as she let go of his hand, much to Minato's disappointment, but he quickly shook that thought away." Beside, unlike you I have self-respect and don't fan-girl over guys that don't give me the time of day. So, why don't you go back to the barn, where you belong and stop playing ninja."
" What did you say?!"
" Ooh~. you got burned, Ino." snickered Kiba, along with a few other boys.
" Shut it, dog breath!"
" Dogs mouths are cleaner than humans, so thank you."
However before Ino could counter, a voice spoke up.
" Hey cutie pie, good to see you again." they all turned to see Kazune, Reika, and Shiro.
" Kazune, Reika, Shiro, it's good to see you all again." smiled Sakura.
" Like wise, Sakura." nodded Reika.
" So, it seems like a little party is going on right here, are we invited?" questioned Kazune.
" I was thinking this was more of a tourist attraction." Shiro spoke, looking around the room.
" You know these guys, Sasuke?" asked Kiba.
" Ah. We met them yesterday, they're from Takigakure."
" Well then, what's up! I'm Kiba and this is my dog Akamaru, these are my teammates Hinata and Shino."
" N-nice to meet y-you."
" Greetings."
" What a drag. I'm Shikamaru and this is Choji and Ino."
" Hi."
" Did you seriously call forehead, 'cutie pie'?"
" Forehead?" Kazune then looked at Sakura's forehead and grinned slightly at her." I see nothing wrong with it, it adds on to her innocent look."
Sakura got a small blush. Minato shifted a bit closer to her and had to keep from scowling. Why was he so upset that someone was complimenting Sakura and being nice? Well, too for his taste, but everyone's different. He looked at Sakura out of the corner of his eye. Maybe Kazune is starting to like her. Minato could understand, after all she was smart, kind, and always looking out for Naruto and himself, recently Kakashi and Sasuke too. She began coming over to their house, in-order-to make sure they were eating properly and cleaning up after themselves. She freaked, when she heard that his birthday had passed and told him that they would celebrate it with Naruto's, even though he told her it was alright.
She's loud, aggressive, and a bit of a know it all, but she's Sakura. A girl who would never abandon her team, always there to support her friends, and will smile at them no matter how bad the situation is. Minato knows for a fact that he likes her smile, it always made her look beautiful. It's not her bright and bubbly smiles, though they are nice. It's her small, warm smile, that seems to say 'Thank-you-so-much-you-mean-a-lot-to-me', although Minato has only seen it twice, he is certain that there is no better smile than hers'.
He was brought out of his musings by a new unfamiliar voice." Hey, you guys should keep it down." the fresh group of genin and waterfall nin turned to see a silver-haired boy with glasses." Your getting a lot of angry looks." they all looked behind him and sure enough the entire room was glaring at them as if they offended them in the worse possible way.
" Well, who are you anyway?" questioned Ino.
the boy smiled." I'm Yakushi Kabuto, nice to meet you all."
" So have you taken this exam before?" asked Shiro.
" Hai, five times in fact, though I fail every time."
" Five times?! How tough are these exams?" called out Kiba.
" Very. Though I have gathered a lot of data with my ninfo cards."
" Ninfo cards?" echoed Choji.
Kabuto then proceeded to pull out cards and wow the genin, with his vast information, while Minato watched silently. There was something...off about this 'Kabuto'. He seems nice enough, but as ninja things are never what they seem. First, he comes over to tell us to quiet down, so we don't attract trouble. Next, he says that he has taken this exam five times already, however is willingly sharing information, with his competitors.
Minato barely heard Sasuke mutter Rock Lee and Gaara's names as he studied Kabuto. He then proceeded to crouch down and touch the floor, he had to keep from snapping his head up at Kabuto. The guy's chakra felt a lot darker than his attitude and behavior and chakra never lies. Minato could tell that not only was it darker, but also larger than he is letting on and there must be a reason for it.
