Hello and again, a little bit late but this time you get a pretty long chapter.

To help you understand: remember Yoroi, his power was to suck up chakra.

Also I refer to the genin from sound with the arm that could emit high-pressure air.

A few unnecessary comments: Sasuke is not shown in his best light in this chapter but I believe it his true to his character at the beginning and I need to make this clear before he begins to change (slooowly)! 2. I forgot how annoying Neji could be at the beginning. 3. Again I wanted to give the impression that even though they have great potential the rookies really aren't that strong compared to a few older genin so I added a fight or two with two older contestants.

Sakura looked at Ino uneasily. She looked at best friend's slightly trembling hands and the tension in her frame. She cursed her luck and balled her fists. She was afraid for her friend, thinking of all the ways Sasuke could hurt her. At the same time, she felt almost angry at the girl for taking the opportunity from her to root wholeheartedly for her teammate.

With Ino it had never been easy. They knew each other inside out which made it so much easier to hurt the other when they wanted to. And they did. Sakura loved Ino and hated her just as often and envied her even more. Ino was smart, Ino was loved, Ino was confident. And Ino had been willing to help little slow-blooming Sakura. It was a dept. that always hang unsaid between them and Sakura resented it more than anything. She had hoped badly that now that they had both made genin she would finally get the chance to settle that dept. Instead she would have to see her best friend be crushed by her teammate.

What would Ino do now. She had been the first girl to lay claim on the Uchiha boy. On endless afternoons after the academy, laying side by side they had painted an imaginary future with the boy, imagined a life of happiness and success. Sasuke had come to crystallize all their goals and ideals.

Now Ino had to fight against that old dream on top of the best rookie of their year. Sakura could see the tension coiling in her best friend.

"I'll fight you Sasuke", her friend began, "and I won' t hold back."

Her voice didn't quite manage to sound convinced and Sasuke only snarled. In a fluid movement he flicked a few shuriken at her and charged. The girl barely ducked and had to jump back.

A high kick. Three stumbling steps backwards. A lurch. A shriek and an awkward dodge. Sakura's fist was balled, and she wanted to look away.

A kunai swirled past Ino missing its mark but leaving a crimson line on her shoulder. The girl jumped back stumbled again and fell to her knees. She tried to form the hand signs for her family's jutzu but Sasuke wasn't stupid and jumped at her. She evaded again.

The match became a pretty pathetic game of chase. Sasuke wasn't putting any real effort into it but was still largely superior and getting more and more angry. His eyes were pitch black, Ino didn't earn the Sharingan it seemed. Again, she had to hastily evade a sweeping kunai in Sasuke's right hand. This time she jumped back a few meters and was left back to the wall, cornered. Before Sasuke could attack her again she cried out.

"Wait Sasuke. I don' t want to fight you. I know that you think I' m ridiculous." Her head was bowed, long blond hair hanging in front of her face not quite hiding her tears. "I love you Sasuke, so if you want I can let you win. Do you want that?"

Sakura looked from her friend to her teammate. In his narrow eyes and the almost ugly snarl he wore she read anger. The last time she had seen Sasuke this angry was during the Wave-mission. His voice was low when he spoke.

"You are scum that' s not worthy of being called a ninja."

Ino's head snapped up, her watery eyes wide with hurt and horror. Then Sasuke charged at her. Ino tried to do the hand signs for her family jutsu but the movements were to slow, to unsure. Sasuke's foot connected with her head.

The clone disappeared.

For a second Sasuke couldn't hide his utter bewilderment. Then he understood his mistake and quickly began to move aware that without locating the girl he was at the mercy of her jutsu, having to move constantly to avoid it. He looked around, where could she be. There was no place to hide where... then he noticed the obvious. There were two identical exterminators in the arena. One leaning against a shadowy corner of the wall, the other standing on the other side, in broad daylight.

In a second his black eyes were red, and he scanned the arena. There, the one in the shadow was the real one. A second later he threw a kunai at the second one. He side-stepped easily and dropped the henge. Ino was smirking at him.

"There really is no hiding from the Sharingan. A few more seconds and I would have got you."

Sasuke didn't let her finish her sentence and attacked her. This time she evaded easily. Her movement were smooth if not powerful. She wasn't his equal but she was cunning. More than once Sasuke had to jump back from an exploding tag she had left while jumping back.

