Sasuke really hated this.

It was the day of the Chuunin exams and he was being put on display as if this were some kind of zoo. Sasuke could almost hear the tour guides "And to your left, we have an Uchiha Sasuke, Sasukes are very rare and of the Genus Uchiha, meaning they have the power of the Sharingan."

It was ridiculous. All of these leaders came over, went gaga over his Sharingan, then left to make way for other leaders. The only thing that could have made this worse would be if he was still stuck as the Snake's body.

Several Daimyos were staring at him from a distance, coming to see the "Mighty Uchiha" when, much to Sasuke's relief, Hinata and Haku joined up. "Oh, thank heavens." He whispered.

"Hey Sasuke." Hinata said, walking over to him, "What are you doing out here?"

Sasuke pointed to the Daimyos. "These guys won't let me in, they're too busy going nuts over 'The last Uchiha.'"

Haku smiled, "But I thought you loved the attention, after all, it's just another opportunity for you to show off."

Sasuke looked at him. "Shut up, Haku."

Hinata sighed. "Look, Sasuke, it's not that hard to figure out."

"What are you talking about?"

Hinata raised Star Seeker. "Stop."

The Daimyos froze. Now stuck in time.

"And then you just walk on through." Hinata said as she went past one of the Daimyos and into the arena.

Sasuke smiled. "Thank Heavens for magic." He said as he passed the time-warped men and their body guards.

The three of them made their way down to the arena floor, where a roar of applause met them.

They waved graciously before returning to the task at hand, woopin' the snot out of these punks.

Sasuke was a little disappointed. He had been paired with a kid who could barely get across a complete sentence. "Jou git nodin don mi!"

Sasuke looked at him. "Huh?"

The protector, a tall man with wild, unkempt brown hair stood up. "I think he said you've got nothing on him."

"Well why didn't he say so?" Sasuke asked.

"I tid! Dat's wot E sed!" The boy said. He had blue eyes and perfectly groomed black hair. A Kumo headband hung from his arm. He was about twelve years old.

"Have you ever heard of 'Grammar?' Or 'Spelling' maybe?"

"Jou com dover ere an E'll sow jou gwawwma."

Sasuke blinked, baffled at the boy's speech.

"Um…" The protector said. "Just begin."

Sasuke sighed in relief. "Finally, I couldn't take that blabbering anymore!"

"Badder? E sow jou badder!"

Sasuke blinked before turning to the crowd. "Does anyone have a Gibberish-to-English dictionary?"

That got a laugh from the crowd.

"Eh? Jou makn fon u mi?"

"Am I making a fondue lee?"

"Jou makn fon u mi!"

"John's making the fun key?"

"Arg! Jou dy!" The boy said pulling out a kunai.

Sasuke smiled as Light in Exile shone in his hand. "Now you're speaking my language."

The boy charged. Sasuke let him, until the boy was about a foot away, before bring Light in Exile around and smashing the boys head. "Look, never get too close to a guy with a longer weapon than yours. It just doesn't work." He said as the boy began to pick himself up.

The boy shot him a death glare.

Sasuke, however, was immune to such petty looks, especially after living with Orochimaru's Killer Intent, which even froze Riku stiff for a while.

Sasuke only stood at the ready, however, he looked relaxed. That actually made the boy madder.

He charged, kunai raised, ready to drive it into Sasuke chest.

Sasuke smiled, as he let the boy come.

The boy lunged, digging the knife into Sasuke chest.

The boys eyes went wide as he saw the handle sticking out of Sasuke chest. Sasuke reached down and pulled it out, before quoting a person from Riku's memories. "I wonder, after killing me, what was it you planned on doing?" Sasuke threw the blade at the boy, quickly casting Cure to keep blood in his veins and not anywhere else. As soon as the green aura faded, Sasuke moved.

Actually, "Moved" is a bad word, "Blurred" would be much more accurate.

Sasuke blurred, confusing the speech impaired boy, before he was suddenly rammed in the side by some unseen force. Suddenly, he felt like he had been hit by an uppercut with a dull blade. The boy flew backwards, only for Sasuke to appear where he was flying.

Light in Exile was held with both hands high over his head. The blade was perfectly in line with the Kumo Genin's stomach. Sasuke brought the blade down, and the boy went soaring to the ground. The boy hit the ground, a shallow crater forming.

Sasuke was quick to use the opportunity. He carefully aimed his Keybalde towards the boy before using "Drain."

The Kumo nin began to get up, only to let himself drop from lack of energy.

Sasuke visibly relaxed. He looked over at the protector. "I don't think he's going to get up."

