Legend of the Iron Monkey

by Odama Rasendori

A dying wish to save a life for the price of his own, brought Lee to the arms of death. An angel saves him and grants him the strength to protect his loved ones. What would you do with the power of a god? Lee-centered. LeexTen. Ch 15 Update!

6. Chapter 6

Legend of the Iron Monkey

Naruto Fanfiction

Disclaimer: I don't own a single shred of Naruto or Onimusha. Regarding the Onimusha part, it's a really insignificant part of the chapter and probably the rest of the story, but I just decided to point that out.

Chapter 6: Destiny's Aid (Part 2)

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Tenten huffed and fell to her knees after a near fatal strike to the chest, from Lee's staff. It had been almost a year since Lee carried her into the cave, and almost a year since they found out that the cave granted her the quick healing ability that she wanted. They found out that the magical energies from the cave that entered her body when Lee carried her into the cave, was the regeneration ability. Neither of them knew why the cave gave it to her so quickly, but they didn't complain. Since Tenten got her ability much sooner than Lee did, she was given the chance to get much harder and harsher training in the year that she had been in the cave. It was at the first day when she found out just how powerful Lee had gotten in the time that he trained in the cave. It wasn't until the second month of her training that she was able to land a solid hit with her fist, to Lee's chest. The healing ability actually proved very useful in the time that the young kunoichi had trained in the cave. There were many times when she was battered and bruised by Lee's ferocious arts, but her healing ability took care of it. It wasn't as fast as Lee's, for sure, but it helped tremendously.

The time spend training in the cave did a lot of good to her physical appearance as well. Since she wasn't a part of Lee's bloodline, the effects of the cave were slightly different on her. Her physical body still aged according to what amount of time passed in the outside world, but her physical appearance changed according to the amount of time that passed in the cave. She grew slightly taller, but still a little shorter than Lee. Her hair had grown longer, and because of her constant day in and day out training, she wasn't granted the chance to cut it. Eventually, she decided not to, probably out of laziness. She tied her hair to a pony tail but allowed some stray bangs to go in the way of her face. Her figure had changed as well, becoming much curvier and gaining some light muscles on her abdomen, biceps, and triceps. She still contained a feminine figure, but more toned and more defined. Besides her physical appearance, her skills as a kunoichi had increased dramatically too. Training in the cave wasn't just spent purely on taijutsu. She also trained using her genjutsu and ninjutsu. Her chakra control improved to a drastic level as well, almost matching that of seasoned chunin in the leaf village.

Not only did her physical body mature and changed, her fashion style changed as well. As a female ninja who took her profession seriously, she changed out of the Chinese outfit that consisted of a pink sleeveless top and a pair of blue pants. Her new outfit was brought to her by Lee, when she requested a new change of clothes, after the first two months of training. Having attained a decent eye for fashion, Lee picked out a very nice set of clothes for her that not only maximized her movement, but also her dexterity. She now wore a black, sleeveless top that was made of a dense, fiber-like fabric, but was very light. It hugged her body like a second skin. Over that was something of the same style but looser and made of soft leather, which was black as well. For the arms, she wore hard leather arm guards, crimson in color, that started from just a couple of inches below her elbow and ended at the wrist. and went all the way down to her fingertips, acting as fingerless gloves. The material wasn't too tight on her arm but hugged it pretty well. The only part of her upper body that was exposed was her shoulders.

As for her bottoms, she no longer wore a pair of pants. Instead, it was replaced by a thin, crimson colored skirt that was made of cloth, and undergarments underneath of course. It was the same color as her arm guards and went from the hips to the midst of her thighs. As for the leggings, she wore a pair of black high socks made of cloth fabric that started seven inches off of where her skirt ends, all the way down to her feet, acting like socks for her feet. Instead of the usual sandals that many shinobi and kunoichi wear, Tenten harbored crimson laces that rose in a spiral direction, going from her ankles to just below her knee cap and a pair of flip-flops that were tied to the laces on her legs. Behind her, in between her back and butt area, were two daggers, and her holster of ninja tools on the side, held together by a black, cloth wrapping, that was wrapped around her hips. Lastly, there was a face mask tied to her top, that covered up to the nose area of her face. The face mask, because it was attached to the sleeveless top, was colored black.

* (A/N #1, see below for explanation.) *

She learned a fairly wide array of taijutsu from Lee, as well as a few stances that would prove useful in battle. There were a couple of stances that he never taught her but she understood, just as he told her before. He would keep some of his personal stances for himself. Because she was granted the healing ability much sooner than Lee was, she was able to train until she dropped and got back up to keep training. Her taijutsu skills now matched that of even Neji, easily surpassing Sasuke's taijutsu. Although having superior chakra capacity, her chakra control was now even greater than Sakura's and maybe Hinata's. As for food, those weren't a problem at all. Whenever they ran out of food, Lee would go out for a few minutes to the outside world and come back days later as compared to the time inside the cave. He only needed to step out twice, as each time he stepped out, he gathered enough food to feed a giant and all of his servants.

