Chapter 2

Naruto was surprised at how easy the first test had been. Well, not the test itself per se. More like his passing it. Before returning from the wave mission, there would have been no way that he would have passed that test. During their training, Kakashi had emphasized that everything a ninja says probably has subtext. So as soon as the proctor had said the test parameters, Team 7 immediately knew they could cheat. Naruto used his clones – he had figured out the short cut a couple weeks ago, Sasuke used his Sharingan, and Sakura...knew the answers.

So now they were standing outside Training Ground 44, also known as the Forest of Death. From rumors they had heard about this forest they were most definitely cautious. They had just been told about the scrolls and they gathered off to the side. As soon as they were far enough to not be heard, Sakura said, "So how should we do this?"

Naruto's face scrunched up in thought before his eyes widened. "The hot proctor lady only said we had to have two scrolls when we get to the tower right?" The other two looked at him and nodded hesitantly. "She never said we couldn't get the scrolls now."

Sakura smiled at him and Sasuke grunted in approval. Sakura said, "You crafty bastard."

Naruto chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. He addressed Sakura: "So I'm thinking Sasuke watches the other teams going to get their scrolls with his Sharingan on, so he can memorize good targets and where they put the scrolls. We'll walk around "finding a good gate"" At this point he made comically exaggerated "air quotes". Sakura giggled at that. "You can use a genjutsu when we get to the teams that Sasuke marks and I'll reach in and grab their scroll."

Sasuke grunted and said, "Good plan. Let's do it."

They arrived back at the gate they had chosen with a minute to spare. The had managed to grab the scrolls of four other teams. Thankfully, one of them was an earth scroll, so they had one of each already. As soon as they saw the proctor at their gate move to open the gate, Naruto said softly, "First one there buys lunch." The other two nodded. The gate opened and they leaped up into the trees and took off.

Kakashi finally understood why all the jounin senseis spent the second task in the jounin lounge in the tower. It was totally different when you had your own gennin team to brag about. He was currently lounging on a couch in the corner of the room with Sarutobi Asuma, Yuuhi Kurenai, and Maito Gai, the only other sensei that he was familiar with. He took a casual glance over his book to leer at Kurenai, whose legs looked magnificent as usual in her usual outfit. She seemed to have noticed because she glared at him. Kakashi giggled. Asuma looked over at him and lit a cigarette. He took a drag and said, "So I heard Anko's in charge of this one."

They all shuddered. Gai leaped up and gave them a thumbs up. "YOSH. MY TEAM'S FLAMES OF YOUTH WILL CARRY THEM THROUGH!" He looked over at Kakashi as he sat down again. "KAKASHI, MY HIP RIVAL, WHAT SAY YOU ABOUT YOUR TEAM'S FLAMES OF YOUTH?!"

Kakashi casually turned the page, saying, "Hmm? What was that?"

"CURSE YOU AND YOUR HIP ATTITUDE!" Gai turned to the corner where soft sobs could be heard.

Kurenai sighed as each of them sweatdropped. "Well I don't know how my team will do. They're designed to be a tracking team so they should be fine. I just hope they get through without getting injured too much."

Asuma nodded his head. "Yeah. To be honest with you, I'm worried about this task. My team is good in a straight-up fight, but I don't know how well they'll do with so many ambushes in there." They all looked pointedly at Kakashi who again casually turned a page. He took great pride in his ability to look casually nonchalant. "Well Kakashi? It's your turn."

"They'll be here by the end of the day."

Asuma choked on his cigarette and was now hacking up a lung. Kurenai glance at Asuma in disgust and glared at Kakashi. "What the hell are you talking about? gennin can't run here that fast, let alone get another scroll as well."

He turned another page. "That's assuming my gennin are on your gennin's level." Kurenai and Asuma glared at him and Gai looked at him questioningly. "They aren't."