" Listen, you guys might want to steer clear of the sound ninja as well, because I heard that they tend to have short tempers and bad attitudes." warned Kabuto.
'There.' thought Minato. 'Why would he narrow it down to sound? Iwa and Ame ninja have just as bad if not worse reps than the newly for sound, not even counting the 'Bloody Mist' ear in Kiri. Why did that village get singled out?'
Kabuto put away his ninfo cards." If you guys need any help in the exam, I'll gladly be of help."
'His story and actions are not adding up, if he had truly failed five times he would never waste his time with fresh genin. Not only is he explaining thing to us, but he's offering even more help, it's like he's trying to get on our good side and gain our trust.' Minato's eyes slightly widened. ' He's trying to gain our trust. He's after something and the likely hood that he is working under someone is high. He is most likely a spy, given his ninfo cards.' though Minato couldn't help but feel he heard the boy's name before.
As he finished up that last thought, a sound team came and rushed Kabuto, who dodged, but still ended up throwing up and getting his glasses cracked.
" Sorry, as you know we have short tempers." sneered a boy with gravity defying black hair.
" Are you alright man? That was gross." asked Kiba.
" I'm fine." answered Kabuto as he fixed his glasses.
" ALRIGHT, YOU MAGGOTS, I'M YOUR PROCTOR FOR THE FIRST EXAM! MY NAME IS MORINO IBIKI, your worst nightmare." he finished maliciously, with a dark smirk.
Minato was not too shock to see the man. He had just begun working at the T&I unite and was already being called a pro. Minato just hoped his team would be careful and read between the lines.
After he had explained the rules of the first exam and how, if they were to get caught cheating five times, the one caught and said persons team would be forced to leave. Also that the tenth question would be given out ten minutes before the end of the exam. However, if your team was one of the teams with the lowest overall score then you all fail.
Minato was placed directly across from Sakura, the two being separated by the aisle. He was also two rows in front of Sasuke. Naruto was two rows in front of Sakura and next to Hinata, the only team sitting together was the Ino-Shika-Cho team all the way in the back, on the same side as Sakura.
" And...Begin!" everyone turned over their test papers. Minato stared at his and quickly evaluated it. The questions were very difficult, even for chunin, but Minato was not a prodigy for nothing, plus making up to kage level only advanced his already large intelligence, so he could answer the questions just fine. He looked over towards Sakura and saw that she was already answering the questions with ease, he smiled a bit. She was definitely the bookish type, so he had no worries. Sasuke, who Minato found out activated his sharingan, back when he was fighting Haku, would be clever enough to use it and gain the answers.
It was obvious if you think about it, that Ibiki was practically forcing them to cheat. Only few genin could ever hope to answer these questions. But it's not just that. There are two chunin disguised as examines, from what Minato could tell by their chakra. Meaning that anyone around them, or with byakugan or sharingan would be able to copy off them and hopefully pass. However he was not worried about them or Sakura and Sasuke, cause he knew those two could take care of themselves. No the problem was.
Minato turned his head and looked at Naruto, who was visibly freaking out. The problem was, Naruto would be too dense to figure it out. He's the type of person that takes everything given to him as facts. A person could lie to him and he would most likely believe it. A person could be like Ibiki and give him a set of rules and Naruto would never question it, would never analyze, and would never look for the hidden truth and meaning. So Minato could only hope his son did nothing to draw attention to himself. This is not a test of intelligence, no it was a test at gathering information. The totaling of the points at the end might just be a way to throw us off guard.
But Minato has been in the game far too long to be thrown off, by a chunin exam. So just like Sakura, he answered all the questions, then opted to seeing if others discovered the hidden meaning of the test and how they would handle it.
