Sasuke slowly managed to determine that he was being carried. The rhythmic hopping, combined with the pressure around his back and thighs made it pretty clear that someone was holding him in his/her arms. How... shameful.

He decided that, as a good Uchiha and on general principle, he should do something against that, and tried to move. Tried being the word. The only thing he managed was to slowly open his eyes and realize that it was Naruto of all people carrying him. He would probably never hear the end of that, knowing the blonde... No matter, it wasn't as if he could do anything about it. Or do anything at all. He had never before felt so… empty was the most fitting word. As if some great dam inside himself had broken and all of his strength had poured out in roughly the minute his sight had changed. Was this total chakra exhaustion? He had heard about it, but never actually experienced it; after all it was extremely dangerous. Still he had expected the exams to be exhausting, and not having the largest chakra reserves, taken precautions. Now he only had to communicate the location of his emergency restoration pills, who would give him back around 70 percent of his reserves within an hour or two, but other than soldier pills were not hazardous, to someone (namely either Naruto or Sakura, great!) who then would have to actually feed them to him.

Oh joy...

Just as he once again tried to get his voice to work, he heard a rather loud thump, and shortly thereafter he was quite unceremoniously put in a sitting position against a tree trunk. Followed by Sakura's worried face appearing right in front of his, seeing his open eyes, and reddening into the color of her hair.

"Sasuke! You're awake! Are you alright? Can you move? Why were you out, and what did you do to the creepy Grass Nin?" The words almost streamed out of her, and while his mind (and hearing, obviously) worked fine, he was not able to answer even one of the questions. He had no idea what exactly he had done, but thinking back, his sight had been incredible. Had he actually managed to awaken the Mangekyo? Unlikely, he remembered that in recent history only 2 Uchiha had been able to do that, and not even his otherwise oh so prodigious brother Itachi had been one of them. But if, the implications were...

He was brought out of his musings by Naruto hitting him softly on the right shoulder. "Hey, are you all there?" The blondes voice sounded somewhat more sober than usual. Sasuke tried to communicate his usual cool answer by blinking. Not one of his better ideas he had to admit.

"Okay... " Naruto scratched his head, then seemed to have an idea. "OK Sasuke, one blink for yes, 2 for no, K?" Sasuke blinked once. Why did it not surprise him that Naruto would have that idea?

"Good. Now, do you know how we can get you back up?" Blink. "Yay. Uh, do you know how to do it without wasting a day or more resting?" Blink. "Hey, this is fun..." For a short time the blondes famous grin was making an appearance, but for some reason it did not stay.

Sakura chimed in now. "Sasuke, do you have an emergency pill or a chakra restoration pill anywhere on you?" Again it showed that, when she utilized her brain properly, Sakura was very smart. Sasuke blinked once and then tried to look towards his right pouch as demonstratively as possible. Which seemed to work, as Naruto grabbed said pouch, and started to rummage through it. With his usual lack of subtelty.

"Ouch, another Shuriken. That makes 12. But where is whatever pill you need to get back up?" The blonde's murmuring was, strangely, very clear to Sasuke. Maybe being unable to move made his concentration on what still worked better? Who knew. "Ah, got it." Naruto held a small, semi-translucent bag high into the air.

Sasuke blinked. Sadly that did little to confer his "Hey, stupid, I need to EAT them, not only to LOOK at them!" to his obnoxious friend. Hn.

Luckily Sakura did what she was supposed to do, namely taking the bag out of Naruto's grip, opening it and removing the three vaguely green, slightly soft pills from it. "OK Sasuke, I will now … give the pills to you." She almost said feed, but blushed and changed her wording. If he could Sasuke would have smirked. "Do you need all 3?" Double Blink. "Is one enough?" On slow blink. "Good, here we go..." and with much blushing and fidgeting Sakura opened his mouth, put one pill and some water into and closed it. Sasuke on the other hand actually managed to swallow the terribly smelly thing. Yay.

Now he would only be a totally useless weight to his team for another hour or so...

"OK, how long will this take?" Naruto inquired after about 5 Minutes. "Oh right, only yes and no, gotcha. Will it take another 5 Minutes?" Double Blink.