Lee watched as his friend trained the taijutsu stances that he taught her, several months ago, while on his meditation pose. She had honestly gotten a lot better than she was when he carried her inside. Up to this day, he still didn't understand why the cave granted her the healing ability so soon when it didn't grant it to him until eight months of solid training. Because it was granted to early, it was given the chance to grow and evolve. Back then, she was only able to heal minor flesh wounds and small scratches from shinobi tools. Now she was able to heal broken bones, large gashes, and was also granted stamina regeneration. Because of such power, she was given a near constant stream of energy so as to last longer during sparring matches and regain energy faster when she was down. Of course Lee has all these abilities but to a much higher degree.

Aside from that, Lee added a few extra pieces of clothing to himself. His torso was no longer bare, nor did he have his white vest. His torso now sported a mesh shirt and on top of it, a black, hard leather top with pectoral muscle and six pack designs, and long sleeves made of cloth that went all the way to his wrists. On top of those were arm guards that were similar to Tenten's, and guarding the same area. His hands now sported gloves made of a thin, cloth fabric and were also black. His white pants were now black, but still retained the same fabric. Just as Tenten had a face mask attached to her top, Lee had it as well. Both he and Tenten kept those masks under their top garments unless they were needed. In addition, a short, black sash hung on his neck and went all the way down to the middle of his back, acting as a small cape. On his hips was also a cloth wrapping that held his holster for his ninja tools, the case for his retractable staff, and two custom kunai blades, that were twice as long as regular kunai, which hung on his hips, one on each side.

Lastly, the red cloth on his forehead protector was changed to a black color and was tied over his forehead. He looked to the wall where he kept count of how many days had passed so far. Today marked the 365th day, the last day of their training session. When they leave the cave, they'd have just enough time to get to the academy and take the first phase of the test. Lee glanced back to Tenten.

* (A/N #2, see below for explanation) *

"Hey, I think it's about time we get going," he said. Tenten stopped a kick in mid air and looked to him, not placing her foot back down.

"Is it really time already?" she asked, obviously not wanting to leave. Lee nodded and stood from his meditation position. She probably didn't want to leave because she was so adamant on her dream of proving to the world that kunoichi are just as capable as shinobi. Lee could still remember when she said that, so long ago when they first became genin and Gai-sensei was asking them questions about their goals in life. Not many shinobi stand by their goals these days, and to see one that lives by it, was enough to make the boy smile. There were of course people like Naruto, but he's already a given. Tenten placed her leg down and pulled out one of her scrolls. She unrolled it and focused her chakra for a second. With a quick stroke of her hand, she pulled out a metal staff from the scroll. She placed the scroll back into her holster, completely rolled to its original state. Lee rolled his eyes.

"How 'bout it Lee? One more match before we go?" she asked. Lee sighed and pulled out his retractable staff and stretched it to about seven feet.

"Alright but after I beat you down, we go, promise?" he asked.

Tenten smirked and vanished from where she stood. By normal standards, she was moving very fast, but Lee could see her as if she was walking. He moved his staff to the left and blocked a rather strong kick. Tenten used his staff and the force of her attack and kicked from the staff, leaping a few feet away and charged at him. Both fighters engaged in an exchange of critical blows, moving faster and faster with each attack. Lee parried and dodged most of the attacks, taking in a couple here and there and noted how much better his partner had become... inside his mind of course. Tenten, however, received more damage to her body than Lee was taking. It was as if his staff was made from a type of metal that wasn't known to man. Being in a family of blacksmiths, Tenten has used almost every kind of metal that existed in the world and for the ones that she's never touched, she knew about and not once had she ever felt the kind of metal that Lee's staff was made of. According to how easily Lee carried it and how hard it was for her to do lift it, it must be infused with some kind of odd magic. Lee was able to land a kick on her shoulder, after parrying another attack. Tenten gave off a small gasp of pain but felt her bone being snapped back into place because of her healing ability, a couple of seconds later.

As her bone continued to heal, she began jabbing him with the tip of her staff, but he dodged a good number of them and blocked the rest. As he was defending himself, Tenten crouched down and swept him off of his feet. Surprised at the sudden action, Lee rolled to the side and dodged what would have been a very painful strike to his face. He pulled himself back up and struck Tenten's staff so hard that it bent and broke. Lee smirked and retracted his staff, placing it back in its holster and prepared himself for unarmed combat. Tenten was a bit surprised but tossed her broken weapon away. She formed one of her favorite stances, the Cat stance. Lee nodded and slipped into one of his own stances as well, the Monkey stance. Lee made the opening move by leaping into the air, spinning his body a full 360 degree rotation, and stretched his right leg out. As the kick made its way to his opponent, Tenten raised her left arm and blocked the kick. After successfully blocking it, she arched her back, supporting her body with her right arm and left leg. She lifted her right leg and aimed a kick to Lee's body, but was blocked with his palm, stopping her shin from hitting him. It was at that moment that she realized she was at a disadvantage.