When Sasuke came up to the contestant's booth, Haku was the first to speak. "Gee, I'm soooo glad you went easy on the kid." He said with enough sarcasm to fill the ocean.

Sasuke looked up at him, "I did go easy." Haku and the other Genin looked at him, some of them suddenly feeling very unsure about this.

Haku sighed. "So who's next?"

As if to answer his question, the Protector stood up, "Next, Haku vs. Kyuuban (sucker)."

Haku smiled, "Sounds like my lucky day."

Haku jumped into the air, before using his secret bloodline to freeze the air around him to create a giant icy stalagmite.

Haku grabbed a hold of the tip of the ice stalagmite, and used it slow his decent to the ground.

Haku's opponent, a stocky boy from Kusa, wasn't far behind. He was wearing a large trench coat, with which he used to slow his decent, making it look as if he were flying.

When Kyuuban made it down, he quickly reached into his coat and pulled out four kunai.

Haku's smile got bigger, "Impatient are we? Very well."

The protector looked at the two, decided he couldn't hold them for long, and began the match.

Kyuuban ran forward, holding all four kunai in hand, two in a reverse grip while the other two pointing forward.

Haku let him come, channeling a little chakra into the ice stalagmite.

Kyuuban was rapidly closing the distance. The grip on the kunai tightened.

Haku smiled bigger.

Kyuuban was ten feet away.

Five feet.

Two feet.

Impact.

Kyuuban looked straight down at the ground, a smirk on his face. He had hit. He could feel two of his Kunai stuck deep into his target.

He looked up, and his smug look transformed into one of shock and awe.

His kunai were not buried deep into Haku's torso. They were buried deep in a tower shield that had emerged from the ice structure next to him.

Haku's face appeared in-between two of the three large blue blades that sat on the top of the shield. "Let's play."

Kyuuban had only one second for all of this to register before the tower shield smashed him in the face. Kyuuban stumbled back, stunned. He lost his grip on all four kunai.

Before he could recover, Haku made his move. Taking his tower shield, Haku used the three points, which had been sharpened to slice at the boy.

"Ah!" Kyuuban cried as the three blades sliced at his chest.

Haku moved again, he pushed the shield forward, knocking the boy down to the ground, before twisting the shield upside-down so that the three points were but an inch from Kyuuban's throat.

Haku smiled sadistically. "Game over."

"Match!" the protector called, "Winner: Haku!"

"And you called my match overkill?" Sasuke said as Haku made his way to the rail of the competitor's box.

"Whatever, Emo, you're just jealous." Haku said.

"Oh, yes." Sasuke said, sarcasm overflowing, "I'm am sooo jealous of your mediocrity."

"Who are you callin' mediocre?"

"Boys, stop it, before I decide to give the both of you a time out." Hinata said, as she looked over the book she was reading.

"He started it!" Haku said.

"I don't care who started it, I'll finish it!"

Meanwhile, everyone in the competitor's box sweatdropped.

Hinata stood in the center of the arena, reading her book.

"So what, you're not even going to pay attention to me?" Her opponent asked, a girl of about fourteen years of age with auburn hair.

Hinata looked up, "Huh? You say something?"

Somewhere in the stands, a masked Jounin snickered to himself.

"You may begin." The Protector said.

Hinata waited for the girl to charge.

She waited and waited.

Finally, she looked up from her book. She saw her opponent stand there, a kunai in hand. "So are you going to charge me or what?" Hinata asked.

"And wind up like those other losers? No, you take the first move."

Hinata smiled as she put her book into her cloak. "Let the enemy move first. Very smart." Suddenly, Star Seeker appeared in her hand with a flash, "Yet at the same time, it opens the other person to a great risk." The girl tilted her head, trying to figure out what she ment. Suddenly, three vines shot out of the ground and wrapped around the girl. "Because you never know exactly what you're up against."

The second round when by like the first until it was just the three of them and a kid form Kumo left.

The poor boy was fighting like crazy. The boy was as nervous as soldiers before a mission.

Finally Sasuke grabbed him by the shoulder and said. "Relax. 'Cause if you don't I can promise you, you are going to get hurt."

The nervous Kumo Genin nodded.

The protector sighed as he called the next match. "Hinata Hyuuga and Haku."

In unison, both opponents said. "We give up."

The protector looked up at the two of them. "Um…Alright…Next match, Sasuke vs. -."

"I give up." Sasuke said. When both the protector and the Kumo nin looked at him, Sasuke replied, "I think we've proven our abilities."

The Kumo genin let loose a deep sigh of relief. "Thanks."