"Another 10 maybe?" Double Blink.

"Aw this sucks, longer than that?" Blink. The blonde bundle of energy started to sound petulant.

"Darn, this is going to take days, I know it!" Sasuke blinked involuntarily. "What, really? O fu...!"

Double Blink. "Oh, good. Hmm, maybe ... an hour?" Blink. "Damn. OK then, Sakura and I will guard you while you rest. This place should be … safe." The way Naruto said that made Sasuke notice that his whole body language was … somewhat off. More controlled, and almost … angry?

What had happened while he had been out?

Sakura knelt down beside him. Obviously (and unsurprisingly) she would be the "close guard". He assumed Naruto's clones would do the rest, but could not see any. Good, the blonde's camouflage skills seemed to be improving. He sighed inwardly, and impatiently waited for the pill to take effect.

Which it did, bit by bit, during the next hour. Slowly, starting with his shoulders, then his hands followed by his torso and legs Sasuke regained muscle control. After almost exactly a full hour he could stand up and began to stretch almost normally. Sakura of course watched him closely all the time, especially while he tested if he had suffered any damage. Strangely, aside from a large bruise on his back where he had hit the tree after his desperate gambit with the Grand Fireball, as well as a few singed parts, he felt relatively unhurt. Good.

"Thanks for getting me this far safely, I'm back on track now." He stated with a tone that mixed gratefulness and an almost audible smirk quite perfectly. Naruto (well, a Naruto at least) and Sakura smiled. "Well, you saved us back there, how could we do less." "Naruto" stated while scratching his head. "By the way, how did you do that? This creepy Grass Nin was awfully strong...and fast."

"If I only knew..." Sasukes murmured, his voice had a very pensive tone. He straightened and answered with normal volume. "Only thing I know is that I was not going to let him kill you two. And suddenly my vision got ..." He caught himself. They were his friends, and he would tell them what he knew, but these were Uchiha Clan Secrets, and this forest was a battle-zone. "Let's talk about that later, Ok? Only sure thing is it knocked me out. Depleted my chakra. So for now we shouldn't count on a repeat performance." He finished stretching and stood in a relaxed pose. Then looked around.

"Hey where exactly are we? The tower there looks awfully close..." He trailed off, as a, probably THE, Naruto jumped down from a tree branch. "Well, we thought it might help to move ahead a bit while you were … out, to make your recovery safe. The battle was loud and might have attracted more enemies..." Sakura explained, but shot a strange glance towards Naruto, who, totally out of character, neither said anything nor scratched his head. So something had happened that the blonde did not want to talk about, Hn! Back to business then.

"Whatever happened, I think we should go and get us an Earth Scroll now, huh?"

At that Naruto returned to his normal behavior. "Ah well, um..." He drawled, while Sakura once again looked... worried? "We actually already have one. We, um, met another Team shortly after you drove the Creep off and managed to take their scroll." Naruto produced said scroll from his pouch, and Sasuke started to be really worried now. The Naruto he knew would have boasted, grinned and boasted more had he singlehandedly recovered the goal number 1 of this exam. But here he seemed almost ashamed.

Weird.

As if this whole exam had not been strange enough already, with what his Sharingan had done, not to mention strange interloping Jounin with snakelike faces…

"Ok Naruto, if you don't want to talk about it I'll respect that. But as a Team we need to be able trust each other, and you are obviously hiding something, and seem worried, so: are you alright?" Sasuke let the worry he felt color his voice, while Sakura hung her head a bit as he asked his question. Naruto on the other hand seemed to be fighting with himself. And loosing.

What a strange thought, Sasuke mused, as Naruto finally let loose. "It's just that, when you were down and Sakura-chan was hurt, and then 3 other Ninja attacked us, I... I wanted to protect you, err... us, you know what I mean. And I could not. I was simply too beat up already from being shot through and then lying under the tree the Creep cut down. So I got so angry with myself and the Rain Nin that attacked us..." He trailed off and looked at Sasuke, and to the Uchiha's astonishment there were unshed tears in Naruto's eyes. "Then I somehow lost it. Next thing I remember is Sakura shouting at me to "Stop Naruto, Stop it!", and when I looked around me I had somehow beaten the Rain Nin to a bloody pulp. Literally." He swallowed, a bit green around the edges. "I... I cannot talk about why that happened, not now. I promise to tell you once we are able to talk in peace. But I need to stay in control, stay calm, or it might happen again. I don't want to hurt you or Sakura-chan... Can you help me with that? You always seem so cool and in control..." His tone was pleading, anguished.

