Reading your story's 40th review with it telling you this piece of work has no point at all can be demoralizing, but meh. I know it's sticking too much to canon, but from now on I'll be trying to steer it away from canon as much as I can.

Thanks to Charmed, princesspevensie, Akatsuki no Kyara, Guest and The True Not Important for the reviews!

Shit...

Itachi heard footsteps.

No... it wasn't only one person. There were three. Three people...

This was bad.

The former ANBU quickly hid the item in his hands, but in his panic, it fell to the ground. Picking it up hastily, he got into an alert stance, wanting to see who it was coming round the corner...

"Itachi-sensei?"

Oh no! Them!

Itachi swiftly hid the item again, but Sakura leaped over and snatched it away. She frowned. Her sensei glanced at her nervously, but to his relief, her frown was one of curiosity.

"What is this? Icha Icha? Is it some kind of book series?"

"Of course! Haha!" Itachi snatched the book back, pocketing it. "It's a decent series. You should... uh... check it out sometime..." He laughed nervously.

Sasuke stared at Itachi's pocket suspiciously, where the book was kept. "What kind of book is that, brother?"

"Well, I can tell you for sure that it isn't any sort of indecent book!" Itachi grinned. Damn.

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Why are you here, Itachi-sensei?"

The Jonin's face turned serious. "I just came here because I wanted to know if Sakura was going to take the exam. So she did. That's great. Now all three of you can properly take this exam."

"What do you mean?"

"Eh..." Itachi smiled at his team. "The Chunin Exams can only be taken in a group of three."

"What?!"

"If I told you this..." Team 7's captain continued. "Naruto or Sasuke would have pressured Sakura into taking it even if you didn't want to."

Sakura gasped, realization hitting her.

"If only Naruto and Sasuke came..." Itachi gestured towards the door behind him leading into the classroom. "You guys wouldn't have made it past this door. But you three came here of your own free will. I'm proud."

Grins plastered the faces of the three Genin.

Stepping aside, the Uchiha pointed towards the door and smiled, nodding towards his team.

"Hm?"

Shikamaru Nara looked up.

"Eh? Shikamaru!" Naruto walked towards his friend from the academy. "You're here too!"

"Of course we are!" A blonde girl jumped onto Sasuke. Sakura had an angered expression on her face, and Sasuke had an embarrassed one. "Hehe... you're here for this exam too, Sasuke-kun?"

"Get your dirty hands off him, Ino pig!"

"Hello, Sakura." Ino smirked at her rival. "Big ugly forehead as usual."

Sakura growled.

"Calm down, girls," Sasuke said quickly. His inner pervert wanted Ino to stay right there, but his polite Uchiha personality took over, and Sasuke pushed his former classmate off.

"As you wish, Sasuke-kun," both girls said dreamily, then turning to glare at each other.

"Girls," Shikamaru sighed, with a dismissive wave, as Choji walked up to stand beside him, stuffing his face with chips.

"Choji, you're eating again," Naruto said disapprovingly.

Choji shrugged.

"So, Naruto, the three of you are taking this test as well?"

"Yup!"

Shikamaru grunted. "What a drag."

Kiba, Shino and Hinata walked into the scene.

"Rookies assemble," Kiba joked.

"Kiba! Shino! Hinata!"

"N-N-N-Naruto-kun..." Hinata smiled, poking her fingers together. Shino said nothing, simply nodding at his fellow rookies as a friendly gesture.

"Naruto," Sasuke warned, studying every Genin in the room. They all looked menacing. "If you're too loud, you're going to make everybody your enemy, and I don't think you would want that."

Naruto blinked, before laughing like a madman. He then jumped to the front of the room and pointed to every single Genin he could see.

"OI!"

Sakura's eyes widened. She pulled the orange-wearing boy back. Naruto, what are you doing?!

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki! And there is no way I am going to lose to any of you!"

Sasuke's face paled. "Naruto, you damn idiot."

Kiba had a look of amusement on his face as Sakura stepped forward.

"Uh... sorry... this guy's an idiot!" She laughed nervously, pointing towards the blonde. All the Genin seemed to accept this fact and turned away, but there remained a few who glared hard at the rookies. If looks could kill, Naruto would've been slaughtered.