Five new Chunins stood in the center of the arena. The Kumo Genin that was freaking out not that long ago, the girl that Hinata faced in the first round, and the three members of Team Seven.

"Congratulations," Tsunade said, "You have all made the rank of Chunin." She was about to go on when Sasuke suddenly spoke up.

"Yeah, that's great and all, but I've got to go." He said before suddenly disappearing.

"I have a previous engagement." Hinata said before she teleported away.

"What she said." Haku said before he shunshined away, leaving the two other kids alone and feeling very awkward.

In the dark room in some unknown tower the dark man sat.

The huge oaken double doors of the room opened and a tall man with orange hair and piercings on his face and a pair of grey eyes made of concentric circles.

"So, how does the experiment go?" The dark man said.

"It goes well." The orange haired man said, "They find my bodies as superior forms and obey them willingly."

"Any side-effects?"

"None whatsoever."

The dark man smiled. "Excellent. Begin construction on the portal."

"Yes sir." The man said as he left.

The dark man sat in his throne and smiled. He was so close.

A knock sounded at the doors. "Enter." The dark man said.

Three figures entered. It was Karin, Suigetsu and Juugo. Juugo suddenly dropped a figure wearing red armor from head to foot. "We have the Gobi." Suigetsu said, knowing his partner would never speak to the leader.

The dark man smiled. "Very good. Now, I have a mission for you."

"I have a mission for you." Tsunade said as she looked at all of team seven.

"What do you need, Baa-chan?" Naruto asked.

"As you may or may not know, Gaara, the one-tailed Jinchuuriki of Suna, became Kazekage two years ago. Ever since then he has been sending formal requests for you, Naruto, to come on a diplomatic mission."

"So you want us to go to Suna?"

"That, and I want you to try your best to push for an open trade route. The sand in Suna is very rich in silicon, which we can use to advance in our electronics technology."

"So we want their sand?" Naruto asked. "Couldn't we just take it? I mean, it is dirt."

"We could, but we want to make it out as if we were bound by honor to makes us a more pleasurable ally."

"So we're going to make ourselves look better by asking for their dirt?"

"Exactly."

"Ok…"

"You have one hour to pack. Have a good trip."

"Have a good trip, my eye."

Naruto thought. It was one week since they left Konoha. They had already crossed into Suna territory, and the desert of the world.

To say the heat was unbearable would have been an understatement.

"Hey Haku," Sasuke said, "Could you make more ice to go down my back?"

"If I could, I wouldn't be sweating myself to death."

"Guys, just shut up." Naruto mumbled.

It didn't help that they were all wearing black leather robes.

Hinata had taken hers off a while ago, revealing a voluptuous body clothed in a lavender short-sleeved shirt with blue straps that held it close to her body to give her a larger range of motion, and pair of white ninja pants. "How much farther?" she asked.

"Three days." Naruto said.

A groan erupted from his teammates.

"Maybe we should travel by night." Sasuke said.

"I told you it was a good idea." Haku said.

"I don't want to hear it." Sasuke said.

When the sun fell below the horizon, everyone packed up and was ready to go. They slowly made their way through the desert, whose cold breeze forced them to put their robes back on.

When dawn approached, they removed their cloaks and laid down to sleep.

Somewhere, just a day's march behind them, three figures prepared for an unbearable journey in the blistering sun.

Team Seven walked into the ravine that doubled as the gate to Sunagakure. They were met by a Suna Chuunin. "Greetings, are you Naruto?" The man asked.

"That would be me." Naruto said.

"The Kazekage would like to see you immediately."

"Then we best not keep him waiting." Naruto said, smiling.

The Chuunin led them to the center of the city, where a large, spherical structure stood with the Kanji for wind on it. The chuunin led them into the building which, much to team seven's relief, was well air-conditioned. The chuunin led them up a flight of stairs to an small door.

The Chuunin knocked on the door. "Sir, it the team from Konoha you wanted to see."

"Excellent, send them in." A voice said from behind the door.

The chuunin nodded and opened the door to reveal a large office with a man with dark hair sitting at a desk, singing papers.

The man looked up, and then tried to figure out which robed figure was his. "Ok, it doesn't help me when your hoods are all up."

The three robe wearers looked at each other. Before they laughed. They all removed their hoods to reveal three faces, one of them being Naruto's.

Gaara stood up and walked over to Naruto, "I never got the chance to thank you for showing me the light."

Naruto smiled, "Don't worry about it."

Three figures stood on the outskirts of Suna.

Waiting.

End of Chapter. Soory this took me so long to write, I had a lot of stuff to do this weekend.