Truth: It didn't do any good to posture.

"Chunin exams?" Miyako whimpered worriedly.

"Chunin exams!" Kiyomi cheered.

"Chunin exams," Sayuri mused thoughtfully.

"Chunin exams," Ayano huffed. "Now that we've all said it…"

"Do you think we're really ready?" Miyako fretted.

"You ladies took out a troop of raiders. I think you're good," Ayano scoffed. "Trust me, I wouldn't throw you to the wolves like that if I didn't think you could handle it."

"Is anyone else we know trying?" Kiyomi asked eagerly.

"Asuma's team, Kurenai's team, Kakashi's team," Ayano recalled, ticking them off on her fingers. "They nominated their whole teams. There's gonna be a lot of rookies at this year's exam." She reached into her back pocket and pulled out three small slips of paper, handing one to each girl. "So, just sign to form and bring it with you to the Academy on the date at the bottom. It'll be in room 301. It's completely up to each of you whether you do it or not."

"I'm totally in!" Kiyomi grinned.

"I'm interested as well," Sayuri agreed.

"…"

"Miyako?" Kiyomi questioned, looking at the silent girl. "Oh come on!" Kiyomi begged. "You have to! You'd be awesome!"

"No I wouldn't," Miyako murmured, wringing her hands. "I'd fall for a trap… or fail a test… or embarrass you… or say something dumb… I'm not as strong as you… I can't-"

"Breathe," Sayuri cut her off. Miyako took a few gulps of air and calmed down. "You can do it," Sayuri assured her. "Think how many raiders you took out on your own. You can handle it. You're only going up against other genin."

"Yeah," Kiyomi nodded. "I bet we could take half of them on right now, bunch of wimps!"

"You really think?" Miyako asked hopefully.

"Uh, duh!"

"I guess it couldn't hurt to try," Miyako said softly, staring at the paper.

"That's my girls," Ayano nodded proudly. "So I'll see you at the exams?"

"Oh yeah!" Kiyomi cheered.

"This is awesome!" Kiyomi beamed as they walked home from training. "Chunin exams already? Think about it. By the end of the month we could all be chunin! Wouldn't that be awesome?"

"It would be nice," Sayuri agreed. She paused. "Sakura's around the corner with Naruto and some other people." She recalled the senbon she made after the incident with Kiyomi still tucked in her bag. The pattern of flowers was cherry blossoms. Who was a better person to give it to than Sakura? She didn't use senbon often, from what Sayuri recalled, but it was more decorative than functional anyway. "I have something for her."

"What?" Kiyomi asked in surprise. Sayuri told them about the senbon as they rounded the corner. Sayuri scowled as she felt the tension in the air.

"Something's wrong," she said. Miyako squinted and gasped. "Some guy's got a hold of Konohamaru!"

"Naruto looks pissed," Kiyomi blinked.

Sayuri took a quick measure of the chakra signatures. Naruto and Sakura were standing by small chakra sources that were probably Konohamaru's friends and Academy students. Konohamaru himself was in the grasp of a tall, unfamiliar boy. There was a strange girl standing behind the boy.

"Should we do something?" Miyako asked softly.

"I'll go," Sayuri said. She darted forwards, slipping past the girl.

"Drop him," she hissed to the boy, bone sliding from her palm to press against the base of his skull.

"Hey, it's you!" Sakura called when she saw her. The rest of her team ran up behind her. "Miyako! Kiyomi!"

"What's going on?" Kiyomi demanded.

"This jerk just grabbed Konohamaru!" Naruto shouted angrily, glaring at the unfamiliar boy. He wore a Suna forehead protector and black from head to toe. Only his face and the tips of his fingers were visible.

"I hate punks like you," the boy grunted. Sayuri pressed forwards and he dropped Konohamaru, who hastily darted behind Naruto and Sakura for protection.

"Well I hate people who pick on little kids, so at least the dislike is mutual," Sayuri replied with surprising vehemence, removing her hand and drawing the bone back in.

"I think I'm gonna take you apart instead," the boy said, turning to face her.

"I really wouldn't," Kiyomi warned.

He shouted in surprise and raised a hand to the back of his head as something connected.

"Nice throw," Sayuri commented absently.