Sasuke was astonished. Not only had Naruto beaten 3 other Genin, no he had done so in some kind of berserker Rage, if Sakuras looks were any indication a pretty impressive one. He had read that some clans, mostly in Cloud and Mist, had possessed bloodlimits similar to that, but as far as he knew Naruto was not a Clan member, far less from outside Konoha or the Land of Fire. He would have to ask Sakura for details later. Even more shocking however was that his friend felt strongly enough about not "losing it" again that he had actually asked HIM for advice on how to keep ones cool.

This day just kept getting weirder and weirder.

"Of course. You're my friend Naruto, and if you need my help I'll do what I can to help you." He answered without any conscious thought. Friends were important, and if Naruto needed him THAT strongly, he would have to be a real ass not to help as best as he could.

"Thanks." Naruto was obviously fighting a huge emotional reaction. He would NOT let his red-clad teammate hug him, he decided, so Sasuke quickly reacted.

"Well as we have the scrolls now, how about we hurry and get to the tower? While on the move I can give you some tips already, if you like." While talking he moved slightly away from Naruto, not looking directly at him in an effort to prevent being tackled with a hug. Or some-such. Sakura smiled at him while he did so, a true, unblushing, genuine smile. And she looked stunning doing so, Sasuke had to admit, her eyes sparkling a deep forest pond green and... Err... back to the matter at hand. No unwanted complications now. No.

"Lets go." He said and moved ahead.

They moved on, 2 of Narutos clones ahead and on each side, Sasuke next to the original Naruto, quietly talking and Sakura one jump behind them, and followed by 2 more clones. And surprisingly, the rest of the way towards the tower, which took about 15 minutes, was entirely uneventful. No huge insects, or bears, or freaky foreign Ninja.

Nothing.

Sasuke was of course put on edge rather than being calmed by that, but after the day so far, who could blame him?

They arrived in the tower, and a huge script told them to open the scrolls now. Huh, unexpected. He was just about to tell his team to do that when Naruto exclaimed "Ok." and almost tore his scroll, the Earth scroll he had captured, open. He smirked. Seemed his friend was a bit more himself again. He quickly opened the Heaven scroll, and with a huge puff of smoke, Iruka appeared. Phew, it seemed that part was really over now. Sasuke let his team handle the particularly obvious lecture and relaxed. Physically that is, as his mind was still churning through all the worrying things he had experienced this day, from the creepy Jounin and his newly changed Sharingan to Narutos… problems. He quietly followed Sakura and Naruto towards a resting area, as it seemed they and 2 other teams were the only ones that had already reached the tower. Good, some rest was much needed...

And so Team 7 rested for a few hours, unbeknownst to them being watched not only by the Konoha Nin overseeing the exam, especially a still rather suspicious Iruka trying to find out why Sasuke was being so… well, non-emo, but also by a rather smug Haku...

It was the evening of the same day, and most groups had already arrived, and in more or less one piece too. Anko was… pissed. How was it that not only most of the groups had arrived at all, but also on average a whole day earlier than expected? She had shouted at Ibiki for letting too many get through, and now? What was she going to do to prevent him from smirking his "Ah, poor Anko" smirk at her?

On top of that, there had been some sightings of very powerful wind Jutsu, suggesting that at least some of the visitors were far better than Genin (aside from the obvious choices for such assumptions, Sands Gaara and Swords Haku came to mind) and even many Chunin. Just perfect, why had it always have to be on her watch?

Sighing inwardly but wearing a mask of frustrated anger Anko stormed into the Watchers chamber, where Iruka and another Chunin she could not remember the name of waited already.