From his position in the corner, accompanied by his two teammates, Kabuto smirked, pushing his glasses up his nose. He took out a card.

"What are you doing, Kabuto?" Yoroi looked down towards the bespectacled teenager. When Kabuto didn't answer, the hooded man grunted and looked away.

Kabuto set his two cards on the ground, studying them.

One had the picture of a certain blonde spiky-haired Genin. Kabuto read through his nin-info card silently.

Naruto Uzumaki. 12 years old. Mission history: D-Ranks - 28 completed. A-Rank - 1 complete. List of jutsu: Shadow Clones, Crescent Moon Dance... Ninjutsu skill: Above average. Taijutsu skill: Average. Genjutsu: The worst. Kenjutsu: Average.

He then turned to his next card.

Sasuke Uchiha. 12 years old. Mission history: D-Ranks - 28 completed. A-Rank - 1 complete. List of jutsu: Fireball, Phoenix Flower, possesses the Sharingan. Ninjutsu and taijutsu skill: Above average. Genjutsu: Below average.

Before the silver-haired spy could walk over, a shout alerted him and he turned to see the apparent proctor of the exam.

Well... I'll always get to see them again later.

Ibiki Morino appeared in a puff of smoke, along with an army of Chunin behind him, all smirking intimidatingly towards the Genin in the room.

"We will now start the first part of the Chunin Exams," Ibiki grinned maniacally, making a few of the Genin gulp. "There will be tags given out and based on your tags, you are to go to the designated seats." The scarred man then looked over to his army of Chunin, frowning. "Aren't there supposed to be sixteen examiners?"

"The last guy's probably late."

"For something like this? Jeez..."

"If I didn't know better I would have thought it would be Kakashi," Ibiki smirked.

Naruto picked out his tag and went to his seat. Papers were given out and the container felt a wave of uncertainty hit him. A written test!

Sasuke stared at his paper with interest. A written test. This probably wouldn't do Naruto any good.

Sakura picked up her pen, ready to begin.

"Listen up!" Ibiki got out a chalk and started scribbling words on the board. "Do not turn your tests over. I am now going to explain the rules of this test."

Sasuke squinted to get a good look as Ibiki finished with his writing of the first rule and proceeded to the second one. As he wrote, he spoke. "Questions will not be allowed after this, so you all better listen to this carefully."

This guy scares me, Sakura thought.

"First rule." Ibiki gestured towards the board. "The test has ten questions and you start out with ten points. We do a point deduction system, so with each question you get wrong, you lose a point. There are only nine questions on the paper and the tenth question will be given when everyone finishes with their paper."

Murmurs filled the room at that statement.

I hate this already, Naruto sighed inwardly.

At least I'm not in Naruto's shoes. He's probably going to fail this one, Sasuke shook his head in pity for his teammate.

Naruto's probably going to fail this. It's a written test, after all, Sakura's thoughts went to her blonde friend.

"Second rule." Ibiki started writing furiously. "This is a team test. Your team have a total of 30 points if you do the math, so of course, the team needs to have 15 points in total to pass."

Naruto tensed up.

Sasuke choked on his saliva.

Sakura started coughing wildly.

Ibiki smirked.

"The third rule. Anyone who is caught cheating during the exam will have two points subtracted for each offence. The Chunin examiners will be situated around the classroom and will catch anyone who's cheating."

Cheating? Sakura frowned. Who would do that? These questions shouldn't be too hard.

"The final rule. If anybody in your team gets zero points, the team automatically fails together."

This time it was Sakura's turn to choke on her saliva. Naruto could feel an annoyed glare piercing into his back, and he shook it off nervously.

"The test will last an hour." Ibiki pointed towards the clock. "Begin!"

Sasuke turned to the front of the paper, and wrote his name down. He started studying the first question.

Question One: You are a ninja on the way back to your village with an important package in your hands containing vital and confidential information to dealings between your village and it's allies. Three enemy ninja appear and corner you. In the space provided, draw up a battle strategy that will ensure the safety of yourself and the information.