"Thanks," Sasuke replied, leaning against the trunk of a tree nearby, casually tossing another pebble in his hand.

"Sasuke!" Sakura squealed in delight. Sayuri winced at the noise.

"Oh great, another wimp to tick me off," the boy grumbled.

"However, I'm closer," Sayuri pointed out calmly. She tilted her face up towards Sasuke in the tree. "What attack do you think would hit him first Sasuke, yours or mine?"

Sasuke crushed the rock to powder in his fist. "Don't know. We'll have to find out some other time. I seem to be out rocks," he smirked, before looking at boy. "Get lost," he ordered coldly.

"Hey punk, get down here!" he shot back. "You're the kind of brat I hate the most; all attitude and nothing to back it up." He tugged the bandage-wrapped parcel off his shoulder.

The girl gasped in surprise. "What, are you going to use the Crow for this?"

"I wouldn't try anything funny," Sayuri said, her blade coming to rest across his throat.

"Kankuro. Back off."

The speaker was a red-haired boy dangling upside down from the bottom of a branch. He wore brown and white, a gourd slung over his back. He was a small boy, with no eyebrows, but a tattoo of the character for love on his forehead. His eyes were rimmed in a thick line of black. Oddly enough it seemed to be natural, and not makeup. His voice was rough and gravelly.

"You're an embarrassment to our village," the boy continued. "Have you forgotten why we came here?"

"G-Gaara," the boy, Kankuro, stammered. Sayuri raised an eyebrow and stepped back, pulling the bone back into her arm. She got why he might be scared of this tiny boy. His chakra was off the charts, just like Naruto's. In fact, in some ways, they were sort of similar. "I-I know. I-I mean, they challenged us. Heh heh, th-they started it! S-See, here's what happened-"

"Shut up," Gaara snarled. "Or I'll kill you."

Kankuro flinched and raised his shoulders protectively. "Ah, right. I was totally out of line. I'm sorry Gaara, I was totally out of line."

"I'm sorry for any trouble he caused," Gaara said, though he didn't sound particularly sorry. He didn't sound particularly anything, keeping his voice at a careful monotone. He vanished from the tree and reappeared on the sidewalk in a stream of sand. "Let's go," he ordered the three. "We didn't come here to play games."

"Okay," Kankuro said, and they immediately turned to follow Gaara.

"Hold on!" Sakura called, running after them. "Hey!"

"Sakura, let it go," Miyako begged worriedly. Sakura ignored her.

"What?" the girl snapped.

"I can tell by your headbands you're from Suna, and our lands are allies, but no shinobi may enter another's village without permission, so state your business, and it better be good!" Sakura said, straightening out her back and tilting up her chin proudly.

"Really?" she scoffed as all three turned to face them. "Have you been living under a rock or something? What, you don't know what's going on, do you?" She held up a pass, bearing her picture and a seal of approval. "We have permission. But you're right, we are from Suna, and we're here for the chunin exams, get the picture?"

"The chunin exams?" Naruto said blankly. "What's that?"

"The test to become a chunin, Naruto," Sayuri sighed, rubbing her forehead in irritation.

"Don't be stupid in front of the enemy," Kiyomi scolded. Naruto looked at her, affronted.

"Hey!"

"Hey you," Sasuke called as they turned again to leave. "Identify yourself!"

"Me?" the girl asked flirtatiously.

"No, the guy with the gourd on his back," Sasuke said, ignoring her like all his fangirls.

"I am Sabaku no Gaara. Who are you?"

"I am Sasuke Uchiha."

"And you, what's your name?" Gaara asked, eyes on Sayuri. Kiyomi nudged her. Sayuri pointed to herself.

"Who me?" she shook her head. This was all about being macho for Gaara and Sasuke. The truth was, it didn't do any good to posture. You could still die just as easily. "Sorry, no. I don't particularly care to share my name with you. After all, we're going to be against each other in the chunin exams. I rather like the advantage of knowing your name while you don't know mine."

"Wow that sounds like something I would say," Kiyomi chuckled. She patted Sayuri's shoulder proudly. "I taught you well."

"I bet you're dying to know my name, right?" Naruto burst out. Gaara scoffed.

"I couldn't care less."