When Lee's momentum faded, his body started weighing down on Tenten's. The girl knew that she could hold this position for days, but she didn't want to spend that much time. They still had the chunin exams to worry about. She pushed them both out of the lock and back-flipped, landing on the ground on her cat stance once again. Lee flipped in the air a couple of times and landed on his monkey stance again. Both fighters remained still for a little while before making another move. This time, it was Tenten who budged first. She started by running up to him and vanished, just as he raised his leg to kick her. She appeared to his left side and vanished again, appearing to his right side, backside, and above, but continued to zip around using her speed. Normal people wouldn't be able to see her speed unless they had byakugan or sharingan but even then it would be difficult to keep up with her. But for someone like Lee, it was no feat at all. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, sensing the vibrations in the air. Training in the cave taught Tenten to be unpredictable in combat, but it was Lee who taught her that and therefore knew where she was going to attack. His eyes shot open instantly and back kicked Tenten as she appeared behind him. Her body flew to the a wall and made a pretty large imprint. Tenten pulled herself out of the wall and looked to her opponent, feeling her wounds starting to heal.

"Man..." she trailed off, panting a bit from the previous increase in physical speed. "Am I ever going to catch you off guard?"

"Most likely not," Lee replied, walking to his sack of rations and other supplies. He kept a mental count at the length of time that they were sparring for and landed at a grand total of 10 minutes. It was a decent amount of time but he knew that it was now time to get going. He picked up his belongings and motioned for Tenten to do the same. She cracked her back a bit and walked to him after all of his muscles and bones were put back in place. It was actually amazing that she was able heal like Lee could, to a certain degree. When she picked up all of her belongings, she and Lee walked out of the village together. But right as they jumped through the waterfall, the cave began to collapse. Lee turned around, eyes widening, and watched as the entrance of the cave was covered with large boulders.

"What the... hell happened?" asked Lee.

"I'm guessing by your reaction that that's never happened before?" asked Tenten, still puzzled at what was going on. Lee shook his head but suddenly pieced a few things together. Maybe there's a reason as to why people that aren't of his clan are affected by the cave's defenses. It was to keep them out for a reason. And maybe that's why the cave granted her the healing ability right as she entered the cave. It's because it was the last gift that it would ever give to anyone, ever. Lee placed his belongings on the floor and motioned for Tenten to stay there as well. He walked up to the cave and knelt down, forming prayer position. He closed his eyes and prayed in silence for a few minutes. When he was finished, he walked back to Tenten and picked up his stuff.

"Well, we're not using that cave ever again. I guess there's a reason why people who aren't of my blood line are affected by the cave's enchantments. It's to keep them out," he said as he started walking back to the village. Tenten nodded, feeling a little apologetic, but followed him anyway. They both leaped atop the cliff, to the side, placing their face masks on, and sprinted their way back to the village. As they ran, Lee found his eyes tracing around Tenten's outfit and figure. He had to look away every now and then to keep himself from achieving a nose bleed. Her outfit and overall physical appearance was something that men would definitely drool at. Whenever he looked away, Tenten would sneak a glance to him as well. She found herself blushing at the incredible appearance that Lee now harbored. His outfit and defined muscle actually made him a rather nice thing to look at. And the way his sash drifted in the wind was a bonus. Both ninja kept their glances to themselves, unaware of what the other was thinking about. To keep the topic and her hormones in check, Tenten pulled out her permission slip from her sack of old clothes.

"Hey, we're supposed to meet with Neji at the academy grounds, right?" she asked. Lee looked to her and nodded. "We haven't seen him in a year, but he hasn't seen us in a week. Do you think he's gotten any stronger at all?"

"I hope so," Lee replied. "But I'm not too hopeful about it. I mean, what can a week of training really do for someone?"

"Yeah, I guess so. But I have to ask you something and I need you to give me your most honest opinion," she said, looking to his face. Lee's face now held a questioning look. Tenten blushed a bit, wondering if it was proper to even ask him this question. "Do you think... I've changed in the one year of training in that cave?"

Lee smiled and nodded.

"In that one year of training, you've reached a level of skill that no kunoichi in the leaf village can rival. And besides that," he said, unaware of his eyes trailing in and out of her evolved physical features. "Guys will be drooling all over you."

"Really? Do you mean that?" she asked.