"OK guys, we need to shrink the numbers. Of the 138 Genin that passed Ibikis test, already 60 have arrived, and it looks as if 4 more groups are close enough to manage the exam as well, even if we only count all that have arrived within one day of the first group, which would put us at full 72. Which is, as you no doubt know, around twice the number we were expecting. We need to hold preliminaries, and for all of them, and even then we will have more Genin in the final elimination rounds than we thought possible." Her tirade was not interrupted, after all Anko was well known for both her temper and her… skills. Her smile did nothing to deter from that train of thought either, and Iruka gulped. Woe to anyone forced to endure Ankos version of the normally rather tame preliminaries.

"We will also have to prevent any rigging attempts. We cannot be suspected to do so this time, when already a suspicious number of our own Genin have made it through. Including ALL of the most recent class." Iruka added, almost against his better judgment, as he had intended to prevent Naruto to have to face Sasuke at the very least. Anko smiled at him. "Now THAT is what I want to hear. Let's devise some… mayhem then, shall we?"

Which then they did for the next hour. Unbeknownst to the poor Genin, something new was going to wait for them in the preliminary rounds...

It was the morning of the next day, and all 4 groups that had seemed likely to arrive had done so. Which meant that now roughly 80 Genin were standing around the arena, waiting for Anko, who was leading the preliminaries, to tell them what new, and potentially Snakey-scary, things were waiting for them.

"Listen up brats! As too many of you to have a nice, normal tournament have passed this exam, we will now be holding one on one preliminary rounds. With a twist." At that she smiled, and most Konoha Nin thought "of course". "The opponents will be shown on this screen, as well as the special modifier for their battle. These include, but are in no way limited, to environmental hazards, time limits and other nice little things to make your bouts more interesting…" She explained a bit more, while Naruto and Sakura were smiling at Sasuke. After all their common training had included "surprise" attacks by clones, so they felt prepared. Which, if they judged the banter correctly, did not apply to many of the other Genin.

Sasuke was brought out of his musings when the first battle was announced. The big screen shuffled through Ninja, and then stopped at "Haku vs. Kiba Inuzuka", time limit 2 minutes. Ouch, poor Kiba, he thought.

And his train of thought proved to be correct, as Haku thrust a few Senbon at Akamaru, and while Kiba started to rage in anger at him as well. And it was over in seconds. Sasuke however had noticed the pattern in which Haku threw his Senbon, and it was quite superior to his method, so he decided to adapt it later on. But now for some fun...

The next 4 matches were more or less boring, some Konoha and some Ame Nin, as well as one from Grass showed normal skill levels. The most interesting thing happening was the sudden eruption of multiple gouts of flame that were the environmental hazard in battle 3. But then the screen showed "Sasuke Uchiha vs. Neiji Hyuga", Close Combat, no time limit. Just his luck. Yes, he was extremely good at Taijutsu, but those damn Hyuga didn't train anything BUT Taijutsu. Damn. Still, he was a proud Uchiha, he would win.

He jumped into the arena after receiving the thumbs up from Naruto and his mind was already working on a strategy as the impeccably dressed Hyuga entered. He bowed, the correct amount regarding their respective standing, and said. "I am honored to fight the only worthy opponent in this exam." And he actually sounded as if he meant it. Well, Sasuke was a Clan heir, so he also bowed as was appropriate. Then he smirked and said: "Let's get to it then, shall we?" and activated his Sharingan. Neiji looked more than a little shocked at the sight of a mature Sharingan watching him, Tomoe spinning lazily, a small flicker of Raiton Chakra dancing every few seconds. He activated his own Doujutsu just as Sasuke had finished executing the Sparrowhawk Jutsu and came at him full speed.

The first few exchanges happened so fast that none of the present Genin (that actually were Genin) could follow them, then the 2 blurring forms separated, neither having landed a hit. Sasuke had to admit, Neijis hands were almost unfairly quick. Without his Sharingan he would have been hit at least 5 times, and that was including his boosted speed. This way however, they seemed evenly matched so far. They rushed at each other again, and again, the chatter had long since silenced as the other Genin got to watch a real show. The most intent observers were one Hinata Hyuga, who now realized that she was far more behind her cousin than even she had thought, and Sakura who wished she could see more clearly what her crush was actually doing. Still, Sasuke was awesome. Who else would be able to actually match the Rookie of the (previous) Year, a prodigy from a Taijutsu specialized clan, in said area? Lee however was awestruck. Since his bout Sasuke had improved vastly. The Fires of Youth had to be burning bright in the last Uchiha.