"I'm glad you guys showed up," Sakura sighed in relief as the Suna-nin shot off. She shuddered. "Those guys were creepy!"

"I didn't see anything creepy about them," Sayuri said innocently.

"Sayuri..." Miyako sighed as Sakura giggled slightly.

"Anyway, I have something for you," Sayuri said, reaching into her equipment pouch. Sakura looked at her, surprised. She wasn't really friends with Sayuri, and the girl was giving her a gift.

"For me?" Sakura asked in surprise.

"I made it a few weeks ago and I thought you might like it," Sayuri said, holding up the senbon. "It's appropriate." Sakura took it from her, looking it over in awe.

"You made this?" she asked in surprise, running a finger over all of the tiny carved cherry blossoms. "It's beautiful!"

"Thank you," Sayuri nodded.

"What's it made of?" Sakura said, staring at the white material in confusion.

"Take a wild guess."

"This is bone, isn't it?" Sakura asked somewhat hesitantly. It didn't bend or snap like she expected bone would.

"Bone that's harder than steel," Sayuri nodded. "It's more decorative than useful, but I thought you might like it anyway."

"Thanks," Sakura said thankfully, tucking it into her own equipment pouch. "It's really pretty."

"No problem," Sayuri nodded again.

"Pebbles?" Kiyomi grinned at Sasuke. "Really? Throwing an actual weapon not badass enough for you, Uchiha?"

"He wasn't worth a weapon," Sasuke scoffed. Kiyomi snorted right.

"Tell me, does it get tiring pretending to have a stick up your a-"

"Okay!" Miyako burst out loudly, grabbing Kiyomi's arm and dragging her over to Sayuri. "And on that note I think we should be going!"

Team 9 arrived about a half hour before time at the Academy the next day, signed forms in hand.

"Ready for this?" Kiyomi grinned.

"As I'll ever be," Miyako groaned.

"Perk up," Sayuri encouraged as they entered the Academy. "You'll be fine."

They started up the stairs but paused as they hit the second floor and came face to back with a huge knot of genin clogging the halls.

"What's going on?" Sayuri asked blankly. "Why're we stopping?"

"There's a crowd," Kiyomi said, jumping slightly to see over the top. At the head of the crowd was a door with the number 301 above it. Two genin stood in front of it, blocking the way. Two more genin were on the floor in front of them.

Kiyomi sighed. "Looks like some dumb genin guys trying to prove they've got a big one," she sneered, shoving her way through the crowd. "Come on."

Miyako grabbed Sayuri's hand and pulled her after Kiyomi through the crowd. The closer they got to the front, the more sure Sayuri was of the chakra signatures she was sensing.

"Why don't you just give up now?" snorted one of the genin.

"Yeah, I think I hear your mommy calling," the other one mocked.

"Please let us through, we're supposed to go in there," begged a girl on the floor by a boy who was presumably one of her teammates. She stood up and walked towards the doors, only to get knocked onto her butt when one of the genin boys punched her.

"Harsh," someone in the crowd muttered.

"Did you say harsh?" one of them scoffed. "Don't kid yourselves, we're being nice by comparison."

"Calm down, that's not where you're supposed to be," Sayuri said, stopping by the girl and the boy on the ground. She turned her face towards the door. "Izumo, Kotetsu, I'm assuming you were ordered to do this, otherwise I'm going to be very annoyed with you two."

"What's she talking about?" muttered someone in the crowd.

"We only came up one flight of stairs. This is the second floor," Sayuri sighed.

"Release!" Miyako said, and Kiyomi copied her. The sign above the door changed to say 201.

Sayuri looked at the two, shaking her head at them. "Really guys?"

The two genin disappeared behind a puff of smoke and reappeared as their normal, chunin selves.

"Nice going Lily-girl," Kotetsu grinned at her. Izumo sighed.

"Here we go again," he grumbled.

"Kotetsu, my name isn't Lily-girl," Sayuri said sternly.

"Really," scoffed a voice behind her. Sayuri hadn't heard anyone appear behind her and she reached instinctively, spinning around in a kick. Sasuke's eyes widened and he raised a hand to block, but there was no need. In a blur, the boy in the jumpsuit who was being knocked around was suddenly between the two of them, holding them apart with both hands.