"Yeah, definitely. But I'm not worried about you, I'm worried about them. Anyone who messes with you will eat dirt in the next two seconds," he replied. Tenten blushed again and was thankful that she was wearing her face mask so he couldn't see. Not only did Lee compliment her appearance, but he also complimented her skills as a kunoichi. She never really thought that she looked attractive in any way or form, at all. Actually, the way she saw it, kunoichi aren't supposed to be physically attractive, like Ino and Sakura. They looked alright but kunoichi, just like shinobi, are meant to fight, not straddle around and looking pretty to the eye. But as she further examined her appearance, she deduced that she didn't look to bad at all. According to Lee, she actually looked very attractive.

"You better watch our for yourself too, Lee," she said. "Girls will be crawling all over you if you're not careful."

"Is that a hint of jealousy that I'm hearing from your voice?" he asked, messing with her a bit. He knew that she would never be attracted to him like that, even if he wanted her to. Tenten is just a friend and nothing more. If anything, she would probably be attracted to Neji, who she had her eye on for a long time. She's never mentioned it, but he knew from how she looked at him when they were in missions. It sort of made him a bit sad to think about it, but he knew that their relationship would never extend to anything beyond that of friendship or companionship. The kunoichi's face flushed redder than a tomato as she heard what he just said. How was he able to read what she was thinking? Was it really that obvious? Or maybe she didn't work hard enough in hiding her feelings from the world? Either way, she didn't want him to know yet. Tenten prided herself as a kunoichi but if things would ever come to a time of peace... then maybe. She looked to him again. Lee is a definite maybe. Forget her crush for Neji, he didn't even exist in her mind right now.

"Don't be so full of yourself, Lee!" she exclaimed, wondering why she shouted at him. Instead of taking it offensively, Lee chuckled.

"Alright, alright, don't be so mad. I was just trying to lighten the mood," he replied.

"Eh? For what?"

"Well, you know, we're headed to the village to participate in the chunin exam. We haven't seen everyone in a whole year and there may even be a chance that we might fight them in the exam," he said. Tenten nodded, wiping out her previous thoughts from her mind. That stuff can wait, but there are more important things to think of right now. At the thought of fighting her friends in the exam, she wondered about something else.

"Lee... what if you and I fight in the exam?" she asked. Lee looked away, hoping that she wouldn't ask that question. To be honest, Lee was thinking about that while Tenten trained in the cave. He was hoping that he wouldn't have to fight Tenten because of their healing abilities. The fight would never end unless they actually tried to kill each other and he didn't want to have to go that far, even though he knew that even if he tried to kill Tenten, it probably wouldn't turn out that way. Tenten is too great of a fighter to be killed so easily, especially with her healing ability and enhanced skill and strength. But if push came to shove, he knew that he would have to take her down. Lee didn't even care about passing the exam. He just wanted to fight off whatever evil that would appear and keep the village safe. He turned back to face Tenten, who was still worriedly awaiting for his answer.

"If it ever comes to that... I guess all I can say is to give it your best shot," he replied. Tenten nodded slowly as she felt something burning from deep inside her. It was as if her body was telling her to do something. Without even thinking, she stopped her sprinting, grabbed Lee by the back of his shirt, lowered both of their face masks, and planted a kiss on his cheek. Lee blushed furiously as he caressed the spot where Tenten's lips connected. He slowly placed his mask back on and looked to her. Tenten found herself blushing as well, body heating up to rising levels, but she knew that that was what her body wanted her to do, and she didn't regret it. "Consider that a thank you for what you've done for me."

"Do I get more? I did train you for a year, you know," he said. Tenten raised her mask back up and smiled through it. She walked ahead of him and winked one eye before speeding off. Lee was right behind her, smiling through his mask as well. Who knows? Maybe his future wasn't so bleak after all?

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When both leaf ninjas arrived near the village gates, they hid behind a tree. Tenten formed a hand seal and used the transformation jutsu to transform back to her mother. When she stepped out of the tree, Lee followed as well. Lee sighed to himself. Maybe now that the cave of the Iron Monkey was of no further use to them, he could finally spend the time that he wanted in the leaf village. He was actually hoping to have further uses of the cave to make his other friends stronger, but that's no longer possible. Had he known about the penalties of bringing someone in there that didn't share his blood line, he would have brought in more than just Tenten. But even though the cave was no longer useable, he was at least glad that he was able to help her out. Tenten was now one step closer to achieving her dream. When they neared the village gates, a shinobi saw them walking closer and closer. He remembered that two people stepped out of the village to deliver shinobi weapons and tools to the land of wind, last week. He recognized the female as the mistress of the family of blacksmiths in the leave village, but the male next to her was unfamiliar to him.

"It's nice to see you again, mistress. I trust your delivery went smoothly?" he asked. For a second, Tenten actually forgot the excused that she and Lee used, a year ago. But when the chunin before them reminded her of it, the idea reentered her mind.

