The Eye of the Beholder

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"Talking"

'Thinking'

Flashback

Demons and higher beings

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Chapter 9: The Exam Starts

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura walked into the academy and walked up a flight of steps to see a bunch of genin crowding around a door with the sign 301 next to it.

Naruto just looked at Sasuke and Sakura with a look that pretty much said 'are you kidding me'.

Sasuke and Sakura nodded and the Uchiha was about to walk forward when Naruto grabbed his shoulder.

"Let's wait it out, less people means a better chance at passing," the blond muttered into Sasuke's ear.

Sasuke just smirked and nodded.

The three just stood by just outside the area as a genin with a bowl shaped haircut, thick eyebrows and very round eyes wearing a green jumpsuit with his hitae-ate with a red cloth around his waist, was pushed back by what looked like two other genin standing in the doorway. One of the genin had a bandage over his nose while the other had his hair covering his right eye.

"Excuse me, pardon me," a voice said as three genin were trying to pass through. The voice belonged to Haku as he looked at the doorway, "Why is there a genjutsu on the doorway?" he asked.

Nearly everyone looked at Haku while Naruto and Sasuke just laughed at everyone's reaction.

"What are you talking about?" some random person asked.

"He's asking why there's a genjutsu up," Sasuke pulled himself in the conversation while still chuckling. "Seriously, do none of the people here know how to count, we're only on the second floor."

Everyone else's reaction got Naruto seriously laughing at this point.

The looks on the genins' faces when they realized that they had indeed only traveled up one floor got them looking at the two at the door in serious annoyance.

The genin at the door, although slightly annoyed that their trick was found out just smirked at the Uchiha.

"You really think you're ready for the Chuunin Exam if you couldn't even detect this little genjutsu," the bandaged one moved to strike at Sasuke.

Said Uchiha was responding with his own kick when a green blur stopped both attacks.

The blur was revealed to be the green wearing gening with thick eyebrows. "We don't need any needless violence," was all the green clad genin said.

"Oi, Lee, weren't you the one who wanted us to keep attention from ourselves," a female genin with brown eyes, brunette hair in two buns, she was wearing a pink, chinese style blouse and a pair of green pants and her hitae-ate on her forehead.

"Gomen, Tenten," the boy, now known as Lee said.

"Oi, what happened to the bruise you sported earlier?" Naruto asked with a smirk. He then sniffed the air and said, "There's a Hyuuga in the area."

"Very perceptive," a voice spoke out.

Everyone else turned to the source of said voice.

The source was a male around the same age as Lee and Tenten. The boy had white eyes, indicating his Hyuuga heritage, he was wearing a white shirt and navy blue shorts with bandages going from his sleeve down his right arm and wrapping a bit around his fingers and thumb, his hitae-ate on his forehead as well. His hair color was the traditional Hyuuga's, long and black.

"Neji," Naruto yelled as he pointed at the older genin.

"Do I know you?" Neji asked, wondering about this rookie that was talking to him.

"I was in the younger class when I took the genin exam at the same time as you," Naruto answered. "Uzumaki Naruto."

"You failed, didn't you?" Neji asked.

"Ah, but I passed a year later due to unforeseen events," Naruto told him. "You were the rookie of the year when you graduated the academy."

"Indeed," Neji answered.

"Hinata also mentioned you occasionally during training," Naruto said with a thoughtful look. "You're her cousin, right?"

"Also true," Neji comfirmed.

Naruto just looked at Neji with a smirk, "Good luck in the exam, and you better hope you don't have to fight us early on. I've sparred a Hinata a few times, and I can honestly say she certainly proves the strength of your clan. But you haven't seen true power until you've seen Ero-sennin at work."

"We shall see," Neji stated as he walked in the direction of the stairwell, although he was wondering the identity of this Ero-sennin Naruto was talking about.

Tenten followed him.

Team 7 were about to head off when a voice called out to them.

"Uchiha Sasuke," the voice of Lee said and the team turned around. "Before we start the exams, why don't we have a friendly spar," he offered.

Sasuke shrugged, nodded and walked over.

Another area of the building...

The green clad genin simply bowed to Team 7 as he introduced himself, "I am Konoha's Green Beast, Rock Lee, and I am currently the strongest genin in Konoha."