"Sasuke," Sayuri breathed in surprise. "Sorry about that," she said, pulling her heel from the boy's grip. "You startled me."

"I figured," Sasuke snorted.

"Hey Sayuri?" Naruto asked. She turned to face him.

"Hmm? What Naruto?"

"Well, first off it's really creepy how you know where I am," Naruto began. "And secondly, how come that guy called you Lily-girl?"

"Because he's an idiot," Sayuri sighed. "The day after I arrived in Konoha I ran into him and Izumo. By some odd train of thought he couldn't remember my name but he did remember what it meant. He's been calling me Lily-girl ever since. I can't get him to quit," she complained.

"Hey!" said an annoyed voice. The girl and another boy, this one with the white eyes of a Hyuga, walked up the jumpsuited boy. "I thought you were the one who said we shouldn't let people see our skill level."

"I know," the jumpsuited boy began, "but-"

"Never mind, forget about it," the girl sighed.

The boy in the green jumpsuit ignored his teammates and walked right past Sasuke, up to Sakura.

"My name is Rock Lee," he said. "You are Sakura, right?"

Sakura blinked in surprise. "Huh?"

"Please be my girlfriend?" Lee said, winking at her and shooting her a thumbs-up. "I vow to protect you with my life."

Dead silence.

"Definitely… not," Sakura said, clearly crushing Lee. He slumped.

"Why?" he whimpered.

Because you're a weirdo," she said bluntly.

"Hey you, over here," called Lee's other male teammate, the Hyuga. That meant one should avoid being within reach of his hands as well and attack from a distance. "What's your name?"

Sasuke turned to look at him. "It's common courtesy to give your name before asking anyone else's."

"You're a rookie, aren't you?" the Hyuga continued, undaunted. "How old are you anyway?"

"I'm not obliged to answer."

The Hyuga narrowed his eyes as the girl behind him giggled. "What was that?"

Kiyomi stepped between the two of them and held up her hands. "Girls, girls, you're both pretty," she cooed at them teasingly. "Now play nice together."

"Kiyomi, maybe you shouldn't get involved?" Miyako suggested quietly. The Hyuga's eyes flicked from Kiyomi to her and Miyako gulped, sliding behind Sayuri. Those eyes were so creepy…

"Hyuga, stop scaring Miyako," Sayuri scolded him.

"Weirdo," Lee muttered, leaning on the wall.

"No one wants to know my name," Naruto mourned, in much the same pose.

"Alright, I wash my hands of this weirdness," Kiyomi said, throwing up her hands. "Let's go guys."

Sayuri turned on her heel and promptly slammed into a wall.

"Ow!" she yelped. "Who put that there?"

"We've been over that. The architect," Miyako sighed.

The girl from Lee's team spoke up. "You know, maybe if you took that thing off your eyes," she pointed out as if she were talking to a particularly slow child. Her tone annoyed Sayuri, who turned to face her.

"Considering I blind, I really doubt it will make much difference," she said sharply. The girl blinked.

"Wait, then how'd you know I was looking at her?" the Hyuga asked, narrowing his eyes at her.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Kiyomi grinned, pulling her teammates down the hall after her.

Naruto's team were the last of the rookie genin inside the room and they were greeted by a squealing Ino leaping onto Sasuke, which immediately set off a brawl between her and Sakura.

"Everybody calm down," Sayuri said, tugging Ino off of Sasuke.

"You you guys are here too?" Kiyomi asked Ino.

"Yeah, we are," Shikamaru said as the rest of Ino's team appeared behind her. "I knew this was going to be a drag, but I didn't know it was going to be this lame."

"Hey, so all three stooges are here," Naruto grinned.

"You know what pipsqueak?" Shikamaru began angrily, before slumping. "Ah, forget it. You're a waste of time."

"Sasuke's mine!" Ino said, sticking out her tongue at Sakura. She was too involved in the fight to notice when Kiyomi spoke up.

"When did this happen?" Kiyomi said in mock surprise. "Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Uchiha!"

Sasuke glanced at her suspiciously. "Are you and your team the only girls in this village who don't find me attractive?" he asked, honestly curious. He'd never seen a single one of them staring at him or murmuring behind their hands when he walked by. They'd certainly never fought to sit next to him or come up and asked him out.

