Naruto: Leap

The morning of the chunnin exams team seven met up early at Naruto's apartment to go over their gear and pack it into the colour-coordinated set of sealing scrolls the blond fuuinjutsu specialist had created for the occasion.

"Here, teme: tags," Naruto said, chucking a gold-banded bundle of seals at his black-haired team-mate.

"Thanks," Sasuke grunted. "Nice outfit, by the way."

Naruto was not wearing his usual grey kosode and hakama. In their place he had on close fitting, mottled olive trousers and turtleneck, the trousers wrapped at the bottom and tucked into flexible leather ankle boots. Over the top he wore a thigh length, rapeseed-oil-green kimono patterned with a dizzying array of leaves in all shades of green and brown, belted with an elegantly knotted, pale brown obi decorated with feathers and skeleton leaves in shades of brown and grey. The overall effect was a cross between formal court attire and forest camouflage, stylish yet eminently suited to hiding amongst trees.

"Arigatou; you look good too," Naruto replied. "As does Sakura, as always."

Sasuke was wearing his usual dark blue, but had progressed from a tee-shirt to a round-collared, long-sleeved Chinese-style top damasked subtly like leopard spots. Instead of shorts he wore black cargo pants with innumerable pockets and loops and solid boots with steel toecaps instead of sandals. His family crest, the red and white uchiwa fan, was barely visible on the back of his collar under his shaggy hair. He looked very Uchiha-like, yet nothing like any of the Uchiha Naruto remembered.

Sakura on the other hand wore dark red leggings and a sleeveless v-neck top, exposing the high neckline and long sleeves of the fine mesh armour all three wore under their clothing. Over this practical yet girly outfit the pinkette wore a white inin coat with a drab green lining that could be reversed for camouflage purposes; team seven had learned well the importance of being able to hide from their opponents. The armour was another lesson learned: protection from stabbing wounds was nothing to sneeze at, regardless of how much it cost in monetary terms. Sasuke's inheritance and Naruto's sealing skills had paid for the armour all three wore religiously and all three considered it money well spent.

All three also had camouflage paint and compounds designed to hide and confuse their scent tucked into their waist pouches and both the blond and the pinkette had brown kerchiefs to hide their hair under if necessary. In addition to waist pouches each also had kunai pouches tied to both thighs; Kakashi-sensei had targeted their dominant hands enough for the three of them to be capably ambidextrous. Storage scrolls were hidden inside coats -or in Sasuke's case, pockets and loops- and spare weaponry, emergency supplies and soldier pills were tucked everywhere they could be properly secured.

"Ready?" Sakura asked grimly, checking that the senbon-secured bun at the nape of her neck was firmly anchored.

"Hai," Naruto and Sasuke chorused, loosening their blades in their sheaths and bouncing on their toes to double-check that nothing would rattle or fall out.

"Then let's go."

The examination building was not hard to find; the genin of all ages, sizes and origins milling around outside were a definite clue. Team seven slipped nimbly through the crowd, handed their forms over to the chunnin at the door and moved inside. Once out of sight of the door they immediately switched to walking on the ceiling -do the unexpected had been an early and well-learned lesson- and headed for the stairs at a brisk trot, ignoring the genin wandering around below. Being a ninja building each individual staircase was isolated from the others, so each floor had to be navigated in order to reach the next one. Curiously, they were the only team who had had the ingenuity to use the ceilings. Is this what Kakashi-sensei meant when he said that most people, even ninja, rarely bother to think, let alone look underneath the underneath? If so, no wonder there are so few who reach jounin rank.

After a little while they reached a door with a crowd of genin outside trying to get in. Sasuke frowned. 'How many floors?' he signed.

'Two; illusion' Naruto supplied. 'Fan?'

'Hai?'

'Memorize.'

Sasuke flashed his sharingan over the crowd, recording faces and chakra signatures.

'Why?' Sakura signed curiously.

'Weak against illusions,' Naruto signed back. 'Fodder for Blossom.' The blond recognised the chakra signatures of the two individuals blocking the doorway; both were chunnin he had seen many, many times on guard duty at the front gates of the village.

The pinkette grinned like a shark. Sasuke tapped Naruto's shoulder and pointed off to one side:

'White-eyes.'

'Faker' Naruto agreed, narrowing his eyes at the Hyuuga. Neji was one of Rock Lee's team-mates and a capable ninja for all his arrogance. Unoriginal and severely lacking in nin or genjutsu, but skilled nonetheless. And not one to be fooled by such a meagre illusion.

'We move on,' Sakura signed. Both boys followed her past the mass of genin towards the next flight of stairs. As they turned a corner they heard Kiba shouting at the two disguised chunnin behind them to "lose the dumb genjutsu, losers!"

"Idiot," Sasuke grunted as they hurried up the stairs.

