Chapter 2:

AN: As I'm getting more into this narrative, it's becoming more and more likely that this will just be a short story (maybe 15k words), leaving any of the other, long adventures I have in my head to become parts of other stories – but who knows! Thanks to everyone whose reviewed and all the hits.

Naruto woke to Shizune pulling a needle out of his left arm, and looked around. The all too familiar white washed walls of the hospital came into focus, and the noxious fumes of ammonia filled his nostrils. This was not where he wanted to be. For Naruto to be in the hospital, it usually meant something really bad had happened. Even the cranky Hokage had learnt that the odd scratch or wound would heal itself thanks to the Kyuubi's influence, and had stopped fretting about Naruto's health years ago. He wouldn't be admitted for any old training accident. As Naruto's thoughts settled, his memories came back to him and he realised something really bad had happened. He was going to be sitting the chuunin exams – again.

"Has your age finally gotten to you baa-chan! No way am I sitting the chuunin exams. I already pretty much passed them last time," he yelled somewhat belatedly. Blinking, he realised the Hokage wasn't anywhere in sight, and that his little outburst had disgruntled the nurses tending to the sick and injured.

"Have some respect. People are resting. We don't all heal as fast as you," a civilian nurse sneered. Naruto could only nod dumbly. Even after all this time, a few short sighted civilians still struggled to accept Naruto as a person and ninja. The abuse he tolerated today didn't hold a candle to that of his childhood, and he could now look after himself; but to know how some people thought of him still hurt. He hoped becoming Hokage would change all that. His head snapped up as he remembered Shizune was still in the room. Taking a deep breath and controlling the volume of his voice he turned to face her.

"Is baa-chan serious? I can't compete with a bunch of baby faced, fresh from the academy gennin! I'd wipe the floor with them - it's absolutely pointless." And not to mention humiliating, thought Naruto. All the respect I've worked so hard to finally earn. How would it make me look – hell, how would it make Konoha look if their next Hokage was competing with recruits to become a chuunin! "Why can't baa-chan just promote me if the rules mean so much to her – surely she could do that," Naruto exclaimed.

Actually, she probably can, thought Shizune. It might have just slipped her mind, but there's no way she's going back on her declaration - not now. Tsunade is far too proud and stubborn for that. Actually, she's probably doing it on purpose; probably getting a kick out of it or something, thought Shizune as she remembered the evil grin on the Hokage's face earlier that morning. Naruto's irritable grumbling punctuated her thoughts and brought her back to the blonde boy in front of her.

"Don't worry about it Naruto, you yourself just said it'll be a walk in the park. Why don't you look at it like an opportunity to finally showcase your skills to the village and the other countries? It's the perfect opportunity to prove that you deserve to be Hokage. I mean, most of the civilians haven't even seen you fight. They only remember you from your pranking days as an orange nuisance. Since then you've been on missions and away from the civilian public. This is your opportunity to show them how much you've grown – to convince them that you deserve to be the next Hokage!" After that little speech Shizune had almost convinced herself that Tsunade had done this in Naruto's best interest, and not just to have unfair amounts of fun at Naruto's expense. "Pfft," Shizune had to suppress a giggle – "no way".

"Yeah… I guess you're right," Naruto responded. "Tsunade baa-can really did give me an opportunity," his face twisting into his trademark fox grin.

Shizune was glad that Naruto had still kept his optimistic attitude all these years – and his stupidity. No, Naruto wasn't stupid as such, in fact he had proven himself numerous times to be a standout tactician, but in matters like these his obliviousness had gotten them out of a lot of sticky situations.

"Well, I'm going to go train," announced Naruto. "I have to be in tip-top condition if I want to showcase my skills while not also mortally wounding our own gennin."

"But the chuunin exams are still a few months away," Shizune asked incredulously.

"Well baa-chan will probably still be giving me missions – so I've got to take every opportunity I can get!"

Shizune could only stare dumbfounded as the hyperactive ninja bounded to the window and jumped out, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

A Few Days Later…

"Cat!" Tsunade barked, as an ANBU operative materialised next to her. "Assemble these ninja in my office in half an hour," she announced, handing the ninja a list. The man with the cat mask simply nodded before he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Spreading themselves out amongst the office, the gennin of seven years ago stood lazily in the Hokage's office. All jonnin by now they were regular visitors of the office, but it had been years since the friends from so many years ago had all been in one place – with the conspicuous exception of two team 7 ninja.