"Yes. Thank you for asking," she replied.

"So, what happened to your accomplice? And who's that new guy beside you?" he asked. Tenten turned to Lee and saw that he had his face mask on. When they left the village a year ago, Lee was wearing different clothes and didn't wear a face mask like he did now.

"Lee, why don't you show this man your face and your identification papers?" she asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry," he said as he pulled his face mask down. He also pulled out some identification papers from his sack of old clothes. He showed them to the man, who nodded in approval. "Sorry about the new clothes, I just thought that my old ones were too revealing and probably didn't offer enough protection."

The guard nodded again and gave the signal to the guards above to open the gate. Tenten (in disguise) and Lee nodded to the guards, who in turn nodded back. When the gates were open enough for them to enter, the went inside as the gates closed. Both leaf ninja walked behind a nearby house as Tenten dropped her disguise. Even though her chakra control and overall chakra capacity was increased from the training inside the cave, she still felt a bit dizzy from the jutsu, but was shaken off quickly due to her regeneration ability. Not wanting to catch any unwanted attention, both Lee and Tenten lowered their face masks and hid them under their upper garments. But even without the face masks, they still caught many pairs of eyes that seemed rather uncomfortable to them. They made their way to the academy, exam slips in their hands. When they arrived, they met up with Neji, Kiba, Shino, and Hinata. When Kiba and Neji saw Tenten, they immediately stopped talking. They also wondered who the other shinobi was that walked beside her. Both looked pretty intimidating. Lee looked to his comrade, who didn't look like he had changed much.

"Neji, it's been a while," he greeted, shaking his hand. Neji raised an eyebrow and wondered who this young man was. He looked to be around his own age but still looked unfamiliar. The female beside him walked up to the Hyuuga and embraced him.

"It's nice to see you again, Neji," she said as she broke the embrace and looked to the other genin. Kiba's mouth was already hitting the ground at the sight of the kunoichi before him. If the chunin exam was a beauty contest, she'd win, hands down.

"Just who are you two," asked the baffled Hyuuga.

"Aww, you don't remember us?" she asked. "It's me, Tenten. And that's Lee next to me."

Kiba's jaw fell even lower, if possible. He never imagined that Tenten could be so hot. The way her hair was tied to a pony tail and her rather skimpy choice of clothing was definitely something that would attract a lot of other males. Shino looked to both of them and pretended he didn't care. The last time he felt Tenten's aura, it was just like any other kunoichi... normal. Now it had grown, doubled or tripled in size. How was it possible that she gained such power in such a short amount of time? Neji sensed this as well and couldn't speak. Lee's he activated his byakugan and looked into their chakra system. They weren't in any transformation jutsus, which verified them of their true identities, but he just couldn't believe it. When he last saw Lee, his chakra system was resonating with so much raw power. But now, only a week later, his aura increased as if he trained for a much longer time. Tenten's aura wasn't anywhere as large as Lee's, but it made drastic improvements in the past week. He wondered if her aura somewhat matched his own, but shook it from his head. It isn't possible to attain that kind of power in just a week.

"What did you do to attain such a level of power?" Neji asked, looking to Tenten. He already accepted that Lee's aura was incredibly large but he had two and a half months to gain that kind of strength. As hard to believe as that was, two months is still a lot of time. What he truly wondered was how Tenten got so much stronger in one week.

"Just training with Lee," she replied. "There was a lot of things about taijutsu that I wanted to sharpen up on and I figured Lee would be a pretty good teacher in that field. I'd have asked Gai-sensei but he's not allowed to see us until today, right? I'd have asked you but you only use your gentle fist techniques and I probably wouldn't learn anything from that."

Neji nodded slowly, not fully accepting her answer, but let the subject slide.

"Anyway, we really should get going inside," said Lee. Neji and Tenten nodded as they were about to enter the academy, when Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji arrived. They were about to greet Kiba and his squad when Ino noticed the very attractive guy beside Neji. She also noticed a rather slutty looking chick and wondered who she was. Didn't Gai's team consist of Neji, Tenten, and Lee? So who were those other two? She shook the thought from her mind as she focused on the black clad shinobi.

"Wow, who's that guy? He's so hot!" she exclaimed. Hinata found herself playing with her fingers at the moment. She thought her fingers only did that when Naruto was around. But ever since she saw Lee last week, she found herself doing that a lot, even with Naruto's absence. Whenever she looked to Lee's direction, she felt her heart racing but found it to be odd. She was sure of her feelings for Naruto. So why was her heart doing this? Before Lee turned to face her, he could have sworn Tenten formed a rather noticeable grimace on her face. He smirked slightly but let the feeling go. He turned to the blond kunoichi and greeted her.

"Hey Ino," he said.