Naruto just raised an eyebrow at this comment and said, "I doubt that."

Lee looked at Naruto for a bit and then at Sakura and said, "What a magnificent beauty we have here?"

Naruto's only comment was, "Now you have the attention you like, the question is whether or not you want the attention."

Sakura herself was a little freaked out by Lee's eyebrows, but thought that he didn't seem like a bad guy.

Lee spoke out, "If you were with me, I would do everything in my power to ensure your happiness."

"Arigatou, but no thank you on the offer, I would prefer to being a better kunoichi before I seek a relationship with anyone at the moment," Sakura told him, in a half truth. Over the past few weeks she started to see more of the shinobi world that she hadn't known existed and therefore she decided to become stronger to keep make sure she was tougher than what lies ahead of her in the future.

"YOSH, YOUR FLAMES OF YOUTH GUIDE YOU TO BEING A BETTER SHINOBI," Lee shouted out.

Team 7 just sweatdropped at Lee's enthusiasm.

Lee looked at Sasuke and stated, "Uchiha Sasuke, as the strongest genin in Konoha, we will then begin to fight."

Sasuke just shrugged and got into a fighting stance.

"Teme, this guy is a year older, meaning he has more experience, don't underestimate him," Naruto told him.

Sasuke just nodded to Naruto and smirked as he closed his eyes and then opened the to reveal two double tomoe sharingan in his eyes.

"So that's what you were keeping secret, not that it's much of a secret considering that's what the Uchiha clan is known for," Naruto commented.

Sasuke just ignored Naruto's comment as he charged forward.

Lee just paried his punch as he countered with a sweep, which Sasuke avoided and struck out with a kick. Lee was slightly surprised but he only blocked the moved. This went on for about thirty second until Lee started to get desperate.

"Kage Buyo," Lee said and he disappeared from Sasuke's view.

Sasuke looked around and then looked down, he only had a fraction of a second to respond, which he did instinctively by leaning backwards.

Lee's kick went over Sasuke's body.

"Woah," was the only thing Sasuke could say as he jumped back.

"Nice move there," was all that Sasuke could say.

"Arigatou," Lee nodded. He was about to rush forward but before he could do anything a voice shouted out.

"Lee, you were attempting to use a forbidden move on an ally," the voice said and in a puff of smoke a red-skinned and red-shelled turtle came into view.

Lee stood straight up and ran towards the turtle.

"Why were you acting so rashly?" the turtle asked.

Lee took one knee and said, "Gomen, but I wasn't going to use the reverse."

Team 7 was just watching this interaction with a bit of interest given the fact that the genin was being scolded by a turtle.

"Are you ready to accept the consequences for your actions?" the turtle asked harshly.

"Osu," Lee said with a nod.

"Yosh, Gai-sensei, you can take it from here," the turtle said.

In a puffed of smoke Maito Gai appeared in a ridiculous pose. "You are all in the spring of your youth," Gai stated.

Team 7 just looked at these guys with a seriously diisturbed expression.

Sasuke's concentration was lost and his sharingan was off due to this reason.

"Lee," Gai stated.

"Gai-sensei," Lee stated in attention.

"BAKA YAROU," Gai shouted as he punched his student.

This really got Team 7 to look at the two weirdly.

Gai just walked over to his student and said with tears running down his cheeks, "Lee."

Lee just looked up, he also had tears streaming down his face, "Gai-sensei."

Suddenly out of nowhere a sunset appeared behind the two.

"Lee," Gai said.

"Gai-sensei," Lee said as he ran and hugged Gai. Behind Gai the turtle had tears in his eyes

Team 7 was just looking at them with disbelieving eyes.

"Well, every shinobi has their quirks," was all Naruto said.

His team mates just nodded.

"It's normal to make mistakes when your young, so this is okay Lee," Gai said with a hand on Lee's shoulder.

"Hai," Lee said with a nod.

"As your sensei, it's my responsibility to accept punishment as well so we will run around Konoha twenty times," Gai stated with his left hand in a fist.

"YOSH," Lee said, about to follow them when Naruto called out.

"That's fine and dandy, but how about you do that after the exam," the blond called out.

"He's right Lee, we'll put this punishment on hold," Gai stated. He then looked at Team 7 and asked, "How is Kakashi doing?"

