Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto
Chapter 7
So for this chapter I decide to try something different and add a Naruto POV moment cuz honestly he is just to adorable. and yay chuunin exam is officially a go.
Today was the day. The day he would become an official shinobi of Konoha. An official warrior of this great village. No longer that boy looked down by everyone, that weak genin, but an official shinobi, defender of the great fire nation.
Tightening the blue hitai-ate around his forehead, he stared at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. God, he was handsome. He loved the way his orange jumper complimented his bright blond hair. A foxy grin on his face as he did a 'good guy' pose in front of the mirror. He was ready to kick this chuunin exams ass.
'Ding'
His blue eyes lit up at the sound. Running out of the bathroom, he swung open his microwave and pulled out the styrofoam cup. The delicious scent of the just perfectly cooked noodles wafted to his nose. Putting it down on his table, he plopped down before it and snapped open a pair of bamboo chopsticks.
"Itadakimasu."
Tearing the paper cover, he dug in. He savored every, last bit of the hot, mouthwatering noodles. This was a breakfast for winners...champions.
Drinking the last bit of the beef flavored soup, he crushed the cup and tossed it into the trash. He was ready for anything.
Grinning, he opened the window just beside his bed, preparing to leap out. There was not a single cloud in the sky, birds sang happily welcoming this nice, cool summer morning.
Today was going to be a good day.
"WATCH OUT KONOHA, CAUSE UZUMAKI NARUTO BECOMES A CHUUNIN TODAY!"
While Naruto was basking in the glow of possibility that he might achieve chuunin, his other two teammates were not nearly as thrilled. Sasuke as usual was impassive. After all with his abilities he should have been well on his way to becoming Jounin or maybe even ANBU. So, this measly chuunin exam didn't excite him. Leaning against the red railing of their usual meeting place, he briefly glanced at his female teammate. There seemed to also be an air of indifference surrounding her.
Sakura was not excited for the exam, nor was she impassive, she was tired. Spending majority of the yesterday in a badly lit room, reading scrolls upon scrolls drained her of her will to live. Sure, she loved books, but there something as too much reading. Adding on to this, she was unable to properly sleep last night. The thought of Orochimaru, and Gaara attacking Konoha replayed like a bad movie in her head, and just when she thought it was over, the damn cicadas chirped. All. Night. Long.
She yawned for the umpteenth time that morning. Rubbing her tired eyes, she could only imagine how horrible she must have looked. Her eyes probably has bags underneath them, and her hair was definitely a bird's nest considering how she didn't even have time to brush it this morning. God, she just wanted to crawl under a cover and hibernate till next summer.
"SAKURA-CHANNNN, TEMEEEEEE OHAYO!"
Both ninjas stared at the bundle of orange speed towards them, a large grin on his whiskered face.
Sakura weakly waved at the boy, while smothering another yawn. God, how she wished she could be as energetic as him.
"Today we become official shinobis!" Naruto still grinning as he looped his arms around his two teammates.
"You have to pass on the exams first, dobe."
Even with Sasuke's insult, the blond's eagerness didn't falter, inside it grew. "Of course I know that teme! I'm the great Naruto uzumaki, this exam is a piece of cake."
Sasuke rolled his eyes at how carefree the blond was.
"Let's go, shall we?" Sakura half yawned out.
The grin on Naruto's face grew.
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As the team walked to the academy building, Naruto boasted on about the new moves he learned from Kakashi, and how he was no match for anyone. Sasuke remained silent, while Sakura laughed with Naruto and would occasionally throw in compliments of her own for the blond boy.
"...of course you're great Naruto."
Sasuke's brow twitched.
"You're going to be a great Hokage one day. You have my vote."
A small, but visible scowl etched onto his perfect face.
"Any girl would be lucky to have you!"
Gritting his teeth, he kicked a small stone in his path not caring who or what it hit.
'Thunk' - "OI, YOU WANNA DIE YOU BRATS!"
Sakura and Naruto stopped talking, and Sasuke looked up from the ground to stare at an angry looking male wearing the strangest uniform. It was black unitard with what seemed like cat ears on his head. Sakura gave an unladylike snort. 'Now that I think about it Kankuro has an even worse sense of style than Naruto.'
"I said you wanna die?" Kankuro reached for the bandaged puppet behind his back and slammed it into the ground.
"You sure your partner hanging off that tree would be happy?" Sasuke drawled out in a bored tone as he glanced at the red head with the chinese character for love tattooed on his forehead drop down from the tree.
It never occurred to Sakura how much of a killer aura surrounded this younger Gaara. With a hint of sadness she stared at the red head. He was just like Naruto, outcasted all his life.
"What's your name?" Gaara spoke with a hint of murderous undertone.
"NARUTO-"
"Not you." Gaara glared at the blond. "You." His cold green eyes stared directly at Sasuke, who merely smirked.
"Isn't it customary to introduce yourself first?"
Setting before his two teammates Gaara introduced them. "We're the sand siblings. I'm Sabaku no Gaara. That's Kankuro, and that's Temari." He pointed at the blond female with a huge fan strapped to her back.