"You know me?" she asked, blushing to a red color. Tenten rolled her eyes and pulled Lee to her. For some reason, she couldn't stand it when Lee was talking to another girl. It couldn't be because of jealousy, as she wasn't interested in dating anyone at the moment, but didn't know what else it could possibly be. Ino ignored what the other kunoichi did and minded her own business. As team Gai walked inside the academy, more pairs of eyes made its way to them, especially to Lee and Tenten. Neji looked at his permission slip and read that the first phase of the exam would be on the third floor of the academy. On their way there, they saw a large group of people ahead, trying to proceed to their destination. Two others were there as well, blocking the entrance to the next floor. Lee took a closer look at the floor level and read 301.

"Hmph... a genjutsu, a very obvious one too," he said. Neji and Tenten nodded.

"We only went up one floor. I can't believe people are being fooled by such an obvious trick," said Neji. "And by the looks of it, the ones who made the genjutsu are those two runts, blocking the entrance. Do they really want to start trouble?"

"If they do, they're doing a pretty good job," said Tenten, who glanced at a clock to the side. "But hey, we've got plenty of time. Let's mess around with these guys a bit before proceeding."

"Doesn't matter to me. Just don't show too much of your abilities. I'd like to keep that a secret right now," said Neji. The group approached the mass of people but saw something that sort of killed their hopes for having a little bit of fun before the first phase of the exam. An unfamiliar squad was already there, doing what they planned to do to kill some time. They decided to mingle in the group and waited to see if anything interesting would happen. For a few minutes, no one could really get in with those two bozos blocking the way. Lee didn't really enjoy it when people got knocked around by a few punks like these guys. Neji didn't really care. And Tenten was polisher her daggers with a cloth while waiting for something cool to take place. Lee sighed and was about to step in and smack those two when Tenten blocked his path with her arm. Pointed her head to the side, not taking her eyes off of her dagger. Lee looked to where her head motioned to and and saw team Kakashi. Lee leaned on the wall and watched to see if they were going to do something to fix this.

"Little girls and weirdos like you, don't belong here. These exams will destroy you if you're not properly trained. And if you can't get passed us, there's no way you can even last in these exams. So do yourselves a favor and get lost," said one of the kids.

"Get out of my way," Sasuke rudely asked one of the kids who blocked the way. Naruto looked over to the genin students who were pushed around by these guys. If no one in the group would be willing to stand up to them, they must be really strong. "And while you're at it, dispel this lame genjutsu that you have here, I can see through your illusion so badly that it's too depressing to even be called a genjutsu. We're going to the third floor."

A few people in the ground sounded surprised at what Sasuke said, and tried to ensure each other that they were already on the third floor because of the sign on top. Neji rolled his eyes and gave himself a rather large facepalm. These guys can't be serious, can they? Why would their jonin teachers allow them to partake in the exam if they can't see through a horribly disguised genjutsu? They must be worse than the rookies that he heard about, who were taking the exam too. Now that he thought about it, Kakashi's squad is fresh out of the academy, easily qualifying them as the rookies that he heard so much about. So how were they able to see a genjutsu that none of these guys couldn't? It's a rather embarassing thought that they could see through something like this and the rest of these people couldn't. If this is what they had to compete with for the chunin exam, things are going to be so easy.

"Tell them Sakura. You have the best eyes and the best analytical skills in our squad. I know you saw right through this terribly done genjutsu," he said. Sakura looked to him for a second, wondering what he was talking about. She didn't catch that at all, but she didn't want to look bad in front of all these people and didn't want to prove Sasuke wrong. Sakura nodded to the kids who blocked their passage.

"Of course, I noticed it a mile away. This is surely a genjutsu. This is only the second floor," she said. The two students grimaced as they let their genjutsu down, allowing the group of genin in front of them to realize that there indeed was a genjutsu and there was a very large flaw in their analytical skills, unlike this group here.

"So you noticed our genjutsu... now let's see you handle this!" he shouted as he flipped in the air and formed a sommersault. He pulled his leg out and aimed for a kick to Sasuke. The Uchiha reacted to it by countering it with a kick of his own. Lee was about to intercede, not wanting this to turn out into an all out brawl, when Tenten blocked his path for the second time. Tenten, using her increased speed, moved out of the group. Moving at a pace that could not be seen by anyone but Lee, Tenten managed to get in between the two students and jumped in the center, their attacks coming in slow motion. Timing it right, Tenten jumped slightly and performed a splits in the air. The splits wasn't for show, but instead stopped Sasuke's kick with one foot and blocked the other guy's kick with her other foot. Tenten supported her body by applying some force on the legs of the two boys, using some chakra on her feet. Neji was astonished at Tenten's massive improvement during that single week of training. What in the world did Lee teach her to get so fast? Before he was able to blink, she was already there, having successfully stopped the attack. The shocked Hyuuga turned to his other comrade. He was just standing there, calm as if he had seen this kind of thing a thousand times. Something else that everyone noticed was that there wasn't such a large gap between Sasuke and the bully, earlier. The way Tenten executed her technique was flawless. She not only stopped the attack but created some space between both boys.

