After the crushing defeat by the hands of Rock Lee, team 7 stood before room 301 with an array of different emotion within them but on the outside, they showed a look of determination. They would become Chunins no matter what. Mieko stood next to Naruto as a silent yet supportive companion, she wanted her and her team to become Chunins, she has become rather close to the team despite her constant feelings off annoyance whenever Sakura spoke or Naruto did something stupid and she had to clean up his mess.

"Glad you came Sakura" Kakashi spoke from in front of them, he too wore a serious expression though you could only tell by his narrowed eye and lowered brow "For your sake and the others" the three Genin looked at their Sensei in confusion "Now you can all formally register for the Chunin exam."

"Why what do you mean?" Sakura asked.

"You see, only groups of three or in this case four are allowed to apply for and take the exams that's the way it's always been."

"But Sensei" Sakura began, "You said the decision to take the exam was up to the individual."

"That's right, I did."

"Was that a lie?" Kakashi looked off to the side.

"Sort of" he replied as he looked over the village through the windows "it is an individual's decision but it affects all of you, I didn't tell you before because I didn't want the others guys pressuring you" Sakura looked at her two male teammates, knowing they would be the ones to pressure her "At the same time, I didn't want you to feel obliged to participate because of the feelings you might have for Sasuke" Kakashi ignored the glare Mieko shot his way "Or Naruto, I wanted you to come to the decision on your own free will."

"Wait a minute" Sakura looked back at her Sensei with wide eyes "do you mean that if the others had shown up and I decided not to come with them-"

"It would have been the end of the line" Kakashi interrupted "If you hadn't come along I couldn't have let the others in, but it's a moot point, you're all here and for the right reasons" Mieko let a small smile show "Sakura, Naruto, Sasuke and Mieko" Kakashi's eye crinkled to show he was smiling "I'm proud of you, couldn't ask for a better team" he walked away from the door and stood to the side "Good luck, Mieko watch over them for me."

"Of course papa."

"We won't let you down Sensei believe it!" the quartet walked over to the door and pushed it open, they walked in without another word "W-woah what's this?" Naruto stuttered as he looked around the room.

"G-gee, I guess we're not alone" Genin from every village and all different ages and genders stared at the newcomers.

"Sasuke where have you been!" a voice shouted off to the side, a blonde haired girl jumped on Sasuke's back and hugged him tightly "Boy you have no idea how much I was hoping you'd show up here, I've missed those brooding looks of yours" Mieko began glaring at the blonde.

"Hey you porker back off he's mine!" Sakura shouted, Mieko's glare deepened and Naruto looked around nervously, was he the only one who could feel the female Hatake's murderous aura? .

"Oh miss forehead they let you in?" Ino sneered "still got those frown lines on that billboard brow I see."

"Leave my forehead out of it!" Ino poked her tongue at and gave Sakura a rude gesture.

"H-hey Ino you better let Sasuke go."

"Why do you care Naruto" Ino sneered.

"No reason just that umm…" he pointed to the glaring tiger "Sasuke is kinda Mieko's boyfriend" he looked off to the side, he didn't like admitting that but he'd rather let Ino know before she did something that made her lose her life.

"W-What!" Ino jumped back when she saw the murderous look Mieko was giving her "B-boyfriend!" Mieko grabbed Sasuke's arm and pulled him to her, her glare relaxed slightly when Sasuke wasn't being grabbed by the bimbo. Ino looked nervous, she could never beat Mieko to win Sasuke's love, if she knew that Mieko was competition then she would have tried harder.

"Oh great it's you guys" a voice said from behind them, breaking the glaring match between the three girls "I knew this was gonna be a drag but I didn't know it was going to be this lame" Shikamaru and Choji stood before them.

"Oh great, all three stooges are here" Naruto insulted, making Shikamaru glare.

"Hey you know what pipsqueak-ahh forget it you're a waste of time" she stopped glaring and stood next to Choji who continued to eat.

"Well, well whadya know it looks like the whole gang is back together" Kiba spoke when he reached the small group.

"Oh h-hi Naruto" Hinata stuttered softly, she blushed heavily when Naruto looked at her, Shino stood off to the side without saying a word.

"You guys too huh?" Shikamaru spoke in his bored tone, not like he had any other time of tone "man everyone else is here for this stupid thing."

"Yep, here we all are, the ten rookies" Kiba laughed "this is gonna be fun. just you wait were gunna blow you guys away" he said confidently "we've been training like crazy."

"Whadyou think we've been doing" Naruto shot back "Sittin' around picking daisy's" he pointed to Kiba "You don't know what training means!"

"Ahh don't mind Kiba" Hinata whispered "I'm sure he didn't really mean anything by it" she blushed when Naruto's attention turned back to her.

Off to the side Choji when to grab Akamaru to eat him when he was stopped by Shino "Huh? What do you want" Choji asked, thinking the weirdo was going to stop him from eating the dog, Shino said nothing and looked at the floor where a bug was crawling between them.