"I can't say I'm surprised you know him, Kakashi-sensei is doing pretty well, although he needs to get he nose out of that book more often," Naruto replied. "More importantly, what exactly are you to him?"

"We are eternal rivals," Gai said with extreme enthusiasm. "The current scores we have are 50-49 in my favor, so therefore I am stated through that to be stronger."

"Whatever, no disrespect or anything but we need to get going," Naruto stated as he turned around.

"AHHHHH, CURSE YOU KAKASHI-SAN FOR TEACHING YOUR STUDENTS YOUR HIP ATTITUDE," Gai shouted.

The only thing going through everyone Team 7's heads was, 'What the hell is this guy talking about?'

"Anyway, Lee-san, ganbatte, we'll probably see one another in the exam," Naruto said, being polite.

"Matte," Lee said.

Team 7 looked at Lee.

"I was lying when I said I was the strongest genin from Konoha, but the strongest is most likely on my team," Lee admitted to them.

"I've said it once, I'll say it again, I doubt that," Naruto replied as he and his team stepped out of the room.

Back with Gai and Lee...

"Lee, Naruto-san is a very special case," Gai told his student before Lee left the room. "When he said that he doubted that you or any of your team mates were the strongest, he wasn't disrespecting your abilities, he meant what he said."

"What do you mean?" Lee asked.

"I can't give you any details, but I will tell you this, and promise me that when facing Naruto-san, if his appearance starts becoming more feral and his attack more beast-like you must retreat, disregard your pride, and the only reason why you would never back down against him is if you are protecting someone, promise me this," Gai told him. "Naruto-san himself can be trusted, it's just that some things you need to be careful about."

"Osu, Gai-sensei," Lee stated as he rushed back to his team.

"I just hope that Lee doesn't have to heed my warning," Gai said to himself as he was wearing a serious face.

With Team 7...

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura all walked to the room 301 to find Kakashi standing at the door.

"Good, you're all here," Kakashi stated.

"Are you talking about the fact that only three-man teams are allowed enter the Chuunin exam?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke and Sakura just looked at Naruto, then Kakashi, then Naruto again.

"You knew?" Kakashi asked.

"Sensei, there is no such thing as a one-man team, and every Chuunin Exam, it's either all the team gets nominated of none get nominated, so that lead me to believe that the Chuunin Exam can only be entered as three-man teams," Naruto stated with confidence in his voice.

"Did you tell those two?" Kakashi asked, indicating Sasuke and Sakura.

"Would it have made a difference if I had?" Naruto asked. "First, I figured they'd have figured it out already, and second, even if they didn't that just meant that they chose on there own."

"Like what I was doing," Kakashi stated. "It seems you cared more about your team mates free will than your own benefits."

"Think about it this way, why should my team mates risk their lives for something that only I would want to do, better for them to make the decision on their own, I know they have the power, the will and the knowledge to take this test, but that doesn't mean shit if they don't have the conviction to they need. In the end, without conviction you may as well be the broomstick that was replaced when the vacuum came along, unless you have the conviction to prove you're more useful than the vacuum, you'll be replaced," Naruto replied with his comparison.

The rest of Team 7 was looking at Naruto.

"What?" Naruto asked.

"That's some pretty deep stuff, Naruto," Sakura said to him. "Your analogy was also well thought out."

"Well, when Kaitou-ji started to train us, while he was teaching me politics, I did some thinking of my own and I came to quite a few revelations during that time," Naruto admitted. "Eventually, we're going to be separated as a team, so I figured if that's gonna happen, I might as well make sure that we're not separated because a death, more specifically, the death any of you."

"You've really thought this through," Kakashi thought aloud. "I wish I'd had that train of thought when I was your age."

"Why is that?" Sasuke asked.

Kakashi hesitated with the answer to Sasuke's question.

"If you don't want to answer, then that's your business," Naruto said. Naruto turned to him team mates and said, "Best not to push him, because it might open up old wounds, besides we don't have time to listen to the story."

Both nodded in agreement, they couldn't argue with what Naruto had said.

Kakashi poofed away as his team stepped through the doors.

As Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura stepped through the doorway they could feel several eyes on them as it seemed that everyone was watching them.

"What are you looking at!?" Naruto shouted.