"Akamaru's the smart one," Naruto agreed as the three of them dropped to the floor and rounded the corner towards the real exam room and Kakashi-sensei's waiting presence. The clump of semi-familiar chakra signatures just down the hall confirmed they had found the right place.

"Congratulations on arriving in time," the copy-nin drawled lazily, orange book dangling from one hand, "and all three of you together. You can only enter the chunnin exams as a team after all."

"You didn't mention that earlier," Sakura pointed out sweetly, "but since we entered so we could get promoted away from your rampant sadism, it follows that all three of us would be present."

"He, he," Kakashi-sensei muttered, sounding slightly abashed, "You're all here, aren't you? The first exam is through those doors," he pointed, "so remember what I've taught you and don't lose your heads. Oh, and team?"

Three pairs of eyes looked up at their sensei's lone grey orb inquisitively. The copy-nin smiled down at them, a sense of feral glee briefly radiating from his chakra presence. "Give them all hell from me, ne? Do me proud."

Naruto's wide blue eyes hooded. Sasuke flashed a toothy grin. Sakura blinked innocently. As one team seven pushed open the double doors and into the exam room beyond.

Half-a-dozen teams with different hitai-ites stood scattered about the large room, all of whom looked over to see who had just come in. Naruto ignored the hostile audience, leading the way over to where his fellow rookie genin, Nara Shikamaru, Akiminchi Chouji and Yamanaka Ino were standing. Ino, Naruto was intrigued to notice, did not jump Sasuke and proclaim her undying love. Instead his fellow blonde was eyeing the object of her obsession as if he were a delectably decadent ice-cream confection she desperately wished to devour, but was too dedicated to dieting to so much as sample. Sasuke ignored the longing stare but somehow ensured Sakura was standing between him and the die-hard fangirl.

"Yo!" Naruto said cheerfully to Shikamaru. "Nice to see we're not the only rookies here."

"Troublesome," the Nara grumbled. "Asuma really pushed us after he found out how hard Kakashi was training you guys; you set a high standard."

"Unlike you three, the team is all we really have," Sakura said shortly. Her family was determined to snub her team-mate, so she continued to return the favour. "Training is how we do most of our socialising."

"Please, whatever happens, just don't use that jutsu again?" Chouji mumbled, pulling out a new packet of crisps.

"Not against allies; it's against the Rules," Sakura agreed lightly.

"Rules?" Ino asked cautiously, eyes flicking from Sasuke to Naruto before settling on Sakura.

"Team seven has rules that we all follow. Some of them apply to us and others apply to Sensei. Kakashi-sensei has four major rules to follow while we have eight. Eight so far that is," Naruto explained as the double doors opened to let in at least six new teams, all arguing amongst themselves. "There are minor rules as well, but they are less important."

"What are the rules?" Chouji asked.

"Rule one:" Sasuke drawled, his voice mimicking Kakashi-sensei's, "Nothing is forbidden unless Sensei says it is, when Sensei says it is."

"Rule two:" Sakura said sweetly, "Honour and decency are for samurai and fools; Konoha has no use for samurai and Sensei doesn't train fools. Get used to it."

"Rule three:" Naruto smiled, remembering an encounter with a particularly stubborn individual who had refused to accept that the 'Demon-child' was now a ninja and protected by law, "Mercy is for people who can afford to give their enemies a second shot at killing them. You can't afford it and are not allowed to show it." Kakashi-sensei had taken the bastard's head off on his student's behalf.

"Rule four:" Sakura continued, "Incapacitate when sparring but in battle always kill. Or maim, at the very least; your enemies will do no less."

"Rule five:" Sasuke picked up, "Test new jutsu on enemies, clones or animals, not your team-mates. Or your Sensei, Naruto," he added, smirking at the blond jinchuuriki who put his hands behind his head and whistled innocently.

"Rule six:" Naruto sighed, "There's nothing wrong with a strategic retreat when faced with a superior opponent. Just make sure you are retreating to safe ground and are not being driven into a trap."

"Rule seven:" Sakura supplied, "You can never have too much information or supplies."

"And rule eight:" Sasuke finished, "An enemy to one is an enemy to all. The odds are better when you stick together. So act accordingly."

"Those are the main ones," Naruto explained, "and there are more little ones, but those are mostly rules for sparring partners and opponents rather than for the team."

"Rules for opponents?" Ino repeated faintly.

"'Don't make Naruto lose his temper' is the main one," Sakura said wryly. "Kakashi-sensei learned that the hard way. Got a nice scar to remember it by, too."

"'Don't suggest Sakura is weak' is another one," Naruto added, not wanting to be singled out. "Kiba's lucky she stopped when Kurenai intervened or he would no longer be mostly sane."

"Mostly sane?" Shikamaru repeated, bemused.