"Thought maybe you hadn't seen it" Choji looked at him like he was crazy "didn't want you stepping on it."

"Why you saving it for lunch?"

"Hey you guys" a random voice interrupted their conversation, a young adult walked over with silver hair and big round glasses "You might want to try keeping it down a little, I mean no offence but you're the nine rookies right? Fresh out of the academy? I wouldn't go making a spectacle out of yourselves, just cool it this isn't a class field trip, why don't you follow what your friend is doing" he pointed to Mieko who remained quiet this entire time, he looked at her strange extra features and blinked before smirking inwardly, so this was Orochimaru's long lost daughter…how interesting, the sanin will be pleased.

"Well, who asked you! Who are you!?" Ino shouted to the silver-haired man.

"I'm Kabuto Yakushi, but really, look around you" the groups eyes widened when they saw the angered faces on all the other Genin "You've made quite the impression" Sasuke glared at all the angry men and pulled Mieko as closed to him as possible, she may be skilled but she couldn't take on all these guys "See those guys, they're from the rain village and very touchy, they all are, this exam makes everyone tense and you don't want to rub them the wrong way right now."

"Oh" Sakura shivered.

"You can't help it, I mean how could you know how things work your just rookies, you remind me of myself a while back."

"Kabuto" Sakura looked at the silver-haired man suspiciously, she didn't like this guy "is that your name?"

"Yeah."

"This isn't the first time you've taken the exam?"

"No its…my seventh" Mieko raised a brow "Well they're held twice a year so this will be my fourth year."

"Wow a veteran" Sakura gasped, no longer finding the man suspicious "You must really be an expert by now."

"Yeah sort of."

"Cool you can give us all the inside tips!" Shouted Naruto excitedly.

"Yea some expert he's never passed" Drawled Shikamaru.

"Well seventh times the charm, that's what they say right?" Kabuto rubbed his neck embarrassedly.

"Its third times the charm" Mieko muttered.

"So I guess the rumours about the exam being hard is true" Shikamaru groaned "Oh man I knew this was gonna be a drag."

"Hang on don't give up hope yet, maybe I can help you kids out a little" Kabuto reached into his pocket and pulled out a deck of cards "With my ninja info cards" Mieko looked at the cards with narrowed eyes.

'He's not allowed to have them' she thought to herself 'only Anbu are allowed to have them and can only get them when approved by the Hokage himself…who is this guy?' she decided to keep her dangerous thoughts to herself, if this guy had those cards he had to be pretty powerful or have powerful allies that can make them, they require a mass amount of strength to be able to create them and steal a little chakra from said person to be able to show the information.

"What are ninja info cards?" Sakura asked, breaking Mieko out of her deep thoughts.

"It's hard to explain, these cards have been chakra encoded with everything I've learned over the past four years" he knelt down and placed the cards on the floor "I've got nearly 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" he pulled out one of the cards and flipped it over "In fact they appear blank, don't want just anyone seeing this stuff" he placed a finger on the card and watched as it spun around.

"What are you doing?" Naruto asked.

"You see I am placing my chakra in the card to reveal its secrets" the card exploded and words and pictures appeared "Like this for example."

"Awesome a map? Of what?" Sakura asked.

"It shows the geographical distribution of all the ninja who have come to take the exam, what villages they come from and how many from each village" Mieko tightened her hold on Sasuke's arm slightly, how was this man able to make his chakra expand without anyone noticing he was tapping into their own…it was impossible, he must have many allies to be able to do this on such short notice, it's only been two weeks and he has managed to get every single person's information.

Sasuke looked at Mieko's tense form and felt confused, she must know something that he didn't, he would ask her when they were alone "Why do you think they all come here to take the exam together at the same time" the group was silent, all you could hear was Choji munching on a bag of chips "it's to foster friendship between nations, of course, international brotherhood and all that and its true enough as far as it goes."

"But there's another reason" Sasuke caught on to what Kabuto was saying.

"Yeah, you see the important thing is this way they can carefully regulate the number of Shinobi they end up in each village thereby maintaining the balance of power."

"Oh yeah, the balance of power" Naruto tried to sound like he knew what Kabuto was speaking about but was failing horribly.

"Balance of power big deal it's all a drag" Kabuto touched the card and the map disappeared.

"If the balance isn't maintained one nation could wind up with more Shinobi than its neighbours and it might be tempted to attack them so they try to maintain the status quo makes sense, I suppose" Sasuke stepped towards Kabuto and pulled Mieko along with him.

"Does those cards have any information on any of the other candidates?" Mieko raised a brow at Sasuke's question "individually."

"They might, you have someone special in mind?"

"I might."

"Well I can't promise my information is complete or perfect but I have something on just about everyone, including you guys of course" Mieko's whole body tensed up, how was she not able to sense someone watching her, does Kabuto know about her inhuman senses, how long was he watching her "So which is it tell me anything you know about them, a description, where they're from, whatever" he pulled up a card "Anything at all."