The idle chatter died down as Tsunade began to speak. "Welcome everyone," Tsunade smiled. "No doubt you're curious as to why you're all here. Well, I've decided, since you were all participating gennin the last time Konoha held the chuunin exams, it would be appropriate for you to be this year's organisers and proctors." A quick hum of conversation died down as quickly as it had arisen – they were disciplined ninja after all, except perhaps Kiba. "There are standard procedures and protocols which need to be adhered to," Tsunade continued, "and Ibiki here will explain to you what those are." A rugged, scar faced man stepped up from behind the Hokage's desk and nodded at the group. "Otherwise, you are free to make your own choices as to the individual tests within the exam. This assignment will be treated as a C rank mission, and you will be paid accordingly. You have one month to submit a plan to me for authorisation. Any questions?" Tsunade finished. As she looked out onto the faces of the young ninja in front of her she was amazed to see grins forming on their faces and evil glints in their eyes. Tsunade suppressed a shiver, just what were these kids thinking?

The collective thought running through young jonnins' minds' was: "This is going to be so much fun!" They remembered back to the torment they were put through when they sat their exams for the first time, and were more than eager to inflict the same pain on some hapless gennin.

"Hokage-sama," Ino put up her hand. "Where are Naruto and Sasuke? They participated alongside us as well."

"Yes!" Lee interrupted, "Naruto should be here to pass on his youthful flame to next generation. Especially as upcoming Hokage," he yelled; flames in his eyes as he pumped his fists.

Having long since become immune to the Guy clone that was Rock Lee, Tsunade ignored him and continued on to answer Ino's question with a broad grin. "Naruto has never had a chance to sit the exams again since all those years ago, and through circumstance has never been promoted. As a result, he will be sitting this year's chuunin exams before he can become Hokage."

Silence filled the room - before it spontaneously erupted in howls of laughter.

Kiba was rolling on the floor holding his sides, while gasping for oxygen, with Akamaru by his side howling to an unseen moon. Even the normally stoic Neji couldn't help but chuckle, and Shino's head bobbing in his coat was more emotion than normally ever seen from the teenager. This was going to be even more fun than they had anticipated, and hell, they were getting paid for it too.

Wiping tears from her eyes Sakura spoke up. "Shishou, what is happening with Sasuke?" she asked curiously. Sakura had long since moved on from her crush, but Sasuke had been a good friend to for several years, ok maybe not good as such, but still a friend and she was curious.

The humour immediately left the room as a deathly silence occupied the space once more. Tsunade's face became grave, before she began. "As you know, Sasuke has been imprisoned for his treason against the village, and the international ninja community, for the last 3 years. His fate is currently undecided. Regardless, he, along with Naruto, still holds gennin rank, and hence has no place in the organisation or running of the chuunin exams," Tsunade said sternly. She was not quite as forgiving as Naruto, and while the Uchiha had shown good behaviour over the last few years she wasn't sure if she was ready to trust him. "Anything else?" Tsunade asked. Headshakes from a few of the young ninja in the room were all the Hokage needed. "Very well then, you will meet with Ibiki tomorrow to receive your assigned roles. You are free to leave." With that the young ninja began to file out of the office, leaving an irritable Hokage brooding about being "too old for this job". Once Tsunade was alone she pulled out a sake bottle from underneath her desk and drank deeply. With a sigh she thought about what she was going to do. It had been 3 years after all – perhaps….

Naruto jumped along the rooftops of the village moving towards the setting sun. He had told Shizune a few days ago he was going to go train, and that hadn't exactly been a lie. Right at that moment he had several dozen clones sparing against each other at training ground 36 on the other side of the village. They had the orders to be as dramatic as possible while dealing minimal damage. The damage his shadow clones could take before dispersing was miniscule compared to that of the original Naruto, but had just about the same tolerance as that of an average academy student, hence providing the perfect practice for the upcoming exams. Right now however, Naruto was going to visit an old friend – his oldest friend, something he wasn't exactly allowed to do.