However, Ino's only real chance had been her masterful deceiving act. Finally, she was cornered and lifted her hands in surrender. It wasn't a shameful defeat, Sasuke looked rougher than she did: His clothing singed, an angry bruise on his cheekbone.

He was declared victor but seemed even angrier than before. He climbed the stairs and Sakura stepped back, not wishing to earn his ire if she tried to compliment him. Wisely if surprisingly Naruto remained silent as well. Kakashi-sensei however stepped forwards.

"Sasuke, remember this, and let it be a lesson for you. There is not one Jonin or Chunin in this room who did not notice she was deceiving you. Stop thinking so much of yourself and so little of others."

Sasuke threw him a look of pure hatred and muttered something before sitting down a few meters away, radiating anger.

Sakura winced and choose to look at her friend instead. She was standing with her team. Asuma had a hand on her shoulder and was saying something that made the girl smile softly. Shikamaru was looking at her smiling.

Ino had grown Sakura noticed. She could see so much farther than her own selfish goals. While Sakura was still clamoring to childish fantasies Ino was walking the path of a kunoichi. Sakura closed her eyes willing envy and jealousy to leave her. It was her own damned fault. And she was the only one who could make her own path. Had she not promised to her teammates, her teammates, not her crush, that she would be stronger. It was now up to her to prove that she was serious about it.

The next fight was one guy from the Suna team with which they had done the exchange and the teammate of the strange Konoha nin who could extend his hands so strangely. A certain Yoroi apparently.

Secretly Sakura was rooting for the Suna-boy, Kataki, he had been the one who proposed the exchange and without him who knew if they would have succeeded in that task. That and the other boy looked creepy. If his abilities resembled the ones of his teammate then he was super-creepy.

He was. Cornered by the grey-haired Suna-boy who had a wicked way with most projectiles and a good situational awareness the Yoroi-guy suddenly switched from evading to attacking. He took a kunai to the shoulder but that did not seem to be enough to stop him. He got hold of the Suna-nin and everyone quickly saw that something strange was happening. The attack left the Suna-nin completely weak. Sakura looked around and noticed that both Hyuga of their generation had their Byakugans trained on the Konoha-nin and were frowning.

Anyway, and to Sakura' s disappointment the Suna-boy lost when he fell unconscious a few seconds later.

If they won their fights and got to the next round they would have to find out what the deal was with that boy. Maybe Sasuke knew with his Sharingan. But he still looked murderous, so she refrained from asking.

The fourth fight was gross. And she didn't think that because she was delicate. A lot of people were looking somewhat green around the edges when the sound-boys arms exploded. Like his teammate he had a special mechanical arm which in his case could release a stream of air under a lot of pressure. Shino, his opponent, was a clever shinobi Sakura knew from their academy days. He demonstrated his cunning and the dangerous power of his clan when his insects invaded the Suna-boy's body and let the very same pressure that was the boy's main defense destroy him.

Okay, Shino was intelligent, and dangerous, and sympathy probably wasn't his strongest trait. If she was ever to fight him she would have to be very, very, very careful.

The fifth fight was between another Suna boy and a Konoha-nin. The Sand shinobi was tall, probably a year or two older than her with strange purple paintings adorning his face and a strange bandaged-wrapped packet loaded onto his back. He seemed to emanate confidence. His steps were measured and regular, sure and strong.

The Konoha boy was his opposite. He was slightly hunched forward; his steps were light and he approached his opponent with an almost self-deprecating smile.

It was the genjutsu boy from the second task. The one who had tricked them so easily at the beginning of the test.

Just a second before she had been sure that the Suna-boy had the advantage, now she wasn't so certain. Once again, she realized that in the ninja world nothing could be taken at face value.

On her right Naruto had loudly pointed out to Kakashi that the Konoha boy was "the bastard who tricked us is the last test". Her sensei had refocused his gaze on the arena and while he still looked bored Sakura had the feeling that he was interested in this fight.

"The sixth fight...begins!"

For a long time both boys looked at each other. Then suddenly the fight began. Shuriken on one side, senbon on the other. Dodge, both opponent jumped back untouched. The attack was repeated a few times, then the Suna boy got creative and a jutzu was thrown the other boy' s way, a thin stream of obviously poisonous gas, accompanied by a few sharp projectiles. Again, a miss.