'Wow, I thought no one in that group could stand up to these guys. I wonder who she is...' thought Sakura. She looked at the kunoichi's outfit, who apparently didn't care about how other males would look at her. Her outfit looked so revealing in almost every possible way, but her figure made it so that her outfit seemed as though it was made specially for her. Sasuke was just as surprised as everyone else. Who is this girl anyway? She came out of no where and managed to stop his attack with one swift motion. And she was able to stop that other guy's attack too, so easily. Tenten pushed off of the two boys' legs and flipped in the air before landing back down to greet her two comrades, who were approaching her.

"Hey, what happened to keeping a low profile? Didn't I tell you to not intervene so as to hide our true abilities?" asked Neji, completely disregarding the fact that she was probably much faster than he was. Where this improvement came from and how it came to pass was unheard of. Perhaps he would ask Lee how he trained her. She did train with him for a week, after all. Naruto noticed how Neji scolded the girl as if he knew her. The only ones in his squad are Tenten and Lee, besides their jonin sensei, Gai. Contrary to popular belief of him being an idiot, Naruto actually understood a great deal of things, he just didn't express them properly. It had just dawned to her that the girl that Neji was scolding and the other guy beside him were probably Tenten and Lee. But what provoked the sudden change in their outfit? Lee and Tenten actually looked really cool, yet Neji looks so normal. The blond wondered if the Hyuuga was feeling really left out because his teammates actually look awesome.

"Sorry Neji. I saw Lee about to react when these two were about to collide but I guess I beat him to it," she said, laughing through a bit of it. Neji looked to Lee, as if about to ask him whether or not Tenten was telling the truth. Lee looked away in embarrassment and nodded a couple of times. Neji sighed, unable to find the ability to care anymore. But something else caught his eye. He knew that the pink-haired girl was clueless about the genjutsu, just by merely studying her body language. It was the blue clad boy who noticed it. Neji approached him.

"You, what's your name?" he asked. Sasuke turned to face him.

"I believe it's customary to give me your name before you ask me of mine," Sasuke calmly replied. Neji narrowed his eyes.

"You're a rookie aren't you? How old are you?" he asked.

"Why should I tell you? You haven't even given me your name yet," he said. Lee rolled his eyes and looked to Sasuke.

"You want his name first? His name is Neji Hyuuga of the esteemed Hyuuga clan. He is 14 years old, one year older than you and is the wielder of the kekkei genkai known as the byakugan. His jonin teacher is Gai-sensei," said Lee. Sasuke turned to the black clad shinobi instead. He didn't seem to look that much older than he was, so why did it seem like he was much wiser and more powerful than everyone else in this room? Lee looked over to the irritated Hyuuga. "He is named Sasuke Uchiha, the last surviving member of the once famed Uchiha clan. He is 13 years old, one year younger than us, and is the holder of an ancient kekkei genkai, the sharingan."

Sasuke was a bit surprised at how much this guy knew about him. What is he, a stalker? No, he doesn't seem like the type. When the girl from earlier stopped his kick, this guy came around from the group of people behind them, with his arms crossed over his chest, looking really calm. His outfit looks like he's a professional ninja, but looks can be deceiving. Naruto nodded at the information that the shinobi before him, had given. Having failed the academy exam three times, he was actually in the school as Neji and knew him to a certain degree. Being one year younger, however, he didn't know him that well but the aforementioned information sounded pretty solid. Also, he knew that the two ninjas dressed in black, save the kunoichi who had some crimson red here and there, were indeed Tenten and Lee, mostly because of how he knew Neji. They were in the same class together, while he was in the younger class with Sasuke, Sakura, and the rest of the rookie genin. Neji looked to his comrades.

"Alright, we better get moving. We've wasted enough time as it is," he said. Lee and Tenten nodded and followed their friend to the third floor, leaving a crowed of other people baffled at what they had just seen. Sakura was pretty shocked to the core as well. She didn't know that there would be kunoichi like this who were participating in the chunin exam. She knew that her skills were nothing compared to Sasuke's or even Naruto's, but she didn't want to let them down by stepping down from the exam and letting them take it on their own. After taking a few minutes to recover, team Kakashi proceeded to the next floor. The two genin who blocked the entrance from earlier, and were responsible for the genjutsu, smirked as a puff of white smoke covered their bodies, undoing their transformation jutsus. Their true identities were actually jonin who were merely testing the genin squads that wished to enter the first phase of the exam.

"That girl who stopped my kick, moved out of that crowd faster than the blink of an eye," said one of them.

