Naruto grumbled as he got up in time to get a reasonably good seat at the arena for the Third Phase of the Chunin Exams. Apparently, when the exams took place in Konoha, attendance was mandatory for Genin, which meant that he couldn't skip it to get extra sleep or training in, and nobody could chase him away from the arena like they had done the last time the Chunin Exams were in Konoha when he'd shown up to see what was going on. Back then, the bastards who'd chased him off hadn't even told him it was the Chunin Exams, and as a result he hadn't known what the Chunin Exams were until Sakura had told him about them when Gaara showed up the first time, since the public part of the Exams tended to take place when the Academy was in session, and the Instructors he'd had didn't seem to think that children who weren't even Genin yet needed to be bothered with them.

He was reasonably certain that there wouldn't be an invasion this time however. Orochimaru was currently locked up somewhere where irony of ironies, he was the experiment, and the impostor Orochimaru had sent to replace the Kazekage when he couldn't because he had to be elsewhere had been caught thanks to Gaara. The impostor had tried to pin the blame for what happened to the real Kazekage on Konoha but, fortunately for Konoha, the last place the Kazekage had been headed to when he was still alive had been to meet Orochimaru who was oddly enough still alive whereas the Kazekage was not. The Kazekage's death had been confirmed without a doubt after a search that had been made upon the discovery of the imposter had turned up his body where it had been the last time around when it had been found after the invasion.

He'd wondered how Gaara could stand to wear the hat considering where it had been, until Gaara had informed him that he'd used one of his father's spare hats and buried the one that had been on his father's rotting corpse with his father. That wouldn't have flown in Konoha however. In Konoha, there was only one Hokage hat. Fortunately, it had been left in the village when three of the five Hokages had run off to die in battle, and hadn't been on the Old Man's head when he'd died the last time around.

Because there wouldn't be an invasion, all he had to look forward to today was a relatively boring day in which Shikamaru's bout would eat several hours while the Nara waited for the sun to be positioned correctly. If Gaara didn't get too bored and hand him his ass that was. There were some good things about the change in the timeline after all, and one of them was the fact that random number draws didn't come out the same, unless they were rigged like the whole Neji/Hinata fight had been.

Thanks to his team being knocked out of the running, the lineup for the Third Phase of the Exams looked rather different than it had the last time around. Gaara, Kankuro, Temari, Neji, Shikamaru, and Shino had made it through just like the last time around but, so had Ino, Kiba, and Lee, and surprisingly enough the Sound Genin Dosu had remained behind and alive to take the Exams despite the fact that his "Kage" was imprisoned, and his village would quite likely be wiped off the map very soon since Suna had declared war on Otogakure and Konoha was willing to lend a hand in that should Suna call upon them.

The matches for the first round of the Third Phase were Temari vs. Shino, Dosu vs. Neji, Shikamaru vs. Gaara, Kankuro vs. Kiba, and Ino vs. Lee. He was glad that he wasn't in the running this time around, since the competitors weren't allowed to make bets on the outcome of the matches. Knowing the competitors like he did as he'd fought against, and fought alongside all of them except Dosu, he was sure to make a killing. He'd already placed his bets, and casually mentioned he'd made said bets to Kakashi-sensei, Ero-senin, and Iruka-sensei in case the bookie got any ideas of not paying up.

On the way to the arena, Neji blew past him in a neon yellow tracksuit with green shoulders and green sandals which oddly enough didn't look half bad on him, and made him almost match Gai and Lee. Two weeks ago, he'd taught Neji his lesson, and somehow acquired another "student" in the process. He was reasonably certain that Neji had taken on this form of training so he could have a semi-legitimate excuse to prank his uncle rather than out of a desire to become stronger though. Neji had already gotten the man twice in the last week, and had been forced to literally run for his life after the second incident.

Eventually, after a whole and unbroken Lee had passed him, he had reached the arena where he took a seat between his teammates in the stands.

Gaara winced as he watched his sister shriek and slap herself everywhere. Temari hated bugs, and Aburame Shino was probably the worst opponent for her considering that fact. Temari's fan had blown away the cloud of bugs that had been headed towards her but unfortunately, that cloud had been a distraction. The real attack had been the carpet of Kikaichu which had been sent along the ground and come up behind her while she had been entirely focused on their flying counterparts.

That had been an embarrassing match as far as he was concerned. The match between her and the Nara boy she'd been fond of for a good long while had been a much better one as far as he was concerned, even if he recalled it being boring as hell and taking forever. At least then, Temari had been able to showcase her talents and had looked cool while doing so rather than looking like a little girly girl like she did now.