This had a divided effect, nearly half the room looked away while the other half glared at him.

For those that glared, Naruto just glared back. He looked around for a bit and then said, "Teme, best to duck right now."

Sasuke, although finding Naruto's advice odd, did as he was told and a yellow and purple blur passed over him and right into Sakura.

Now normally this wouldn't have meant much, but how the blur landed really got a few heads turning, mainly the males. The reason for this was because the yellow and purple blur was Ino, and she landed on Sakura, however, what really got everyone else's attention was the fact that Ino had landed face to face on Sakura, more specifically mouth to mouth. This of course got quite a few cat calls from most of the guys.

This, of course, got both kunoichi to to go wide-eyed.

"Wow, Ino, I didn't know you swung both ways, you should have mentioned something," Naruto commented with a snicker. He looked down at his team mate, still snickering. "Gomen, Sakura-chan, if I had known that she was gonna land on you I would have just let her jump on Sasuke's back again," Naruto admitted sheepishly. Naruto then looked around after seeing a flash from the corner of his eye, he saw quite a few guys taking pictures. Naruto leaned down and helped Ino off of Sakura and got them both off the floor. "If it's any consolation, Sasuke and I know exactly how you two feel," he whispered to them.

"Mendokuse, Ino, you always end up causing some sort of trouble," Shikamaru said as he walked over to the group with Chouji alongside him. "Gomen," he said to Sakura.

"I can't blame you for this accident," Sakura waved it off. "Stuff happens, hopefully not often, but it still happens."

Shikamaru shrugged as Chouji dug into the potato chips he was holding.

"Well, looks like the rookie 9 are all here," Kiba said as he walked up with Shino and Hinata behind him.

"Yo," Naruto said to his friends. "How have you two been doing with your combo extra?" he asked Kiba keeping as minimal information out as possible.

"You'll just have to see in the exam," Kiba answered with a smirk.

"So you're about 75% away from mastering," Naruto said with a knowing look.

"How did you know that?" Kiba yelled.

"Because you just told him," Shino answered for Naruto. "Naruto-san was bluffing, and instead of calling him on it, you played into his hand,"

"Nice answer there, Shino," Naruto commented.

As Naruto was about to take a step, Shino stopped him and gestured for Naruto to look down. When he did he saw a spider walking along and he would have stepped on it had Shino not intervened.

"I get you on that one Shino, let the bugs live on," Naruto declared with a hand in the air. "Let's start a campaign to save the bugs."

Nearly everyone in the room was looking at Naruto like he was a moron.

"Enough jokes, Naruto, you're making a scene," Sasuke said indicating that everyone was watching them again.

Naruto just waved it off, "I made a scene the moment I entered the room, anything else and the people will just start thinking that there's something wrong with me."

Sasuke just chuckled, knowing that what he said held a great deal of truth.

"You rookies might want to quiet down or you'll end up bringing too much attention to yourselves," a voice stated. The rookie 9 turned their heads to see a male, glasses wearing, shinobi from Konoha walking towards them. He had silver hair tied in a ponytail and was wearing purple clothing.

"And you are..." Naruto started.

"Forgive me, my name is Yakushi Kabuto," the glasses wearing shinobi stated. "I'd say look around, but it appears you'd already done so. Quite a few of the shinobi have a short temper, and most of them were tense because it's right before the start of the exam, but the incident between the two kunoichi seems to have lightened the mood a bit. Although it might be because you're rookies that you have so much attention on you," Kabuto told them. "I will say that your naivety reminds me of how I use to be."

"I doubt that," Naruto said for the third time that day.

"How many times have you attempted the exam?" Sakura asked, curious.

"This is actually my seventh time," Kabuto admitted.

Naruto narrowed his eyes a bit, 'There is no way someone would unintentionally fail the exam six times in a row, that's twice a year.' Naruto thought to himself, although trusting when it comes to some circumstances, knows better when someone responds with complete honesty to a question like that. 'Now the question is, why did he fail six time,' he finished his thoughts.

"So you must know quite a bit about this exam if you took it both times for the past three years," Sakura said.

"Hai," Kabuto replied.

"But you haven't passed yet," Shikamaru stated with his bored expression.

Kabuto just scratched the back of his head, "Yes, well..."