The Uchiha frowned. I... I can't answer this. He looked over at the second question.

Question Two: Write down Shinobi Rules 267 to 302, in order.

"Oh shit," Sasuke said under his breath. I only remember about two or three of them! A Genin shouldn't know how to answer these questions! He looked over at the third question.

Question Three: Write down the names of any three S-Class missing-nin.

"How would I know?!" Sasuke said under his breath again, his tone angrier. Jokingly, he wrote down in the first blank 'Itachi Uchiha', and in the second blank 'Ibiki', but quickly cancelled the second one after looking up at the examiner's intimidating look washing over all the Genin in the room.

Wait... wait... What did I tell myself earlier?

A Genin shouldn't know how to answer these questions. Yes.

And what did the examiner say? 'Don't get caught cheating'. Caught.

I've got it now!

Sasuke looked towards Naruto who was nervously studying his own paper. Naruto... Sakura... have you two gotten it? The key to this exam is to cheat!

He activated his dojutsu. Sharingan!

Black pupils turned into red ones as Sasuke positioned a hand over his forehead to hide his Sharingan. Let's see... uh... ah! Sasuke's Sharingan eyes peered into Sakura's paper, and he was genuinely shocked. His pink-haired teammate had answered eight of the questions, and by the looks of it, she wasn't cheating.

Heh... Sasuke brought his pen up, and started on his paper. I'm counting on your smarts, Sakura!

Thirty minutes had passed and Naruto had gone through the entire paper, but still had no solutions to any of the questions.

This is stupid! A normal Genin can't possibly answer these questions! Wait...

Naruto almost let out a gasp but stopped himself. Is the aim of this test... to cheat? He looked over towards Hinata beside him, and tried his best to look at her first answer.

"Number 38, fail! Number 132 and 169, fail!"

The blonde Jinchuriki's eyes widened and he looked at the number on his seat. 59. Whew. Safe, for now.

I get it... I have to cheat... but I can't be obvious!

Stuffing his hands under the table, Naruto did his signature hand seal. Shadow Clone Jutsu.

A Naruto clone appeared underneath the table, his legs brushing against the feet of Hinata. The Byakugan wielder jumped, looking under. Naruto tensed, but relaxed when she smiled at him, nodding in understanding and saying nothing.

You know what you have to do, clone! Naruto thought.

The clone crawled stealthily under the table, narrowly avoiding the legs of a few other Genin. If any of them looked under the table, he would be dead. Thankfully, they were all too focused on their own papers.

Getting to the end of the table, the clone crawled out and before any of the examiners could spot him, swiftly used the Transformation Jutsu.

Now he looked like a brown-haired, normal-looking man in the same attire of the other examiners.

Naruto looked on as his clone walked towards Ibiki. Thank the good lords I overheard them saying something about missing one examiner. Hopefully they didn't know this examiner's appearance or anything. If they do, I'm screwed.

"You're the last examiner? You're late."

"Yes, yes, I know," the clone smiled. "I, um, had to help my grandmother with grocery shopping."

Ibiki stared at the examiner with a look of disapproval on his face, but handed him a sheet of paper. "Here, you write the names of the ones you see cheating. I trust you know the rules of the exam."

Naruto's clone nodded, his smile never leaving his face.

"And here is the answer sheet for the exam, just for reference."

Naruto's clone nodded again, his smile growing wider. He walked towards an empty seat next to another examiner. Carefully, he looked over the answers quickly and steadily.

The original Naruto smirked, praising himself for such a well-thought move. Bingo!

Meanwhile, the clone looked at the answers over and over again. When he was sure that he'd memorized it, he grinned and set the paper down. Ibiki raised an eyebrow as he saw the 'examiner' stand up.

"Hahaha!" The 'examiner' grinned broadly and pointed at Ibiki. "You fell for it! Moron!"

With that, said 'examiner' dispersed, revealing it's identity as a clone.

Ibiki had to mask an amused smile. "If I find out which one of you was that, you're dead. You got that?"

A feeling of dread washed over everyone in the room.

"I'll have to check out who in this room can use clones after this test." He continued.