Entering the maximum security prison underneath the interrogation wing of Konoha's barracks unauthorised was no easy task. Hell, even getting authorisation was nigh on impossible. It took a good deal of Naruto's not inconsiderable skill to get past all the guards and traps. Over the last few years he had memorised the layout, the guard timetables and even the trap arrangements – he could probably go in blindfolded by now. Getting closer he jumped down from the roof and jumped to a nearby tree, far enough from the prison so as to not arouse suspicion, but close enough to be able visually identify the guarding ninja. Suppressing his unwieldy chakra to the best of his ability, Naruto jumped down from the branch he was on and hid behind the trunk waiting for the change of guard. Within the minute the jonnin level ninja walked towards the guard house stationed to the right of the prison entrance. This was Naruto's signal to move in. Staying low he crept closer to the double iron doors baring the entrance, complete with chakra absorbing seals. This made them immune to all but the most powerful ninjutsu. He was now just within shushin range on the doors. On cue the gates opened as a second ninja, (Aoba, Naruto could just make out), from within the prison doors made his way to the guard house to sign his time sheet. Now was the time. Naruto pumped chakra to his legs, and in a burst of speed arrived at the prison doors. The instant he landed, he flipped up and clung to the inside roof of the prison with chakra, avoiding the pressure sensitive explosive tag under the floor. The tunnel beyond the doors was dimly lit by light seals which let out a soft, warm glow as anyone approached. Naruto was off moving silently along the roof and sticking to the shadows before he heard a booming crash echo through the passageway, signifying the closing of the heavy metal doors. Now he knew he had to work fast. It depended how lazy this new guard ninja was – it decided his time limit. He tentatively tried to sense for chakra – of course, no luck, this was a jonnin, he would just have to work fast.

By the time he was halfway down the tunnel he leapt to the left wall and clung there again; moving right passed the pressure activated spikes which fell from the ceiling. A few seconds and half a dozen acrobatic manoeuvres later and he had avoided all the pressure traps and trip wires. Around 200m from the entrance Naruto finally stopped running and dropped down to the ground silently, arriving at a small rectangular whole just wide enough for a person to fall through. It seemed to fall infinitely down into the belly of the earth itself, with a suffocating darkness which licked at its entrance. Only Daton ninjutsu could have created something like that, Naruto correctly thought. This was always the hardest part of Naruto's daring break in. He remembered the memories of the shadow clones he had sent to explore the various similar holes which spread around this end of the cavern, and still cringed at the memories of their horrible deaths in various flavours of spike and fluid. That was several years ago now, and he prayed his memory hadn't failed, and that this was the correct hole before he took a literal leap of faith into the abyss.

Lying on a maddening itchy straw mat, Sasuke stared up at the ceiling of his suffocatingly dark cell. Beside him was a scattered tray of cold watery soup, lying unevenly on the coils of chain which kept his range of movement limited to a few feet. In the corner of the chamber was a metal washbasin and toilet, beside which previous, maddened prisoners had scratched wretched and horrific murals into the stone walls. Unlike them however, Sasuke would not break - he was an Uchiha and his pride would endure the loneliness. Around his atrophied limbs a strange blue metallic material dug into his skin, securing the chains to him, while the simultaneously suppressing and absorbing his chakra, keeping him in a permanently weakened state in which any form of ninjutsu was impossible.

While sitting there thinking of nothing at all Sasuke heard a faint noise in the distance, faint enough to be the footsteps of a mouse – but even the rodents didn't come down here. It could mean only one thing, and Sasuke smiled. "Hn."

A single drop of sweat fell from Naruto's brow as he safely landed on solid, spikeless ground. Walking a few metres he stopped at a metal door and performed a few handseals before placing his hand on the wall. The air shimmered for a moment before settling once again.

"Yo, teme, you awake?" Naruto casually said to no one.

"Dobe, have you put up the silence barrier yet?" A voice like sandpaper replied shakily from the other side of the door.

"No shit, who do you think I am?" came the confident reply.

A hoarse chuckle emanated from Sasuke's throat. "Only Konoha's next Hokage, my rival and my friend," came the heartfelt reply.