He noticed the girl, Tenten, had wires attached to the ceiling mirrors, Neji used his byakugan, Kiba has Akamaru running around, Shino has his bugs, and Sasuke his sharingan. Minato then looked over towards the sand team. Gaara was molding his sand in his hand and it turned into a floating eye, that he sent to the genin in front of him. Kankuro just asked to go to the bathroom, with an escort of course, but as he was walking by, Minato noticed that chunin's face was coming off and that he could see wood underneath. Puppetry. He is not surprised considering Suna is known for their puppet controllers and poisons.
He then looked over towards the waterfall team. Shiro and Reika were in the same row, but there was a person between them. Kazune was right behind that person, so they were all close and seated on the far end side of Minato's half of the classroom. He saw Reika create a weird-looking black butterfly and it flew around the disguised chunin for a minute, before going back to her and resting on her hand. Her pencil began moving and she was muttering under her breath so softly that the person next to her would not even be able to hear, but when Minato turned to Shiro, he could tell that the boy heard every word.
' Super hearing, eh?' thought Minato. Lastly, he turned towards Kazune, who had thin green vines attached to not only his hand, but Shiro's as well. Their pencils were moving at the same rate and time, they were connected.' Interesting.'
It was about time for the tenth question and many students had their pencils down, waiting anxiously. Several people were caught cheating and were escorted out with their team.
" Pencils down! I will now give you the option of taking the tenth question!" barked Ibiki.
" The option?" echoed someone.
" Yes, you do not have to answer this question at all, but you will automatically fail the exam."
" What?! Then give us the question!"
Ibiki let out a dark chuckle." However, if you choose to answer the question and you get it wrong, then you will never be able to take this exam again and will remain a genin forever. If you want to quite now and try again in six months, then raise your hand, and you and your teammates will need to leave." after he said that, people got scared and several genin raised their hands.
Minato looked at his team, Sasuke looked fine and Sakura...was staring at Naruto with worry. Minato looked at his son and saw him visibly shaking, he then looked back at sakura and saw that she had come to a decision and was about to raise her hand for Naruto. However said boy, raised it on his own, but before Ibiki could say anything it was brought down on the table, hard.
" BRING IT ON, I'M NOT SCARED! I'M GONNA BECOME HOKAGE ONE DAY AND NO TEST IS GONNA STOP ME!" he shouted. As soon as he was done everyone's mood changed at the pure determination in his voice, which Ibiki noted.
" Is that your final answer?"
" Dattebayo!"
Ibiki smirked." Well then, you all pass." his smirk widened at everyone's stupefied expressions.
" What a minute, what about the tenth question?" asked Sakura, voicing everyone's question.
" There is no tenth question, it was just a test to see if you would give, when faced with a difficult decision." he began to explain how chunin are forced to make hard decisions that could put their lives in jeopardy, but do so for their village and kage.
After he finished everyone looked relieved and happy. Until an explosion went off and a banner appeared in front of Ibiki, spelling out the name of their next proctor.
" My name is Mitarashi Anko and I will be your examiner for the next part! Now, follow me!" everyone just stared at her like she was crazy, which she was.
" Anko," came Ibiki's annoyed voice as he came back into view." your early."
Said woman's posture changed to a sheepish one.
" Oops." she then looked around." You let 43 genin pass? You must be going soft, Ibiki."
" Or maybe we have a stronger batch of genin this year." he replied.
" Che. Well when I'm done with them, there won't even be half of 'em left." she announced, much to the horror of the genin.
' And here I was hoping, Anko would not turn into a huge sadist.' thought Minato, dejectedly. He knew of her past with Orochimaru as well as her...rough tendencies, so he's not that surprised.' At least we all made it. But I have a feeling, this next part of the exam is gonna be harder than we bargained for.'
Done! Sorry it took so long, I had to get my lazy butt motivated, but I did it. I do have a question for you all though.
I was thinking of pairing Naruto up with someone, however I did not just want to do naruhina, cause a lot of people are sick of the pairing(like I am with sasusaku. Really it's just used TOO much.) so give me a suggestion of who you want him with. And it can't be Sakura. sorry.
Thanks for reading and please review!