Next up was Dosu, whom he had vague recollections of killing, and Neji. This promised to be an interesting fight, especially if Neji tried the Kaiten since Dosu had an ability that actually might be able to counter the near perfect defense. Dosu's sonic attack affected the inner ear, and rather painfully threw his opponents off balance, and as spinning around was required for the Kaiten...

Maito Gai watched his student fight, and wondered if it was too early to thank the Uzumaki boy. A great change had come over Neji since the day the boy who had been completely covered in bruises at the time had shown up to apologize to Lee two weeks ago. Whether or not that change was temporary or permanent was yet to be seen. So far however, it appeared that the Uzumaki boy had gotten through to Neji where others had failed. But, then again, besides the Uzumaki boy, he was probably the only one who had actually made any real effort to get through to him. Unlike the Uzumaki however, he couldn't beat sense into the child like he had been itching to do any number of times because of all of the trouble it would have caused with the Hyuuga who would have been up in arms about his treatment of their precious "Prodigy".

If the Uzumaki hadn't gotten through to Neji, Lee probably would have gotten to him sometime down the line via the Obito method but, by then, it would have been too late. Lee would have been gone, and Neji would have ended up being a complete emotional wreck like Kakashi. Fortunately, thanks to the Uzumaki, that scenario may not come about, since it looked like the boy had gotten through, and if the boy had really gotten through, Neji would more than likely view Lee as a valued comrade rather than a possible hindrance, and would make more of an effort to have his back than he would if he'd viewed Lee as someone he was forced to work with.

He would adopt a wait and see policy for now before he started thanking Naruto. If the change appeared to be both genuine and lasting, he would owe the Uzumaki boy a great debt, and he would do anything and everything in his power to repay it.

Kabuto barely suppressed a grin as he reached Orochimaru's cell. It had been all too easy.

The Uzumaki boy had very nearly killed him with that poisoned needle. But fortunately, the proctor who had taken his vital signs during that incident had been another one of Orochimaru's spies, and the man had dragged him out of the room very shortly before he died rather than shortly after he died. Once out of the room, he had been given an antidote to the poison that had been on the Mist Genin's needle out of the Academy's First Aid kit which contained a wide variety of antidotes in case of accidental poisonings, though it had almost been too late.

He'd been brought to the hospital morgue in a near-death state from which he recovered. After recovering, it had been a simple matter of giving one of the bodies he kept in a storage scroll for just this eventuality his features, and making his escape. After he had made his escape, he had gone into hiding in one of Orochimaru's old boltholes which littered the woods around Konoha.

He had spent a rather uncomfortable month living in the trunk of a tree while he figured out his next move. In his opinion, it had taken way too long to come up with a viable plan to free Orochimaru. But, that was his fault for not thinking of it sooner. Fortunately, that plan had gone without a hitch so far...

As he was removing the straps that held Orochimaru down on the small cot that was the only piece of furniture in the cell that Orochimaru occupied, he felt a strange tickling sensation run up his leg. Yanking his pants leg up in order to deal with whatever insect was crawling on said limb as leaving what could be one of one of the Aburame's bugs on him would be a rookie mistake, he found himself looking down at a Chakra suppressing seal.

"Gotcha you little rat!" said a very familiar and unwelcome voice behind him.

He turned around to find himself looking at Jiraiya of the Sannin, Shimura Danzo, and an extremely pale boy with black hair and black eyes who was holding a paintbrush. That turned out to be a mistake since, while he was focused on them, he failed to notice and deal with the paralyzing seal that then made its way up his leg in time.

Shit.

"Thanks for the loan Danzo." Jiraiya said as he ruffled the pale boy's hair.

"Not a problem Jiraiya." Danzo replied with a most disturbingly genuine smile. "If you'll excuse me, I'd better get going before the boys realize I've escaped again."

Danzo then took his leave, racing down the hall at a speed he would have sworn was impossible for a shinobi his age retired or otherwise if he hadn't seen it himself.

"I love it when he's like this." Jiraiya sighed. "It's a pity it won't last."

"Kabuto was it?" Jiraiya asked in a falsely casual tone of voice when he turned to him after pretending to have forgotten he was there.

"Yes." he replied, wondering what Orochimaru's former teammate had up his sleeve, especially since he was working with the likes of Danzo.

"The T&I department has a few things they want to ask you." Jiraiya said as he stepped aside with a smile that made his stomach sink with dread for some strange reason.

He learned what that reason was an instant later when it was revealed that Mitarashi Anko had been standing right behind the Sannin.

"Well Sai," Jiraiya said as he ushered the small boy down the hall, leaving him alone with the woman who had sworn to do her utmost to destroy Orochimaru and make the lives of his willing followers a living hell. "Now that that's over, let's go get a drink before Danzo turns back into his old self and drags you home."

Yes, it had been entirely too easy.

Edited 11-4-12