"Mendokuse, just how difficult is this exam?" Shikamaru asked rhetorically.

"Well, my experience does bear fruit, I have information on different villages and shinobi as well as the exam itself," Kabuto told them.

'That explains everything,' Naruto thought to himself.

Kabuto pulled out a deck of cards and said, "These cards carry the information, I add more info to each card using my chakra." He then turned one over revealing it blank. He then placed one finger on the card and started rotating it.

"What are you doing?" Sakura asked.

"The images imprinted on these cards were placed on here by my chakra, therefore only my chakra can make said images appear," Kabuto explained as a map of the elemental nations appeared. There appeared to be numbers and some form of graph on each country. "The numbers indicate how many shinobi came from each country. Konoha, being the highest, mainly because the exams are being held in this village," he continued. Kabuto asked, "Do any of you know why the villages send shinobi from their own village just for the exam?"

No one answered so it seemed as if not one of them knew.

Since he got his answer, Kabuto continued, "It's to increase the relationships between villages, and for some, allow their genin to get stronger. At least that's what they say."

"I take it there's another reason?" Sasuke asked.

"Hai, it's to keep tabs on the other villages and make sure that they can balance out the village powers," the experienced genin told them. "The main reason for this is to keep invasions from the stronger countries. It does well to ensure that no one country gets too powerful. At least that's my theory."

"You mentioned that your cards have information on shinobi, does it specify personal information?" Sasuke asked, interested.

"Hai, is there anyone specific that you want to see?" Kabuto asked.

"Ah," Sasuke said.

"I don't have everything, but I have an exceptional amount of information. Yours are in there as well," Kabuto said as he put his first card on the top of the deck. "Who do you want to know about? If you can describe them, I see what I can do."

"Sabaku no Gaara, from Sunagakure and Rock Lee, from Konoha, and also Uzumaki Naruto, from Konoha," Sasuke specified with a serious face.

"Well, knowing their names makes this easy," Kabuto as he activated his cards and search through each one. He pulled out three cards and said, "Here they are."

"Let's see them," Sasuke said.

Kabuto put down the first card, "Rock Lee, last year he had barely passed the academy, but since then his skills in taijutsu have exponentially increased, this is his first time taking the Chuunin Exam as well, his leader is Maito Gai and his team mates are name Hayase Tenten and Hyuuga Neji." He put another card down and read out, "Sabaku no Gaara, no specifications of abilities, he's been on apparently mystery number of C-rank missions, twenty D-rank missions and a B-rank one, all without receiving any form of physical inflictions." Kabuto then put down the final card and said, "Uzumaki Naruto, your team mate, his taijutsu is slightly above par, ninjutsu also above par and genjutsu below average, it also appears that he has an affinity to all five elements, which is unheard of."

Naruto narrowed his eyes seriously when he heard that, 'There is no way he could have that information, Kaitou-ji forced everyone to keep that a secret, I smell a rat, or even a snake.' He then looked around and noticed that no one seemed to be paying attention, 'At least no one was really listening to my personal info.'

Kabuto then explained the different villages and said, "Konoha, Suno, Ame, Kusa, Taki, Oto, there are many talented genin from each village participating. Although I don't have much information about Oto because it's a new village of a small country, so it's most likely a minor village at the moment and this is their first Chuunin Exam. Either way they're all powerful villages."

"So what you're saying is..." Sakura said.

"Everyone here are elite genin of their villages, not just Lee and Gaara," Kabuto finished for her.

"Kabuto, I don't know where or how you got your information, but I warn you right now that you are on thin ice with me. I seriously doubt you're as kind as you make yourself out to be, and I've no clue how strong you are, but one this will be made clear, if I can handle a light spar from Ero-sennin, I can handle you," Naruto muttered in a low tone, so only those near him could hear, to the spectacled genin with a glare. "You're nothing more than an information broker to me, and you know what you're doing in tha field, but you don't know what I can do so the first thing you should do if you come across me is run, and hope to high hell I'm either too busy or haven't noticed you yet."

Most of the Rookie 9 just looked at Naruto like he was a completely different person.

Naruto then pointed to everyone else in general and yelled out, "I AM UZUMAKI NARUTO, AND I WILL NOT LOSE TO ANY ONE OF YOU."