Naruto was taken aback. Never before had Sasuke shown such emotion. "These walls must really be getting to you huh? You know what the first thing I'm going to do as Hokage is - don't you. Anyway, have you heard any news about your situation?"

"News? Ha, I don't even know how long I've been here – you know that. And thanks." Sasuke trailed away at the end.

Naruto cringed. In the end Sasuke hadn't been able to carry out his threat of destroying the village. In the end all he had really done was kill that maniac Danzo. He had done the village a favour if you asked Naruto. It had been too long. "You're going to love this. You know they're making me sit the chuunin exams again before I can become Hokage."

A rasping cough and gurgle was the closest the imprisoned nin could make to a laugh. It was painful to hear as it continued for several seconds. Slowly, and through wheezy breaths, Sasuke replied: "Technically, I'm still a gennin too. You beat there asses good Dobe, cause when I get out, you and I are going to have that fight we never got, and you're going to be so beaten up they'll send you back to the academy."

Naruto let out a short laugh and nodded to the air, "A fight for the ages – a fight as equals."

"Hn," echoed through the small opening at the top of cell door.

"I got to go, I still haven't mastered the silence seal formula - we only have another 15 seconds left. I just thought I'd pop by and share some news to brighten up your wonderful day," Naruto said with a smirk. "Well see ya round teme."

"Ha, I'll be out here in no time and kicking your ass, and get that stupid seal working, it's time limit sucks," Sasuke paused, "and cheers Dobe," he finished with a sigh. He would never say it out loud, but without Naruto's infrequent visits he may well have lost himself down here like the other prisoners before. Naruto gave him hope. With that parting thought Sasuke sensed a weak chakra as the silence seal failed and Naruto vanished the way he came.

Hours passed with Sasuke amusing himself with the thoughts of Naruto repeatedly butchering some hapless gennin – after all they couldn't imprison his imagination. Suddenly he jerked his head up as he heard a noise. His first thought was that Naruto had returned, but as where Naruto was silent and moved like the shadows, whoever this was moved with a heavy step which echoed like cannons to Sasuke's hyper-sensitised ears. In the distance he heard a low, gruff masculine voice call out "Doton: Kaidan o sakusei (Earth Release: Stair Creation)". He hadn't heard those words or the following rumbling in 3 years. It meant someone was approaching his prison the official route. Sasuke didn't know what to expect and quite honestly couldn't care less. A few moments later he heard the footsteps come to rest outside his cell door, followed by painful screeching. Covering his ears Sasuke watched as the heavy doors swung open on their rusty hinges. The silhouette of a tall, broad man came into focus as Sasuke blinked repeatedly due to what was the relatively sharp light of the corridor.

"Uchiha, Sasuke." The mysterious man began. "Your conditional release has been order by the Hokage." Sasuke thought he really had lost his mind, had weeks already passed – was Naruto already Hokage? "You are to come with me and report to Tsunade-sama, at which point you will receive further instruction. Do not attempt to escape, I have been given permission to use lethal force if you refuse to co-operate," the man replied matter of factly. That answered Sasuke's internal question.

"Ha, you couldn't kill me if you tried," Sasuke replied with typical Uchiha arrogance, but he knew in his current condition he had no chance if the man in front of him decided to get serious.

The large man simply ignored him, before placing handcuffs around his ankles and wrists made of the same blue chakra absorbing materials as his current bindings. He then proceeded to remove the original chains before lifting Sasuke to his feet by the handcuffs and dragging him up the stairs like a sack of potatoes to the Hokage's office. Sasuke didn't care; he only had one thought in his head as his lips twisted to form a half smile: Hn, the Dobe was right. Today really is a wonderful day.

AN: As always Please Read and Review!

I'm not very happy with this chapter. It didn't really flow, and has some very poor sentences. I thought I'd get it out and edit it later – so sorry. While I'm doing my big edit I'll fix up the first chapter too.

This chapter was more than twice as long as the last, and don't worry Sasuke's back story will be explained in good time. Also, NaruSaku moments will also enter throughout the story. All comments welcome! I probably won't be able to update again till after the weekend. The next chapter will probably be shorter.