A/N: Sheesh, this chapter took long enough -_- Hopefully those who acutally like this story will enjoy it! (:

Kurochi

Two

They were simply walking down the street towards Ichiraku - Naruto and Sai, because Sasuke was MIA as usual - when he noticed that Sai abruptly stopped, looking to the alley beside them.

"Hey, bastard, what's wrong?" Sai's face remained blank, but he motioned towards the alley.

"There's screaming on the street over, and there's foreign chakra signatures..." Naruto's eyes widened before he sprinted down the alleyway, Sai at his heels.

He nearly skidded to a stop at the end of the alley and growled.

Udon and Moegi were terrified, staring in horror at the sight of Konohamaru being dangled in the air like a rag doll.

The shinobi who held his ankle was dressed in black with a hood covering his hair and purple markings on his face. He had something wrapped that was attatched to his back, but it didn't really look like a weapon...

The kunoichi that was with him had blonde hair in four spiky pig tails, a lavendar off-the-shoulder dress and her weapon also at her back. She looked on the scene with boredom, while the male was cackling at the crying child in his grasp.

"HEY! LET GO OF HIM!" The two diverted their attention to them, but the older boy did not release his grip on Konohamaru's foot.

"Oh? Whose this, little ninja?" He asked Konohamaru, who didn't say a thing. "Your hero?" He laughed, and the girl just rolled her eyes.

"You're wasting our time, Kankuro." She placed her hand on her hip, glaring at him.

"Sheesh, sis, relax."

"You know what would happen if he found out." Kankuro shrugged.

"Well he isn't here right now. Besides," He lifted Konohamaru higher and nearly threw the boy's ankle to his other hand, making him scream, "this kid pissed me off."

"He's not even a shinobi," The girl scoffed, before a smirk tugged at the corner of her lips, "so I guess that you can't handle real shinobi,"

His head snapped towards her. "You wanna go, sis?"

Naruto's fist clenched. "Why you-" Then he rushed at Kankuro, who inclined his head slightly to the blonde before flipping the kid on his back with a few twitches of his fingers.

Moegi's hands were covering her mouth, eyes watering. "Konohamaru-chan!"

With that encouragement, he began flailing his arms and body, trying to do anything that would set him free. But he tightened his grip on the kid's ankle, nearly crushing the bone. He screamed.

"You Konoha genins are pathetic," He sneered.

"You better let him go, else you have to get through me!" Naruto jumped back up to his feet, pointing his finger straight at Kankuro. Moegi gasped.

"Naruto-sama! It's best not to anger them!" She said behind her hands.

"You're pissing me off, and I hate short people anyway." He clenched his other fist, and his mouth twisted into something sinister. "It makes me want to break you." Udon started tearing up, and Moegi began crying more than she already had been. Naruto nearly hissed. Sai blinked.

The girl sighed. "I'm not going to be responsible for what you do," She turned her back to him, finding the wall beside them to be more interesting.

"Once I'm done with this pipsqueak, I'll deal with the one over there." Kankuro lifted Konohamaru up high and pulled his fist back. Naruto sprung forward, but before he could reach them Kankuro dropped Konohamaru to the ground and grasped his wrist. The small brunette wailed in pain, clutching his head where he fell.

Sai's dark eyes noticed a small rock fall to the ground, tracing it back to the nearest tree. Sitting in the branches was their team's third member, Sasuke. Kankuro seemed to notice him too, glaring at him.

"What do you think you're doing in another's village?" He asked, his own dark eyes narrowed at the scene before him.

Both females were momentarily star-struck, but the kunoichi snapped out of it quicker, also sending a sour look his way. Moegi, however, didn't move until she heard Konohamaru scream "Naruto-sama!".

Kankuro scowled. "Another kid that pisses me off,"

"So get lost," Sasuke did his usually intimidating look, which the two other shinobi immediately brushed off.

"Why don't you come down here, kid?" Sasuke didn't respond, and Kankuro snorted. "I hate kids like you, who think they're so cool and clever." He reached to his back and pulled off the item that rested on his back.

The girl stepped forward. "Why are you going to use Kasaru before we get in the real fights?"

"Kankuro, stop." It went cold for a second. The sibling's eyes widened, as did Sasuke's when he realized where the voice came from - the branch beside him. He didn't even notice the guy until he spoke. "You're a disgrace to Suna,"

Kankuro held up his hands in resignation, "Ah, G-Gaara..."

"Why do you think we came out all this way to Konoha? To play around?" Gaara cut him off.