Naruto started panicking, but decided that out of the hundred Genin in this room, it wasn't possible only one knew how to use the Shadow Clone Jutsu.

Sasuke chuckled softly, watching the whole situation unfold. That had to be Naruto... Naruto, you genius. He watched as his teammate started scribbling down on his paper confidently. Yup. That had to be Naruto.

"And... pens down!"

Ibiki's sudden roar frightened half the room, but everyone calmed down considerably as the bandanna-wearing proctor pointed to the clock, indicating the one hour was over. Naruto sat back, satisfied. All nine questions were answered.

Sasuke was also satisfied, as he deactivated the Sharingan. Copying from Sakura proved to be a success. His female teammate had written down detailed answers for every question.

Kankuro took this time to walk into the room, done with his business in the toilet. An examiner walked along beside him.

"Was your doll-playing useful?" Ibiki had a crazy grin on his face as he looked towards Kankuro.

Naruto saw the hooded Sand Genin's eyes widen to the size of dinner plates for some reason. Shrugging, he turned back towards Ibiki, prepared to hear the tenth question.

"Listen up, everyone," Ibiki ordered. "Let me tell all of you the rules of the tenth question."

"More rules?" Naruto whined.

"Shut up, brat. Now, where were we? Oh yeah, the tenth question. It's like this. For the tenth question, you must choose whether you want to take it or not. Yeah, choose."

"Choose?"

Shikamaru turned to see who had spoken, and raised an eyebrow when he saw Temari. It's chestnut girl... So I was right. She is here for the Chunin Exams.

"If you choose not to, your points will instantly be reduced to zero, and you will fail this test, along with your two teammates."

"Ha!" Naruto laughed. "Then of course, everyone's going to choose to take it!"

"Well... Maybe," Ibiki smirked. He then dropped the bomb. "If you choose to take it and answer the question incorrectly... that person will lose the right to take part in the Chunin Exams. Ever. Again."

Sounds of loud gasping and cries of "not fair" instantly filled Ibiki's ears.

How are we supposed to choose? It's a die or die situation! Sakura thought, frowning.

"Those who wish to leave and try again next year... please raise your hand."

An awkward few seconds passed, and finally, the first hand shot up.

"Number 79, fail! Number 12 and Number 121, fail!"

"Number 149, fail! Number 22 and Number 3, fail!"

"Number 69, fail! Number 11 and Number 99, fail!"

I'm sure I can answer this question... Sakura stared at all the Genin raising their hands. But... Naruto. You... She stared at her teammate, who seemed to be looking up towards the ceiling in thought.

Naruto... there's no way you can answer this question... Are you just taking this question to ensure me and Sasuke-kun don't fail?

Hokage, Hokage... you're always going on about becoming the Hokage... you're a dumb ass... all you think about is becoming the Hokage... A smile crept onto her face. Naruto... this impossible dream of yours... I want to protect it.

The pinkette started to raise her hand, but stopped in shock as she saw Naruto raise his.

Naruto Uzumaki, giving up?

A look of pure surprise was registered on every single one of the Leaf rookies' faces, including Shino's.

The number one unpredictable ninja was giving up.

Or not.

"Don't underestimate me!" Naruto's hand slammed onto the table. "I don't care if I'm a Genin forever! Even if I'm a Genin forever, I will still become the Hokage! Heck, I'll be the first Hokage to be given the rank of Kage as a Genin! Bring on this stupid tenth question! I'm not afraid!"

Naruto... you... Sakura smiled again, her hand sinking.

Ibiki had to mask another amused smile. Why do I get the feeling this guy is the one that made his clone transform into the fake examiner?

"I'll ask you all one last time. This is your last chance. Do you want to quit?"

"NO!" Naruto roared, answering for every Genin in the room. None of them objected.

"Fine then," Ibiki looked towards the examiners, who nodded. "All of you... pass."

Sasuke blinked.

"That's right!" Ibiki continued.

Naruto had a look of disbelief on his face.

"I congratulate all 78 of you here on passing the first test!"

Finally done with this. I think I did pretty well with this chapter, so let's see what you think. Do drop me a review. In the next chapter, the second part of the Chunin Exams beckon. Stay tuned.