Gai suddenly jumped up and flashed them another thumb up, "YOSH! KAKASHI, YOUR CONFIDENCE IN YOUR TEAM'S FLAMES OF YOUTH PORTRAYS THE BURNING OF YOUTHFUL PRIDE IN YOURSELF!"

Kakashi ignored him again – Is it wrong that I find ignoring him so amusing? Kurenai ground out. "You're an arrogant son of a bitch, you know that?" She tossed her hair over her shoulder – Kakashi took the opportunity to glance at her chest – and said, "What makes you so sure of that, anyway?"

Kakashi turned another page. "They have the most potential in their year and they're being trained by the best jounin in the village."

The casual attitude when he said that made all three of them glare. Kakashi wasn't surprised. He did just insult not only their students but themselves as well. He finally looked up from his book to stare at Asuma, then at Kurenai. "I could wipe the floor with any jounin in this village." He glance over at Gai. "Except Gai. He might give me some trouble."

Kurenai was once again glaring at him – she really was hotter when she was glaring at him. Is that why I do this? He mentally shrugged. It seemed that no one had anything to say to that, so they all just sat there in silence but for the occasional sipping sound as they drank their coffee.

Team 7 was currently racing through the forest at top speed, little but blurs to any of the teams below them – not that any of them knew they were there of course. Most gennin would be unable to keep this speed for so long, but after Kakashi's survival training (beat down), they had built up some impressive stamina and speed. They stopped about 30 feet from the tower to rest for a moment and analyze the situation. Naruto looked over at Sasuke and he turned on his Sharingan and gazed towards "no-man's land". "I don't see any chakra signatures."

Sakura and Naruto looked over at him in confusion. Sakura glance forward again, "Strange. That seems too easy."

Naruto chimed in. "Yeah but I'd be willing to bet nobody thought anyone would be able to get this far so fast."

The other two nodded and Sasuke and Naruto made to ump forward when Sakura stopped them. "Wait! Let's just be sure. Naruto make some clones and send em over." Naruto nodded and made two clones appear. They each took off for the tower. The three were admittedly shocked when each of them made it about ten feet before a snake popped out of the ground under their feet. One of them was unfortunate enough to be bitten on the leg before he registered the snake and he poofed out of existence. The other was fast enough to substitute with a rock to the side, but as soon as he appeared again, another snake popped out underneath him and managed to get him with its fangs.

The three stood there for a minute. Naruto finally said, "What the fuck?"

It was a testament to how shocked Sakura was that she didn't berate him for his language. She turned to Sasuke. "I thought you said there weren't any chakra signatures."

Sasuke furrowed his brow. "There weren't. There must be some sort of cloak on them." They all entered their thinking poses.

Naruto snapped his fingers. "I got it!" Sakura shushed him. He rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment before he focused again. "We launch ourselves over there."

Sasuke and Sakura looked at him. Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "What."

Naruto nodded fervently. "Yeah man. We just need to make a catapult."

Sakura raised an eyebrow at him. "And just how do we do that?"

Naruto calmly said, "I don't know. I haven't though that far yet." His teammates both sweatdropped. He looked over at Sakura. "Aren't you the smart one?" She glared at him before returning to her thinking pose. Her other teammates copied her. Finally, she said, "We just need something springy and something that can make tension for the potential energy."

Sasuke grunted. "We could use ninja wire for the tension." She nodded.

Naruto looked over at her. "What would be the ideal springy?"

Sakura tapped her manicured finger on her chin – She might be taking her training seriously, but there were some things she refused to lose. "Well I guess something like a board made from rubber."

Naruto made a clone who transformed into a rubber board. "Like that?"

She smiled at him and said, "Well, let's find out. Sasuke, you're the one with all the wire." He nodded and pulled a length out of his pouch.

Orochimaru was angry; very angry. Some would say that he was always angry, but that would be incorrect. Usually he would simply frustrated at the incompetence of those around him. This time, he was furious. He couldn't find the Uchiha anywhere in this Kami-forsaken forest. He knew he was inside because he had seen him and his team waiting outside a gate.

