Chapter 5: The Chuunin Exam

Life went on without Naruto, and Team 7 got a new member, Sai. Recently, they had entered into a Chuunin exam, but were currently held up by two guys who had the nerve to block entrance into the exam room 301, and were beating up on the team trying to get in. "This exam is tough. We've failed three times, and people have quit, people have died, we've seen it all. You think kids like you can pass?"

Sasuke spoke up. "You will let me pass. And take down that Genjutsu."

"So you noticed."

"Of course. Sakura, you must have also noticed. Your analyzing is best in our group."

"This is the second floor." said Sai.

"Not bad, but you only saw through it!" One of the blocking ninja tried attacking Sasuke, only for one of the three injured Genin to block it.

'What the? He's completely stronger than he was before' thought Sakura.

"Their injuries are gone." said Sasuke.

"I'm Rock Lee. Wanna go out Sakura?" asked the one with the green jumpsuit and large eyebrows with a bowlcut.

"Um... no." They left, and the two blockers undid their henge and turned into two examiners.

"This exam will be fun."

After Sasuke finished fighting Lee, and them meeting up with an exam veteran named Kabuto, groups of Sand and Sound ninja, and their old classmates, they started the written exam under a strict examiner named Morino Ibiki with these rules: You start out with 10 points each, answering a question wrong costs you a point. The team as a whole scores. Cheating costs you 2 points. And finally, losing all ten points fails the entire team no matter what.

'These questions are too difficult' Thought Sasuke, using his Sharingan to copy someone else's pencil movements. Meanwhile, Sakura was filling them out, her rival Ino was cheating off of her, a sand ninja used a sand eye, Sai was using drawings that come to life, and much more cheating occured.

Lastly, there was the tenth question, which was to be revealed. "Here are the rules for the tenth question. You choose whether or not to take it. If you don't take it, you lose all of your points."

"Then why would we not take it?"

"If you get it wrong, you can never take the test again."

"But there are people here from before!"

"Unlucky for you, this year, it's my rules."

People started raising their hands to withdraw.

A voice came in "Don't underestimate me! I will not run! If I become a Genin forever, that will never change my dream! I'm not afraid." And Sakura looked to the direction of that voice and saw Naruto.

'He's back.' thought Sakura.

"This is your last chance."

No one moved.

"78 remaining. Good choice. All of you remaining pass the first test!"

"What about the 10th question?" asked Sai.

"That was it. The other questions were to test your information gathering abilities. We had planted a couple Chuunins who would know the answers already for you to start on. You have made it, and I wish you luck."

"Woohoo!"

A purple haired woman suddenly burst in. "I am Mitarashi Anko! Examiner for the second test!"

"You're early." said Ibiki.

"Whatever" said Anko.

'What an odd woman.' thought Sai

'She seems interesting' thought Sasuke 'I sense a lot of chakra.'

'She's an adult Naruto' thought Sakura, who turned her head back to make sure she hadn't been seeing things, and saw not only Naruto, but Haku a few desks back, both of them wearing Hidden Mist forehead protectors.

A/N: Yeah, it might be following the normal plot for a while, but I'll try to make things different.