"Listen, Gaara...these guys started it."

"Shut up." All but Sai was affected by the way Gaara's voice cut the air like a knife, even Sasuke showed the least bit of recognition of something akin to fear.

"I'll kill you." Kankuro all but cowered back, eyes wide.

"Ah...I was at fault. I'm sorry, I'm really sorry, Gaara!"

Gaara turned his cold eyes to the Konoha shinobi. "Excuse them, you guys." He dissapated into sand, reappearing on the ground in front of Kankuro and the girl. "We're going."

"Of course," The girl was eager to leave in the direction of the hotel.

"Hey! Wait!" Naruto stepped forward, raising his hand in the air towards them.

"What?" The girl answered without turning around.

"You're obviously not Konoha shinobi. So what are you doing here?"

The girl laughed. "Don't you know anything?" She pulled out a piece of paper. "We all have passes to be here, for the Chuunin Selection Exams."

Moegi turned to Naruto. "Eh? What's that?"

Kankuro muttered something under his breath before Sai spoke up. "If you pass, your rank raises to a Chuunin, Orange." Moegi's face turned bright red at the nickname.

Naruto went to turn to make a comment, but the shinobi were already walking away. Sasuke jumped down from the tree.

"You with the gourd, state your name." The redhead turned around, his black-ringed eyes devoid of any emotion, much like Sai's.

"Sabaku no Gaara," He turned a little more, "and you also seem above average. What's your name?"

Sasuke smirked, as if he had gained an air of importance. "Uchiha Sasuke."

And then the Suna shinobi were gone.

Sai gave a fake smile. "They were nice."

She sat on the top of the wooden training pole, while her two teammates were sparring with each other...sort of.

The two boys were exchanging half-hearted blows, one constantly staring at the sky and the other anxiously looking towards his pack by the girl where his bag of chips was.

Shikamaru grumbled, watching Ino relax. "Troublesome woman,"

"Why aren't you training with us?"

"I was doing flexibility and endurance earlier, so I'm too worn out to work on taijutsu." She stuck out her tongue. The boys sighed, deciding not to comment on her training ethic, and went back to their taijutsu-only spar.

She squinted her eyes when she noticed three bodies in the distance, making their way towards Team 10's position.

"Yo!" She yelled, "this ground's taken!" They trio continued to walk, and she scowled. "Hey! I said-"

"We don't wish to train here," The tallest male, made with a bronze, muscular build and an odd wheat blonde hairstyle, interrupted her.

Shikamaru and Chouji stopped their training upon hearing the voice.

Ino stuck up her nose. "Then you shouldn't be here!"

The girl standing in the middle gave a soft smile. Her hair was covered by a red-brown bandana, and her eyes were a glittering green.

"As embarrasing as this is, we came to ask for directions to our hotel. We weren't quite paying attention when our sensei told us."

Team 10 eyed them suspiciously. Their hitai-ate provided the information that they were from Suna, but...

"Who are you and why-"

"Sakura, Kaiko, and Eon." Sakura answered, pointing to each of them as she said their names. "And we're here for the Chuunin Exams."

Shikamaru continued to study them, checking for any signs of false words, while Ino was frozen.

Sakura.

The green eyes made her suspicious, so she had to study the girl's eyebrows. Pink. Her hair was pink.

"Sakura, you never happened to live here years ago, did you?" Ino gulped, something that didn't go unnoticed by her team.

"Er, no..."

"Oh," She turned away from the quizzical look the girl was giving her.

"Anyway," The male with light brown hair, Kaiko, sighed, "where is the Haru Houka?"

Shikamaru paused, before lowering himself to the dirt. he drew a quick map of the village, only identifying buildings important to their route. The hotel was nestled one street over from Ichiraku.

He pointed to a spot on the other side of Konoha. "This is where we are." he drew a line from the training ground to the hotel. "And this is the quickest path."

Kaiko stepped forward and studied the map before grinning. "Got it!" He spun around on his heel and thrust his fist in the air. "Onward, MARCH!"

Sakura rolled her eyes at his enthusiasm, as he was nearly skipping towards their destination. She and the blonde went to follow him, but Ino jumped off the post. "Wait!" Sakura and Eon turned around.

"Yes?" Puffing out her cheeks, Ino held out her hand.

"Yamanaka Ino," Sakura eyes it suspiciously before giving the hand a firm shakre. "Hopefully I'll be seeing you guys around...if you can keep up." The smirk on her face looked natural, and Sakura could only mirror her expression.