He had made dozens of tsuchi bunshin, but none of them could find him. He had taken his rage out on a few of the teams that annoyed him, but that did little to subdue his anger.

After 5 days, he gave up and made his way to the tower. After sneaking in, he killed the jounin sensei for the gennin team he had sent, and, stealing the man's face, he made his way to the small arena in the entrance of the tower to see which teams had made it.

Team 7 looked around at all the gennin who had made it past the second exam. There were 6 other teams that had made it to the tower. According to the new proctor, a sickly looking man with a persistent cough, that was far more than they anticipated and thus they needed to hold preliminary matches to cut down the field.

In addition to 5 Konoha teams that had made it through – An impressive feat that had the jounin on the balconies swelling with pride – there was a team from Oto and a team from Suna. When the proctor asked if anyone wanted to drop out, Naruto was unsurprised to see that the Konoha "veteran" they met before the first round raised his hand. That explains why he's never made it through. After a speech about how the match ups would work, they were all told to make their way up to the balcony.

They joined Kakashi and he smiled at them while ruffling Naruto's hair, ignoring the glare he received. "I'm proud of you guys."

Sasuke scoffed. "You'd better be after we made it within a day."

Kakashi glanced over to see that Kurenai was still annoyed with him and said to his team, "Indeed. I would have lost my bet otherwise. And you know what that would mean."

Sakura smiled at him. "Yeah, well, we'll just have to make chuunin so you can never threaten us with extra training again."

He smiled back, but before he could reply they heard the proctor yell out, "Uchiha Sasuke vs. Akado Yoroi."

Without a word Sasuke walked down to meet his opponent on the floor. Without a word, the proctor coughed and motioned for them to begin. Yoroi sneered at Sasuke who was standing with his hands in his pockets. "I bet you think you're tough shit just cuz you're an Uchiha. Well I'll take great pleasure in knocking you down a peg."

Sasuke scoffed. "You done stroking your own ego?"

The other boy glared at him and his hands glowed blue before he rushed at Sasuke, who waited until the last moment to duck under the boy's punch and gave him a strong uppercut to the stomach as he stepped past. He walked away for three steps before he turned to Yoroi who was standing again and taking deep breaths. Sasuke put his hands back in his pockets. "You wanna pause for a moment while you stroke your ego again?"

Up on the balcony Ino was gushing over his performance, "Sasuke-kun is so awesome! Oh, he looks so cool!" She glared at Shikamaru when he mumbled, "troublesome."

Shikamaru jumped and Chouji, who was standing next to him, choked on a chip when they heard Naruto's voice right next to them, "Yeah, he's pretty cool. I'm way more awesome than he is though."

Ino turned to glare at him. "You could never be better than him, Baka!"

Naruto shrugged, an action which made Shikamaru narrow his eyes in suspicion. "Meh. I don't know why he ignores you." He looked down her body and back up to her eyes, smiling at her heated glare. "I sure wouldn't."

"Naruto! Control yourself! You're in public." Naruto looked over at Sakura sheepishly and nodded.

Kakashi Kakashi had seen the byplay and smiled widely at Naruto. "I'm so proud of you!" This earned him another glare from Kurenai and a proud smile from Naruto which in turn earned him another glare from Ino and a growl. Hearing the growl he immediately ran back over to his team and thereby, relative safety. He was incorrect however because as soon as he got there, Sakura bopped him on the head.

They all jumped when the proctor yelled out, "Uchiha Sasuke is the winner."

As soon as Sasuke got up to the balcony, he looked around at them and said, "You weren't watching." It wasn't a question, and Naruto chuckled slightly in guilt.

"Next match: Aburame Shino vs. Zaku" The two made their way down and engaged in the typical pre-fight banter. This banter was rather one sided though, as Shino didn't say anything. Those that knew him weren't surprised. He almost never spoke. It was obvious to Team 7 that Shino was going to win. Zaku relied far too much on the air cannons in his arms and wasn't paying attention as he should have. When Shino had his bugs enter the cannons and clog them, they backfired and blew off his arms. The fight was very much over at that point. Shino returned to the balcony without a word.