"Uchiha Sasuke." Sasuke's smirk grew. He was just itching to refight against Gaara.
"and I'm Haruno Sakura and that's Uzumaki Naruto." Sakura briefly glared at Sasuke for not introducing the rest of their team. "Now, if you don't mind we're on our way to the chuunin exam." Sakura concluded, as she grabbed both her teammates wrists and dragged them past the sand siblings.
"He was rude." Naruto fumed as he gave a dirty look back at the three sand siblings.
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By the time the team arrived at the room, it was already packed with ninjas from other areas.
"YOSH!" Naruto shouted, while doing a fist bump with the arm. This outburst from the blond caused all the heads to turn and glare at them. Sakura mentally sweat dropped when she noticed all the hated glared they received. 'Wow, everyone's so serious'
Through the sea of ninjas, her green eyes landed on two particular ones. A grey haired man wearing a pair of round spectacles and the long haired almost feminine looking grass ninja that stood not to far from the grey haired man. Her fists unconsciously clenched by her sides, and her eyes narrowed into slits. "Sasuke-kun."
The said boy turned to his irate teammate and followed her gaze towards the two ninja. His hand shot out and grabbed her wrist. "We'll take them on in the forest."
Her hand unclenched but her glare remained when she noticed the faintest smile on the grass ninja's face. 'I dare you to try and give Sasuke-kun the curse mark.' she thought angrily, as a small sneer crawled up her face. Oh, she was going to have so much fun pounding Orochimaru's face in at the forest of death. She could also try skinning him alive, or maybe immobilizing every muscle in his body. Her sneer slowly turned into sadistic smile.
Sasuke raised a brow at the faces his female teammate was making.
"SASUKE-KUN!"
Feeling a surge of chakra from behind him, Sasuke stepped to side accidentally bumping in Sakura causing her to snap out from her grotesque fantasies. Green eyes now stared interestedly at Sasuke.
"Mou… Sasuke-kun…" The blond kunoichi pouted, as she tried to latch herself to the stoic Uchiha once more.
Sasuke again with ease dodged her attempt, this time he rewarded her with a glare.
"Hey, Ino-pig." Sakura waved from behind Sasuke. Trying to place the image of Ino dying on that god forsaken battle field behind her.
Ino who had just know realized the close proximity of her rival and crush, shrieked. "EHHHHHH, FOREHEAD GIRL WHY ARE YOU SO CLOSE TO SASUKE-KUN!"
Sakura raised her hand in front of her in a defensive manner, as a laugh escape her lips. "He came close to me." Her laughter grew louder when she saw the glare Sasuke give her. She really did miss bantering with Ino.
"YEAH TEME WHY ARE YOU SO CLOSE TO SAKURA-CHAN?" Naruto now decided to pile on with Ino.
Not able to resist teasing her two closest friends, she latched her arms around Sasuke's neck, and in her best love struck voice she replied. "Don't you know? We're lovers."
Sasuke's glare darkened as he glared at his teammate but surprisingly made no effort to push her off, while Ino and Naruto's jaw dropped.
Seeing their reactions Sakura released her hold on Sasuke and was clutching her stomach laughing. "Your reactions...haha priceless. Can't believe you guys actually believe me." Tears were rolling down her cheeks. Her sides were cramping from all her laughter. A part of her couldn't remember the last time she laughed this hard. It felt good.
"ALRIGHT GET A SEAT MAGGOTS."
Sakura's laughter ceased as did all the chatter in the room, when a large man stepped into the room. A bandanna with the konoha hitai-ate covered his head, and two scars ran down his face. His beady black eyes glowered at all the genins, who were scampering to find a seat.
During this whole scuffle all the teams got separated. Sakura sat in the way back of the room, while Sasuke was two rows in front of her and Naruto four rows in front and was seated beside a blushing Hyuuga. Sakura held back a squeal, at just how adorable they looked together.
"NAME'S IBIKI." The man slammed his hand on the black board behind him. Sakura gave an involuntary flinched. Even after working in interrogations with this man for a good two years, he still scared the bejesus out of her.
"We'll became the first part of your chuunin exam." He motioned for the chuunins that followed after him to hand out the exam papers. "Nine question on this test, and you must answer all of them. You can cheat but if we catch you, you and your team is disqualified. The tenth question will be announced by the end of the hour."
Sakura flexed her fingers. This was going to be a walk in the park. Glancing around the room her eyes fell on the three sound ninja that had attacked them the first time. Smirking she cracked her knuckles. She was going to have some fun during this time.
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Once the all the papers were distributed, Ibiki turned to the clock waiting for the second hand to reach twelve.
Sakura rolled the pencil around her fingers as she set her gaze on the clock as well.
5
4
3
2
1
"BEGIN" Ibiki shouted.
Immediately all the ninjas lowered their heads and started on the test. Sakura looked down, and began writing her own answers. Shaking her head, she rolled her eyes. There was no way half the people in this room knew how to answer these questions.