"We'll see," With that, they turned back around and pushed chakra in their feet to catch up with Kaiko, who was almost out of sight.

"This might actually be enjoyable," Sakura and Eon had struggled to reach Kaiko, but now followed him flawlessly, without the use of chakra.

Ino and her team were no longer in their line of vision.

Eon scoffed. "What are you talking about? Weaklings are irritation, not fun." Kaiko waved him off, flicking his bangs from his face.

"Well I think it will be entertaining. Besides, there might even be some challenging shinobi."

"And even if there isn't, we know Gaara will be a worthy opponent."

Eon scrunched his nose. "That would be untasteful, however. Fighting your own village."

"Nah, only teammates are off-limits."

Kaiko gave Sakura a look before throwing his head backwards with laughter. "You want to fight Gaara!"

"Only a friendly fight!" She defended, and she heard them both snort.

"You have too many ties, they're crippling." Kaiko leaned into her ear. "And that would compromise the mission."

Sakura crossed her arms over her chest. "It's not even an official mission that we were informed of. They just assumed we'd be involved." She shrugged her shoulders, putting her hands in the pockets of her loose brown pants.

They reached the final stretch to the hotel, standing right infront of Ichiraku. The smell of ramen wafted, immediately making their stomachs gorlw.

"Iuoya-sensei can wait," Eon was the first to pull back the curtains and step into the back of the restaurant. There was a large group in the last booth, so they sat in one in the center.

A pretty brunette with Ayame on the name tag came up to them and smiled wide.

"Ohayo! You guys must be here for the exams!"

Sakura nodded, lips stretched in a smile.

"Hai, we're from Suna." Ayame nodded and clasped her hands together.

"Wonderful! What can I get for you today?"

Naruto folded his arms behind his head, huffing at something Sai had said. "Shut it, pastey."

Sasuke had his head tilted from the conversation, obviously casting himself out of the banter. Across the table, Moegi not-so-subtly kept stealing glances at him, which only Sasuke noticed and was ignoring.

Sai kept a smile on his face, and Konohamaru had his head on the table, rubbing the sore spot.

"Hey, Ayame!" Naruto suddenly cried, making the trio she was attending to jump in surprise. The woman only laughed. "Two more, please!"

"Sure, Naruto!" The orange-clad boy grinned, and happily turned back to his four empty bowls infront of him. It took him a few seconds before he jumped to his feet again.

"Hey, you!" He pointed to the trio just as Ayame left with their orders. They looked around for a second before the girl pointed to herself.

"Are you talking to us?" Her voice had a slight edge, but Naruto didn't falter.

He nodded. "Are you here for the exams?"

"We wouldn't be in this place if we weren't." Eon snapped impatiently. Seriously, how many of these genin did he have to deal with today?

Ignoring his cold tone, Naruto grinned and stood on the table. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto," Moegi yeled, telling him to get down, "and I'm the future Hokage, so I'm going to kick all your asses!" Sasuke deadpanned and Sai continued to smile.

Sakura's eye twitched. Kaiko laughed. Eon snorted, turning his head away.

"Who the fuck do you think you are?" Sakura held down Kaiko's shoulder, preventing him from standing.

"Sit," She hissed, and the force of her strength kept him grounded. Moegi and Udon folded into each other in fear, doubly terrified of Suna shinobi from their earlier encounter.

Sakura turned to Naruto's table after settling Kaiko's own anger.

"You should keep your mouth shut - it could get you into trouble." She said in mock-sweetness, flashing them a wide smile.

Before Naruto could reply, Sai put his hand infront of him. "Listen to ugly, she looks mad."

There was a pregnant pause before both Kaiko and Eon burst out in laughter. Between his laughter, Eon managed to choke out something that sounded like "death warrant".

Sakura stood and slowly made her way to the table. The academy students could even feel the anger radiating off her.

She showed no emotion and, without forcing any chakra in her hand, she gripped the table. It instantly crumbled, the bowls and glasses that were on the table shattered.

Moegi screamed. Udon buried his head in Moegi's shoulder. Konohamaru's face paled.

Sai's smile fell a little bit. Naruto blinked and jumped back, trying to comprehend what just happened. Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"Again, I suggest you all shut the fuck up." She seethed, quickly turning on her heel and briskly walked out of Ichiraku, Eon and Kaiko still laughing behind her.

Ayame quickly ran out to see what had happened, slapping her hand over her mouth to prevent herself from screaming.

Naruto growled at their retreating backs, trying to calm down the children beside him. Damn, he hated Suna shinobi.