The third match was between the last member of the veteran Konoha team vs. the Suna ninja that they had run across bullying Konohamaru the other day. Naruto glared at him even though the boy wasn't paying attention to him. It was an easy victory for the boy. If Tsurugi Misumi, the Konoha ninja, had known anything about Suna ninja, he would have known that Suna is famous for its puppet masters. It's always a safe idea to fight an unknown Suna ninja with the assumption that they use puppets. The Suna boy, Kankurou, had his puppet crush the Konoha ninja in a rather gruesome way and returned to the balcony.

"Next match: Haruno Sakura vs. Yamanaka Ino."

The two met in the middle and Ino was the first to speak. "Looks like we finally get to fight for Sasuke-kun's love."

Sakura scoffed, an action that Ino was clearly not suspecting. "You'll never get his attention if you stay as weak as you are."

Ino stopped talking and lurched forward before rushing at Sakura. She charged the area directly to Sakura's left, leaving her wide open to the chop Sakura gave to the back of her neck. She dropped to the floor and the proctor declared Sakura the winner.

When she got back to the balcony, Asuma was saying to no one in particular, "When did she have a chance to place the genjutsu?"

Sakura answered his question. "While she and I were talking."

He looked askance at her. "I didn't see you make any hand seals."

Shikamaru piped in lazily, "That's why her sleeves are so long. So you can't see her making hand seals." The jounin nodded in appreciation, and Kurenai looked at Kakashi in a new way as he congratulated Sakura."

He then looked over at Kurenai and Asuma. "Two for two." The other two scowled.

"Next match: Tenten vs. Temari."

As the two walked down the stairs, Sakura turned to Gai, saying, "Tenten's a weapons specialist right?"

Gai's reply was unsurprisingly overenthusiastic. "YOSH! HER ABILITY WITH WEAPONS SHOWS THE DEPTHS OF HER FLAMES OF YOUTH!"

Naruto was the next to speak. "She's going to lose." The gennin around him glared. "That Suna kunoichi is wearing a battle fan on her back, so you can assume that she's a wind specialist. That's the worst match up a weapon's specialist could have." The gennin and their jounin sensei looked at him in a new light. In a few minutes, Naruto was proven correct as Tenten was unable to do anything against Temari's wind jutsu.

"Next Match: Nara Shikamaru vs. Tsuchi Kin." Shikamaru groaned and wouldn't have even gone down if it weren't for Asuma telling him his mother would not approve of his forfeiture. As soon as he seriously got into the fight, Shikamaru's genius was made apparent. The battle lasted 5 minutes before Kin walked into a trap Shikamaru had set up at the beginning of the fight.

"Next match: Inuzuka Kiba vs. Uzumaki Naruto." They both jumped over the ledge to make it to the floor as quick as possible.

Kiba started the pre-fight banter. "You think getting a new wardrobe makes you a better ninja?" He sneered following this.

"Yeah it does." This casual statement surprised Kiba. "I wore a bright orange jumpsuit before. I could wear pretty much anything else and it would be an improvement." This statement was followed by a few chuckles.

Kiba took his dog, Akamaru, out of his jacket and set him off over to the side. He arrogantly turned back to Naruto and said, "I'll just put him over here. It's not like I'll need his help against the dead-last." He followed this with another sneer.

"Big mistake." After saying this, Naruto charged forward, making two clones come to life next to him. Kiba was surprised at his speed and was forced to backpedal as the two clones began attacking from the sides while the real one attacked from the front. He also didn't seem to notice that the Naruto's were trying to maneuver him into the position that he wanted. Jumping back, the two clones kept attacking while the real Naruto pulled out a fuuma shuriken and opened it up before launching it at Kiba. He didn't let it go as hard as he could however. Hitting Kiba with it wasn't his goal.