"Yeah. She's from Gai's squad, isn't she?" asked the other.

"I think so. And that other guy who was clad in pure black clothing. He's that Lee kid, right? Gai's prized student?" the spiky haired jonin asked. His accomplice nodded.

"Yes. He and that girl seem to have hidden power that we don't know of yet. The one in white, the Hyuuga, he seems normal enough, but those other two seemed rather abnormal to me. We're going to have to keep a close watch on those other two, especially the male shinobi. His power seems frightening... but it's probably just me," he said. His partner nodded as they both vanished in another puff of white smoke.

Neji, Tenten, and Lee, climbed through what seemed like an endless set of stairs, making their way to the first part of the chunin exam, where they would meet their sensei, Gai. Neji remained silent as he thought about the sudden improvement of Tenten's skills and speed. How could such an improvement take place in one week? And that's not the only thing that he thought about. Lee's disappearance and sudden reappearance was another thing. Almost three months ago, when they went on that B rank mission and Lee fell off that cliff, before that, he wasn't able to lay a finger on him during their sparring matches. But when he returned, months later, he not only defeated Tenten, but also Neji as well. And to make things worse, the attack that Neji used on him, Lee made a miraculous recovery from it and turned it backed against his opponent. Where did Lee's power come from? How did he improve Tenten's abilities in just one week? And to top it all off, where did they get those cool looking outfits? His thoughts were later interrupted when they met their with their sensei at the end of the hall. Gai looked to them and smiled. He was a little surprised at Lee and Tenten's new outfits. He wondered why Lee kept changing his outfit but pushed the thought aside.

"I see you three have made it. Beyond these doors is the first phase of the chunin exam. I'm very proud of you three and I hope you do your very best in this exam. It isn't only I but others will be watching you and will be grading your performance. Remember, not everything in this exam is as it seems. Kakashi has told his squad this, and now I will repeat it to you three. A ninja must see through deception. Deception is a huge clue in this first exam. I can't tell you what I mean by it, that is left for you to figure out," he said as his squad nodded. Lee walked to the right side and Tenten walked to the left side, while Neji approached the middle. Before they opened the door, Gai cleared his throat, having one final thing to say. "Before you go, I want to wish you luck, but you've all trained very hard through the year that I held you back for. I'm sure you won't be needing it. So what I wanted to say was..."

He stopped for a second as he looked to Lee, then Tenten, then Neji. "Those are rather dashing outfits that the both of you have. Why don't you get a set of clothes like those too, Neji? The three of you would look very intimidating if you all harbored outfits similar to each other."

"Thanks, Gai-sensei, but no thanks. I like to feel unique, if you don't mind," said Neji. Although he said it, he was still feeling a slight pang of jealousy towards his two comrades. Their outfits did look pretty cool. It was a depressing thought to think about, but he knew that he was still just a kid. And kids sometimes get these jealousy feelings about their friends when they are doing or wearing something that make others feel out of the loop. The Hyuuga knew that it wasn't their intention, but he still wanted a set of clothes like those. Lee and Tenten didn't just look like professional ninjas. They also looked like master assassins. Said shinobi and kunoichi looked to their comrade and nodded to him. Neji nodded as well as his friends opened the door to the first phase of the chunin exam. When the door closed, Gai crossed his arms over his chest and leaned on the wall. He was definitely proud of his students and indeed wished them the best of luck. He hoped that they would look after each other while in the chunin exam, even if the unfortunate event were to come to pass that they were pitted against each other. They are one group, one squad, one family. He knew that whether they pass or fail, they would continue to make him proud.

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* (A/N: #1) * = (A/N: If you couldn't understand her clothing description, just think Kaede from Onimusha Warlords. The undershirt and top are both sleeveless and black, but the undershirt is made of cloth, while the top is made of soft leather. The high socks are black but the straps around the shin area are crimson, along with the arm guards and the skirt. She also has black coverings on her arms and the arm guards are right on top. Like and unlike Kaede, Tenten has cloth wrappings that is wrapped around her hips, not her waist, to hold the daggers on her back and other ninja tools, and to help keep her top garment on. Her top garment has clippings to keep itself on, but the sash just helps.

* (A/N: #2) * = (A/N: It has now just dawned to me how much I used the black color. I'm so unoriginal, but this was the best look that I found while playing my video games and they are ninjas after all, right? Sorry XP)

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and I apologize if you guys wanted me to include the part where Lee and Tenten were training in the cave. I could have done it, but I have other plans for this story that needs attention. If none of you have realized it by now, there probably will be a mary-sue in this story, but I have reasons for what I'm doing. I've already thought of an ending for this story, but that won't come until way way way way later. If you guys don't like any of this overpowering thing, I can understand. But I'm not going to change the plotline, no matter what anyone says. Sorry if that sounded a bit harsh.

Ja ne!