Most of the Rookie 9 just sweatdropped at Naruto's outburst.

"It's that guy we met earlier," Kankuro stated.

"The weaker ones are the ones that talk the most shit," Temari stated.

"I believe he has the ability to follow through with his words," Gaara admitted. "There's something more about him."

The two looked at Gaara and then Naruto.

Tenten just said, "Idiot."

"He seems energetic," Neji said.

"He has a great flame," Lee said.

Neji then replied, "Maybe you should have beaten some sense into him."

"Neji, don't take him lightly, Gai-sensei warned me about him, if there is any abnormalities in his abilities than usual or if his attacks are more animal-like then the best course of action is to run," Lee warned his team mate.

Neji just looked at Lee with serious doubt.

"I don't know the full story, but if it's enough for Gai-sensei to warn us, the least we can do is heed the warning," Lee told him.

Neji and Tenten both nodded as they looked at Naruto.

A team muttered amongst themselves. All of them had their hitae-ates on their foreheads.

"They're underestimating us by saying we're most likely a minor village," said one with spiky hair wearing black bands on his arms, a loose tan shirt and a black and gray camo scarf and matching pants.

"Maybe we should play with them," said a female with long black hair. She was wearing a green sleeveless blouse and a gray and black camo scarf with a pair of identical pants as well.

"I agree, they act like we're just leftovers because we're from a new village," said the last member, this one was wrapped almost completely in bandages. He had something like a furry pelt on his back and his loose robe-like shirt had sleeves covered his arms completely. Like his team mates he was also wearing a black and gray camo scarf and pants. "Let's have him put this among his information, Oto shinobi are crueler than most."

The rookie 9 were just looking at Naruto.

"Big talk, Naruto, we'll see later if you can back it up," Kiba said with a grin.

"Why did you make everyone else your enemy?" Shikamaru asked.

"Better me than you, and I can back up my words plenty," Naruto said to Kiba and Shikamaru.

The Oto shinobi then moved forward. The bandaged one pulled his right sleeve with his left hand to reveal a gauntlet-like or bracer-like item on his right arm that covered his forearm.

Kankuro pulled one of the bandages off of his shoulder when Gaara held his hand up.

The spiky haired one had two kunai ready and threw them.

Kabuto just jumped out of the way, only to be attacked by the bandaged one who threw a right hook. Kabuto dodged said attack and seemed to be unhurt until his glasses broke. He raised is eyebrow as he thought to himself.

"Kiba, did you and Akamaru hear that?" Naruto asked.

"Ah," Kiba replied. Being of the Inuzuka clan, he had a few senses that were higher than normal like his sense of smell or his hearing.

"You know what that means, but don't yell it out, just use it to your advantage if you end up fighting him, we know, but he doesn't know that we know, so that gives us an edge if necessary," Naruto finished.

"Good idea," Kiba admitted.

Kabuto then started to get dizzy and was on his knees, a second later he started to vomit.

Sakura was about to run over but Naruto muttered her, "He's fine, he took that hit intentionally. He was gaging their abilities."

"I thought you'd be better, given that you're a four year veteran for the Chuunin Exam," the bandaged one said.

The spiky-haired one then spoke, "Put this in your cards, all the Oto shinobi are going to become chuunin in this exam."

Naruto thought to himself, 'That arrogance is going to get him killed, and probably his team as well.'

There was a puff of smoke in the front of the room and a harsh voice said, "Shut up, you punks. And you Oto nin, I give you one warning, any more misconduct during this part of the exam and I will disqualify from the exam right then and there." When the smoke cleared, it revealed twelve chuunin standing behind a jounin. "I hope you all weren't waiting long, I am Morino Ibiki, the proctor for the first part of the exam."

End of Chapter...

The longest chapter I have written thus far. I just couldn't find a sooner place to end said chapter. Naruto didn't trust Kabuto at this point in time, experience in this story has taught him that one can wear a smile for quite a few things, one being a devious plotting. Now Kabuto knows that, although his cover isn't blown, he's earned the animosity of one of the worst people in the exam to piss off. I honestly think that he still has no idea what Naruto is capable of, Kaitou has been training Naruto efficiently, and he's currently wearing his weights, let's see if Kabuto has what it takes to take Naruto on in a later chapter. Anyway Read & Review.