It happened through their 4th full exchange. A slight touch of Neiji's hand reached Sasuke's upper leg and immediately paralyzed part of it, while Sasuke's kick knocked Neiji off balance. Still, he knew he was going to lose if the Hyuga could regain his balance, so Sasuke pressed on, raining combos on the Hyuga. A loud crunch as well as a burst of bluish chakra, and both went down, obviously unconscious. Anko grinned, she had liked the fight, even more so as two oh so prodigious Great Clan members lay there, knocked out. She really wanted to call it a double loss... However, since this round had no time limit, the winner would be the one to wake up first.

Crud.

Slowly Sasukes consciousness returned. Damn, he had ran directly into Neijis Juuken strike. It looked like he had lost.

Wait, why was he still lying on the sand of the arena? He slowly got into a sitting position, and with his still unresponsive right leg sitting would be the only comfortable thing to do for a while, and looked around. As he did so some cheers erupted, and he saw that Neiji still lay unconscious.

"And the winner is: Sasuke Uchiha!" Anko exclaimed loudly. He had won? Hmmm, no time limit, both knocked out... strange way to win, but seeing how handicapped he had been, he would not complain. Just as he finished that thought, Naruto landed next to him.

"Congrats Sasuke. Need help getting up?" Sasuke smirked and nodded. Say what you want about Naruto, he usually did what needed doing. And so, limping aided by Naruto, Sasuke got back up to the stands, while Med-Nin carried Neiji off.

As he arrived, the next match was displayed. "Sakura Haruno vs. Ino Yamanaka, Time limit 1 Minute." A very short battle, and between Kunoichi. Sasuke smiled at Sakura encouragingly. With the increased training she should win without much fuss. Sakura jumped down, and glared at Ino, who glared back. What was their problem? Sasuke always thought they were some sort of friends... That notion was quickly disproved, as as soon as the match began, Sakura fired a cutting dust barrier at Ino, obstructing the Yamanakas sight, and then, to his immense surprise, executed the Sparrowhawk Jutsu. He had not expected her to be able to do that (or even to be willing to use a close combat enhancer) but she did it. And stormed towards the cloud of small, cutting dust at a speed that told him she was good at it. Better than Naruto. Dull punches and some painful noises were heard, and the barrier collapsed, showing a knocked out Ino lying on the ground and a somewhat battered but smiling Sakura standing over her. The whole battle had taken less than 30 seconds.

"Yay Sakura-chan. Way to go!" Naruto shouted, his grin wide and white. Sasuke smiled at Sakura. Nodding in a complimenting way. That was another sign that she was shaping up. He liked it. And if he was honest, her hair looked better that way, slightly disheveled and dirty...ahem.

Ino groaned and slowly got up, looking as poisonous as before, while Sakura walked up the stairs towards her team, smiling as happy as she could.

Before they could talk much however, the next battle was announced. "Naruto Uzomaki vs. Dosu Kinuta, Environmental Effects: Earth, Time limit 3 Minutes". Naruto grinned. Sakura wished him good luck, sounding a bit… depressed when doing so, but continued to look happy. Whoever the guy was, if Sasuke's assumptions were correct Naruto might "freak out" again, so he held himself as ready as possible with his still almost paralyzed and rather tingly leg. Still, he was somewhat looking forward to see how Naruto would do, so he thumped him on the shoulder, adding a "You can do it!" before the blonde jumped down.

Little did he, or anyone else for that matter, know that this battle would mark the end of an era...

AN:Sorry for the long delay folks, I was overworked for quite a bit, on top of that managed to sprain my wrist and, caused by the disappointing lack of reviews, less than perfectly motivated.

Still, here it is, although a bit shorter than intended, enjoy the chapter (and the cliffhanger).

Also, I might add in a chapter focusing on the "original" Sasuke in "my" world soon, if you want to read it that is.

So, review and tell me what you want!