"He's Gaara of the desert and there's Rock Lee of the leaf village while you at it" Sasuke spoke with a look of determination, he wanted to beat these two Ninja and crush them into the dirt.

"Man that's no fun you even know their names, that makes it easy" he pulled out two cards and placed his chakra into them to reveal the two Genin.

"Show it to me" Sasuke demanded.

"Ok first up is Rock Lee" he revealed the bushy browed boy whom they fought earlier "Looks like he's a year older than you guys, mission experience 11 C ranks and 20 D ranks, his squad leader is Gai and in the last 12 months his Taijutsu has radically improved, his other skills are rather shaky, last year he got a lot of attention as a Genin for some reason he chose not to participate in the Chunin exam, this will be the first time he has been a candidate same as you guys, his team mates are Ten Ten and Neji Hyuga."

"Huh, Hyuga?" Naruto tilted his head to the side but said nothing more.

"Ok now for Gaara of the desert" he showed his second card that had the red-haired teen, Sasuke noticed Mieko becoming more interested in this ninja and frowned "Mission experience 8 C ranks and 1 B rank as a Genin, there's not a lot of information on this guy, he was a rookie from another land originally but there is this…he's survived every mission without getting a scratch on him."

"The dude's done a B rank as a Genin and has never even been injured" Shikamaru gasped in shock, his usual bored tone turned into one of shock.

"What's the deal with this guy?" Kabuto pulled out his map once more.

"Leaf, sand, rain, grass, waterfall, sound, from the looks of it they've all sent exceptionally skilled candidates to the exam this time around, of course the hidden sound village is small it sprang up recently and no one knows anything about it, those guys are a mystery" he brought his deck back to his chest "well you get the point, the competition is going to be tense this year."

"So it would seem" Hinata whispered "It's almost enough to make you lose your confidence."

"It's a fine time to start talking like that!" Ino shouted.

"Do you really think it's going to be tougher this time?" Sakura asked nervously.

"Ooh yeah, in the four years I've been coming I've never seen a crop of candidates with as much potential as this much, yep, we've got our work cut out for us" the entire group became incredibly nervous, minus Mieko who looked more concerned than anything.

"Hey don't worry Naruto we'll be fine" Sakura tried to cheer up the blonde but stopped when she noticed he was not shaking from fear, he suddenly roared and pointed a finger to all the other Genin.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki and I'm gonna beat every one of ya!"

"What are you trying to do get us killed!" Ino screamed, "Tell your boyfriend to keep his big fat mouth shut!"

"Whose boyfriend!"

"Oh, I forgot you can't get one!"

"WHADYO SAY!"

"Yeah, I feel a lot better now!"

"You're gonna die now Naruto" Mieko walked over and pulled Naruto away from the group that now wanted to murder him.

"Ahh can you say that again a little louder, didn't quite catch that," Kiba said, trying to get Naruto in even more trouble.

"You moron, are you trying to get everyone in this place to hate our guts or what?"

"NARUTO!" Sakura grabbed Naruto and put him in a choke hold "Oh hi everyone don't mind him sometimes he says these spazzy things he doesn't really mean them they just kinda come out he has this uh condition you know kind of a psychological thing you know he really should be on medication huh" she began punching his head "now see what you've done Naruto you've hurt everybody's feelings, they don't think you respect them but that isn't trying Naruto."

"You're making it worse Sakura" Mieko muttered before she tensed and wrapped her shadows around her small group when she felt an enemies presence, she watched as two sound Shinobi attacked Kabuto, he blocked both their attacks but a high pitched whistle ran through her ears and caused her head to throb "he's fast" she gasped when his glasses broke.

"Oh so it was that kind of attack" Kabuto pulled off his now broken glasses.

"Hey I saw what happened he dodged his attack, how did that happen" Sasuke demanded, he became livid when he saw Mieko walk into the fight.

"It must have come closer than it looked" Shikamaru scoffed "look at him acting like it was nothing" Mieko jumped back when Kabuto began vomiting.

"What did he just?"

"Kabuto what's wrong."

"Heh, not such a tough guy after all I guess, maybe that's why he's on his seventh try."

"Write this on your little card punk, the Genin from the sound village will be Chunin when this is over."

Mieko calmly walked forward so she didn't provoke the sound ninja "that's enough!" she ordered strongly, flaring her chakra slightly to show them she meat business "If you continue to fight with the other candidates you will be disqualified."

"And who are you to tell me what to do little girl!" the female of the sound village sneered, Mieko glared and made her eyes go black and golden pupils glow

"My name is Mieko Hatake, daughter of the Copy Cat Ninja, you listen to me or I kick your ass out before you can even say Chunin" she threatened darkly.

"Perfectly said Mieko!" A voice spoke from an explosion, all Genin turned to a staging area where a man appeared from the smoke "Alright you baby-faced degenerates pipe down and listen up!" a large group of Chunin appeared behind a man with scars littering his face "It's time to begin, I'm Ibuki Morino your proctor and from this moment your worst enemy."