Kiyomi threw back her head and laugh. "Oh hardly! You're hot, don't get me wrong," she said casually. "But we're not gonna make fools out of ourselves over you like some people will." She nodded to Sakura and Ino pointedly.

"Well well, looks like the whole gang's back together again," Kiba said, walking forwards with his team.

"Oh, hi Naruto," Hinata whispered. Naruto looked at her, and she flushed.

"You guys too? Man, everyone's here for this stupid thing," Shikamaru grumbled.

"Yep, here we all are," Kiba grinned doggishly. "The twelve rookies. This is gonna be fun! At least, for those of us good enough to make the cut, right Sasuke?"

"Kiba, careful you don't get overconfident," Sasuke smirked.

"Just wait, we're going to blow you guys away," Kiba bragged. "We've been training."

"What do you think we've been doing?" Naruto demanded. "Picking daisies? You don't know what training means!"

"Don't mind Kiba," Hinata said quietly, fiddling with her fingers. "I'm sure he didn't mean anything by it."

"Guys, we should try to get along," Miyako jumped in with her, and Hinata glanced at her gratefully. "We're already at a disadvantage being rookies, so why don't we try and help each other so we all get through this?"

They were ignored and Choji moved forwards towards Kiba. Shino stepped into his path.

"What do you want?" Choji said belligerently. "What's wrong?"

Shino looked down pointedly, and they all followed his gaze. A bug crawled in front of Choji's foot.

"Thought maybe you hadn't seen it. Didn't want you stepping on it."

"Why, you saving it for lunch?"

"Hey, you guys!"

A boy was walking over them. He wore a hitai-ate proclaiming him to be from Konoha. His hair was silver and he wore round glasses.

"You might want to try keeping it down a bit," he advised. "No offense or anything, but you're the twelve rookies, right? Fresh out of the Academy? I wouldn't go making a spectacle of yourselves. Just cool it. This isn't a class field trip."

"Wait, who are you anyway?" Ino asked.

"I'm Kabuto Yakushi. Look around you, you've made quite an impression."

Kabuto jerked his attention away from her, gesturing to a trio to one side of the room who were giving the darkest looks. "See those guys there? They're from Amegakure, very touchy. They all are. This exam makes people tense. You don't want to rub them the wrong way right now. It's okay, you can't be expected to know how things work. You're just rookies. You remind me of myself a while back."

"Kabuto, is that your name?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah."

"This isn't the first time you've taken the exam," she guessed.

"No, it's… my seventh," he admitted. "Well, they're held twice a year, this is my fourth year."

"Wow, a veteran," Sakura said, impressed. "You must really know how things work!" Team 9 personally couldn't understand why Sakura was so awed. Kabuto had taken the test six times already, and had yet to pass. Few became chunin at the end of each exam, but Sayuri knew from Satoru that was an oddly long time to pass.

"Sort of," Kabuto agreed.

"Cool, you can give us all the inside tips," Naruto grinned.

"Yeah, some expert, he's never passed," Shikamaru said, unconsciously agreeing with the other team.

"Well, seventh time's the charm," Kabuto said, bringing a hand to the back of his head sheepishly.

"So I guess those rumors about the exam being tough were true," Shikamaru sighed. "Aw man, this is going to be a drag."

"Now hold on, don't get discouraged. Maybe I can help you guys out with my ninja info cards," Kabuto offered, holding up a deck of cards.

"What the heck are those?" Sakura said blankly.

"It's hard to explain, but these cards have been chakra-encoded with everything I've learned over the past four years." He knelt down and set them on the ground. They all crouched down curiously. "I've got more than two hundred of them, so you see, I haven't been completely wasting my time. They may not look like much to the naked eye. In fact," he said, turning one over, "they appear blank. Don't want just anyone seeing this stuff." He placed a finger on the card and began to spin it.

"What are you doing?" Sakura demanded.

"I'm using my chakra to reveal their secrets. Like this, for example." He made a hand sign and a map appeared on the card, green bars rising out of many countries. "It shows a geographical distribution of all the genin who have come to take the exam, how many from each village. Why do you think they all come here to take the exam at the same time?" He waited for a response, but there was none. "It's to foster friendship between the nations, international brotherhood and all that. And it's true enough."