"45, 36, 24 DISQUALIFIED"
The three ninja got up, and their teammates also set down their pens. In a depressing manner all three cheater and their team stalked out the room.
"43, 9 OUT"
More shuffling of chairs was heard.
Discretely Sakura stared at Sasuke, who was busy cheating off some poor bastard in front of him with his sharingan. Smirking she turned her attention to Naruto. The blond was sitting there tapping pen against the desk, while scratching the back of his head.
"8, 10, 39 DISQUALIFIED"
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After half an hour in, Sakura had finished her test (without cheating). She stared at her paper with a proud look.
'Time to have some fun'
Leaning back against her chair, she stared at the sound kunoichi, Tsuchi Kin. 'Three rows down, 4 seats left.'
Closing her eyes she focused on all the chakras surrounding her. 'Three rows down, 4 seats left' She raised her hand to muffle a yawn, but while doing so she breathed out her attack. It was her own specialize genjutsu attack that she developed after training with Kurenai. Similar to the tsukuyomi it rendered the victim to an endless dream of their worst nightmares.
A scream erupted from below her, opening an eye she watched at the raven haired girl continue screaming, and surrounding chuunins tried to break her out of the genjutsu.
'Normal kai doesn't work.' Sakura mentally sang, as she watched they drag the screaming girl out.
"19 DISQUALIFIED"
Her two teammates Dosu and Zaku stood up disgruntled as they followed their screaming teammate out.
Sasuke who had witnessed the whole incident, gave a discrete glance at Sakura, who simply smirked in response. He was impressed, not that he was ever going to admit it to her.
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"TIME." Ibiki shouted once the hour was up.
Naruto was freaking out mentally. He had yet to finish a single question. 'Oh god, I'm going to get my team disqualified.' Scratching his head even harder he stared at the empty test paper.
"Psst" Naruto turned to the shy Hyuuga beside him. Her cheeks dusted a light pink. "Do you want to copy my paper." She discretely slide the sheet under her arm.
Naruto stared at her filled out test. He was tempted, but what kind of ninja would he be if he cheated? Not a great one that's for sure.
"I can't, cheating is bad." His eyes returned to his own paper. "But thank you."
Hinata slide her test back, and her blush got darker at Naruto's gratitude.
"THE TEST WILL ONLY GET HARDER FROM HERE ON OUT, SO IF YOU CAN'T EVEN HANDLE THIS FIRST TEST, THEN JUST GET OUT NOW!"
Naruto's head lowered, and his fists clenched underneath the desk.
"2, 4, 14 YOU MAY LEAVE. ANYONE ELSE?"
Naruto slowly raised his hand, but just as Ibiki was about to disqualify the blond, Naruto slammed his hand back down on the table, his test paper slightly fluttered upward.
"LIKE HELL, AM I GIVING UP! I WORKED MY ASS OFF TO GET TO THIS POINT AND I'M NOT GOING TO LET SOME BIG DUDE WITH A COUPLE OF SCARS SCARE ME OFF. SO TELL ME YOUR TENTH QUESTION AND FINISH THIS STUPID TEST." Naruto shouted at the proctor.
After this little outburst, no more people raised their hands.
Ibiki smirked. "That was the tenth question. Since none of you left, you all advance!"
Relieved sighed broke out immediately.
"Naruto-kun." Hinata gave the boy a smile. "We passed."
Grinning Naruto pulled the shy Hyuuga into a hug. "WE ARE ONE STEP CLOSER TO BECOMING CHUUNINS HINATA-CHAN"
Just at that moment a loud crash broke the moment of relief in the classroom. The remaining genins turned their attention to the now shattered window. A purple haired woman perched on the window sill munching on a dango, looked around the room. "IBIKI MAY BE GOING SOFT LETTING YOU MAGGOTS PASS, BUT NOT WITH ME. AS YOUR SECOND PROCTOR, MITARASHI ANKO MORE THAN HALF OF YOU WILL BE ELIMINATED IN THE SECOND ROUND. FOREST OF DEATH IN AN HOUR BE PREPARED."
With that said the strange and loud purple haired woman disappeared as quickly as she came.
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"SAKURA-CHAN" The said girl opened her eyes and smiled at her two approaching teammates. "WE PASSED."
Sakura gave the blond a smile. "Of course we would we're awesome." She linked her arm with both her teammates.
"What technique was that?"
Sakura turned to the Uchiha with a knowing look. "A type of genjutsu similar to the tsukuyomi I've developed."
Sasuke gave a small nod of approval, Sakura's smile grew larger.
'Tap, tap'
Three heads turned to the window, to see a small black raven.
"Weird bird" Naruto commented as tried to shoo it away.
Sakura's eyes narrowed as she stared at the bird. Realization dawned on her.
It wasn't a real bird.
It was made out of ink.
You guys like it? I added in a bit of Naruhina and hints of Sasuke's growing annoyance with sakura and naruto's relationship. there will be more Sasusaku moments and more Naruhina moments cuz these four are just to cute
and by now you guy's probably figured who was casting the inky birds right?
anyways please leave a review, they mean a lot