Kiba finally managed to dispel the clones but did so with barely enough time to duck underneath the shuriken. He rushed forward, but stopped when he heard Naruto's voice from behind him. "You might wanna forfeit."

He turned around and snarled when he saw Naruto holding a kunai to Akamaru's neck. He was about to charge him, but stopped with wide eyes when the kunai moved closer and Akamaru whined. "I forfeit." he glared as Naruto put the puppy down and patted it on the head before making his way back up to the balcony. "I'll kill you for that." Kiba followed this with a snarl.

Naruto looked over his shoulder at him. "If I was an enemy in the field, he would have been dead as soon as I got to him." As he got to his team, he blushed sheepishly as they congratulated him.

Kakashi looked over to where the Hokage was sitting and smiled at him. The Hokage nodded his head in approval.

"Next match: Hyuuga Hinata vs. Hyuuga Neji." The hatred that Neji displayed to Hinata throughout the match was disgusting to the Konoha shinobi. Gai was particularly shameful when his student almost killed Hinata.

There was an awkward pause before the proctor called out, "Next match: Gaara vs. Lee" This match was equally disturbing. Lee had opened five of the gates – something that Kakashi berated Gai for – and had seemed to beat Gaara into the ground. As Lee had started to celebrate, gaara's sand shot out and before anyone could react, Lee's left arm and left leg had been pulverized, effectively ending his career as a shinobi.

After another awkward pause, the last match was announced and Chouji went down to fight an Oto. ninja name Dosu. Dosu's ability to manipulate sound had disoriented Chouji enough that he rolled right into a wall and knocked himself out.

After Dosu was declared the winner, they all gathered on the floor to listen to the Hokage's speech. Apparently, the Chuunin Exams were an alternative to war. None of the gennin seemed to care too much, though, being mostly concerned with just getting promoted. After his heart-warming speech, the Hokage announced, "you will each be given a number randomly. These numbers will determine your place in the bracket for the Finals. Please reach into this basket and take a number."

There was a moment to collect who had which number and determine the bracket positioning before the proctor announced the match ups: "

Uzumaki Naruto vs. Temari

Aburame Shino vs. Nara Shikamaru

Hyuuga Neji vs. Haruno Sakura

Kankurou vs. Gaara

Kinuto Dosu vs. Uchiha Sasuke

"You all have one month to prepare for the finals. Congratulation on having the honor to represent your village and you country in this Exam."

You have obviously noticed some of the differences between this and canon. For starters, I always wondered why nobody thought of doing that stunt with the scrolls at the beginning. I feel a team that's been trained hard by Hatake Kakashi, the man whose motto is "Look underneath the underneath" would pretty much force them to think outside the box.

Also, I know some of you are gonna complain about how overpowered they are in the prelims. I hope I've said it enough, but here it is again: THEIR SENSEI IS THE BEST JOUNIN IN THE VILLAGE. Particularly now that he's gotten his shit together. Remember, he hasn't just been training his team. He's been training himself also. I'm not exaggerating when Kakashi says they're the most talented team. It's repeatedly implied in canon that this is the case.

On top of that, they all got relatively lucky match ups. Every one of their opponents underestimated them. Now that they've displayed some of their skills, I assure you they'll have some trouble with the Finals.

On another note, since Sakura has made it through instead of the double knockout in canon, I had to rearrange the match ups. I did a random number generator to make them so they were randomly assigned. I'll leave you guys to guess what each of the new matches will imply for the storyline.

One other mundane thing I wanted to add in this story. Naruto is a bit of a pervert in this one. He's not gonna be a super pervert like Jaraiya and he's not gonna walk around reading porn. How does he not become one in canon? His first original jutsu is turning into an extremely attractive girl and in canon, he spent many hours in an adult bookstore doing "research". He obviously has had an appreciation since before he was a gennin. And now hormones are starting to set in. So every once in a while there's gonna be some perviness thrown in. For the most part, it's just gonna be there to add some humor.

Once again, tell me what you guys think.