"But there's another reason," Sasuke guessed.

"This way they can carefully regulate the number of shinobi in each village," Kabuto nodded. "Thereby maintaining the balance of power."

"Balance of power, big deal, it's all a drag," Shikamaru sighed.

"If the balance isn't maintained, one country might have more shinobi than its neighbors, and might be persuaded to attack them. So they try to maintain the status quo. Makes sense, I suppose.

"Do those cards of yours have info on individual candidates?" Sasuke asked.

"They might?" Kabuto said slyly. "You have someone special in mind?"

"I might."

"Well I can't promise my information is complete or perfect, but I've got something on just about everyone," Kabuto said. "Including you guys. So which one is it? Tell me anything you know about them."

"Sabaku no Gaara," Sasuke said. "And Rock Lee of Konohagakure while you're at it."

"It's no fun if you know their names," Kabuto complained. "That makes it easy." He swiped his hand over the cards and held up two. "Here they are."

"Show them to me."

"First up is Rock Lee," Kabuto said, spinning the card. Lee's picture appeared on a card with lines of information. "Looks like he's about a year older than you guys. Missions experience: 11 C-ranks and 20 D-ranks. His squad leader is Gai. In the last twelve months, his taijutsu has radically improved. His other skills are pretty shaky. Last year he got a lot of attention as a genin but for some reason he decided not to participate. His teammates are Tenten and Neji Hyuga.

"Now for Gaara. Mission experience: 8 C-ranks and, get this, 1 B-rank. There's not a lot of info on him. He's from another land. There's this though. He survived every mission without a single scratch."

"The dude's done a B-rank as a genin and hasn't been injured?" Shikamaru said, impressed despite his usual apathy.

"What's the deal with this guy?" Naruto wondered.

"All of the villages sent pretty strong candidates this year," Kabuto mused. "Of course, Sound is small. It sprang up recently and no one knows anything about it. Those guys are a mystery." He gathered his cards. "Well, you get the point. The exams are going to be rough this year."

"It's almost enough to make you lose your confidence," Hinata said weakly.

"Fine time to talk like that!" Ino huffed.

"Do you really think it'll be that bad?" Sakura asked nervously.

"Oh yeah. In the four years I've been coming here, I've never seen a stronger group of candidates. We've got our work cut out for us."

Naruto was shaking. Sakura tried to comfort him, thinking he was upset, but he wasn't worried. Seemingly nothing worried Naruto.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki!" he screamed at the whole room. "I'm going to beat everyone one of you! Believe it!"

Sayuri grabbed his collar and yanked him back.

"Naruto, maybe you shouldn't irritate the room full of angry genin?" Miyako suggested softly.

Kiyomi turned to the room at large. "My apologies everyone. Naruto has a disorder. Please ignore him."

"Hey, Kiyomi, I don't-"

Naruto got a backwards kick to the shin that sent him to the ground, crying like a little girl.

"Carry on," Kiyomi smiled placidly, before turning and helping Naruto up. "We don't want everyone setting their eyes on us as targets," she hissed in his ear. "Sorry, but you need to calm down."

Everyone's eyes widened as the sound shinobi rushed past them, aiming for Kabuto. It was clear they hadn't liked his comment on the size of their village. They was treated to a first-hand view of how bad their attacks could be when Kabuto dodged the hits from one, but still ended up on the floor coughing up a lung with his glasses shattered.

"Alright you baby-faced degenerates, listen up!" shouted a man who appeared in a puff of smoke, completely disregarding the little brawl at the back of the room. "It's time to begin. I'm Ibiki Morino, your proctor. From this moment on, I'm your worst enemy. First, the Sound-nin need to knock it off. No one told you you could fight!" He pointed thunderously at the three genin at the back of the room standing over Kabuto. You wanna fail before we even start?"

"So sorry, it's our first time."

"Hmph. I'll say it once, so pay attention. No combat between candidates, and even if the proctors give the okay, no fatal force! Anyone who thinks of messing with me will be disqualified immediately, got it?

"Now, we're ready to start. Hand in your paper work and take a number. That'll tell you where to sit. When everyone's seated, we'll begin the written part of the test."