"No ninja is sane, Lazybones," Naruto said dryly; "just look at our senseis."

"Is there a rule for Sasuke?" Chouji asked.

"Yeah: 'Sasuke hates people who gloat. So don't.' Sensei only does it when he wants to push teme over the edge," Naruto said amicably. "There's more than that but those are the main ones."

The doors were pushed open again to reveal team eight, Kiba looking a little worse for wear. "Hey, the gang's all here!" the Inuzuka said boisterously. "We're gonna ace this thing!"

Shino said nothing. Hinata glanced at Naruto, blushed and poked her forefingers together.

"Calm down; you're antagonising everyone else even before you've begun," said a warm, smooth voice to Naruto's right. The blond narrowed his eyes at the feel of the newcomer's chakra. He's no genin, though he disguises it well; definite medic, high chunnin to low jounin reserves and highly refined. Bet he performs almost as well as Sensei in the field with control like that. Plus a kekkai genkai -or something like it- that smells like blood. Fresh, tangy, arterial blood. Leaf hitai-ite though; a plant to keep an eye on the rest of us perhaps?

"I'm Kabuto, by the way," the strange ninja added, light reflecting off his round glasses and catching on his silver-lilac hair, "Yakushi Kabuto." Naruto disliked him on principle; that hair colour reminded him of Touji Mizuki, the traitor who'd tricked him into stealing the forbidden scroll.

"I've got information on all the various hidden villages and the ninja attending the exams on my ninja-information cards," the nineteen-year-old continued in a friendly fashion, producing a pack of cards and pushing chakra into one of them to reveal a map of the Elemental Nations.

"I take it you've done this before?" Shikamaru asked.

"He, he," the older genin chuckled, "this is my seventh time. These exams are hard."

"Or you are not taking them seriously," Sasuke said coolly.

"I suppose," the bespectacled genin sighed. "Anyway, we're all Konoha ninja so we should stick together. Is there anyone you want information on?"

"Redhead from Suna," Sakura interjected, signing 'caution' out of sight of their new friend. "He's on a team with a blonde girl with a fan and a boy in kabuki makeup. The redhead leaks KI all over the place."

"Give me a sec'," Kabuto mumbled, shuffling through his cards, "ah, here we are: Sabaku no Gaara, youngest son of the Yondaime kazekage. On a team with his older siblings Temari and Kankurou, has completed, hm, eight C-rank missions and hey, one B-rank? That's unusual; he must be very good. Oh, and check this out: he returned from all nine missions without so much as a scratch."

Team eight and team ten looked intimidated. Sakura just looked thoughtful. "Which other nations send ninja to compete in the Konoha chunnin exams, Kabuto-san?"

Kabuto produced another card. "Well Konoha of course, then Suna, Kusa and Taki as the village has treaties with those nations. Ame is neutral so they send ninja along as well. Iwa hasn't sent anyone here ever due to the wars, Kiri still has a civil war going on and is hemorrhaging ninja all over the place without deliberately allowing them to leave the country and Kumo hasn't sent anyone since-" he glanced at Hinata, who cringed a little, "-in a long time," he amended. "Oh, and there are various teams from the numerous lesser villages like that new one in Rice country -I think it's called Oto- but they don't really count."

Naruto sensed that quite a few shinobi were a tad offended by that sweeping dismissal -Kabuto wasn't exactly being quiet- but the only really angry ones were a trio with hitai-ite adorned with a musical note; likely the aforementioned Sound-nins. One of them lunged for Kabuto, swinging a gauntleted fist at the nineteen-year-old's face. Naruto slipped out of the way of the attacker -whose face was almost entirely hidden by bandages- and quietly palmed his tanto, letting the blade hide amongst the folds of his left sleeve. Sensei may say they are impractical, but I think long, loose sleeves have more advantages than disadvantages when you are used to them.

Kabuto appeared to have dodged the blow completely, but then his glasses shattered and he fell to his knees and vomited.

"Not so weak are we, Konoha scum," the hunchbacked, gauntleted ninja's spiky-haired team-mate gloated arrogantly, chin jutting aggressively.

"Silence, maggots!" another voice roared as the double doors were thrown open to reveal Morino Ibiki at the head of a large crowd of chunnin dressed in grey and carrying clipboards.

Naruto groaned. Why'd it have to be Scarface?

A/N: And there we have the Rules, which are in no way related to 'What Team Seven Is Not Allowed To Do (unless Sensei is watching and/or taking bets)'. Being better trained, it follows that our three heros would take the exams far more seriously than in canon.

A/N2: I am now working on an InuYasha fanfic which needs to be written if I am to continue writing APitG. Hopefully this, too, will make its way online. Oh, and a big 'Hello!' to everyone who watched the royal wedding today! No, I am not a royalist per se but I enjoy a bit of public spectacle as much as the next person.