The Konoha-boy was moving quickly, while his attacks were unimaginative his evasion skills were good. He switched up his game with a few replacement jutsus when the suna-nin's attacks got more pressing. At one point he managed to appear a few meters behind the Suna-nin and began a series of high-speed finger-signs. Probably a genjutsu Sakura reasoned. However, either he didn't get the time to finish or something missed because the Suna-nin threw another attack at him. For a second the Konoha-nin forgot to reign in his surprise and one of the senbon found its mark in his shoulder.

The Suna-boy on the other side tsked.

"This is getting annoying, if you' re not able to attack me, then I will be the one to launch the offensive."

A second later Sakura revised her opinion again about the likely winner of the fight. The Konoha-nin was experienced and careful, certainly, but the Suna boy was something else. His speed and precision when throwing senbon was almost inhuman. The Konoha-nin was hard-pressed to avoid them, the sheer number of projectiles was impressive. Still the boy managed to evade, he began to retreat, always remaining in motion. Sometimes he dared a riskier move, took a few steps in the direction of the Suna-nin but it never payed of. Another senbon found its mark. It wasn't enough yet to really be a bother but it made clear that the odds weren't in their fellow nin's favor. Again, he was trying to put distance between himself and his opponent, but the Sand-shinobi was following step for step. Suddenly the Konoha-boy stopped. At this point they had almost circled the whole arena and senbons were littering the ground. The Sand-boy stopped too. He was confident, yes, but warry, intelligent enough to notice that his opponent was still dangerous.

"You did not notice, did you?"

The Suna nin frowned.

"Look around."

His opponent didn't take his eyes of him and tensed when the Konoha nin did a few hand signs.

There was a strange glowing light on the ground and suddenly Sakura did notice.

The numerous senbon on the ground took on a vague shape. The Konoha-nin hadn't dodged at random, he had planned this. All around the Suna-boy there was a strange kind of swirl.

Genjutsu, Sakura remembered. It was the shape on the boy's hand.

Suddenly the Suna-boy collapsed but in a very strange way. He formed an unnatural looking heap on the ground. At the same times the bandages covering the strange shape he always carried fell away and revealed... a double of the boy. For a second the double just laid there. The Konoha-nin leaped at him but his movements were somewhat slow. The double's hands shot up suddenly doing the "kay" hand signs and the glowing subsided. At the last moment he dodged the Konoha-nin's attack and jumped back. At his feet, what they had all thought to be the "real" Suna-nin was only a puppet.

On the other side of the arena the Konoha-nin fell to one knee his hand covering one of the puncture wounds from the senbon.

The Suna-boy wasn't smirking anymore, but he didn't look specially angered either. He looked...excited, in a malevolent kind of way.

"Heu. Not bad for a Konoha brat. How did you know it was a puppet?"

The Konoha nin smiled a little even though his eyes were squinted because of the pain.

"My genjutsu should have succeeded, the only way it wouldn't have was... if the one I was projecting it on wasn't human. The rest was only guesswork."

"And the strange sign?"

"A large range genjutsu. I didn't know if you were hiding with some kind of kekkai genkai or jutsu but you had to be inside the arena. The only thing I didn't take into account was the senbon. The second batch was poisoned isn't it?"

"Sure. If I were you. I'd ask for a medic pretty quickly. They are lethal if they aren't treated in the first ten minutes."

The Konoha-nin nodded and the exam proctor immediately ended the fight.

"Mmm". Kakashi mused next to her. "An interesting fight."

" True Sakura thought, but I' m getting more and more worried about the strength of our competition, both of these guys could have beat me easily".

The next fight was quick. Shikamaru demonstrated again how cunning he was and only a handful minutes passed between a moment he entered the arena and the moment he climbed the stairs back up to join his team. He really was a strange guy looking just as bored even at the moment of his victory.

Then it was a fight between the girl from the Hyuga's team and the girl from Sand. She winced when she saw how the girl was taken out brutally by her opponent and felt somewhat sad. She had felt an instantaneous kind of fellowship with her when she had met her before the first exam. They shared the same kind of wariness about their male teammate's constant arguing and overly loud rivalry.

Also, she felt even more tense. That girl from Sand was probably another opponent she wouldn't have been able to beat.

The ill-looking Jonin announced the next match between two fits of cough.

"Next match: Uzumaki Naruto against Inuzuka Kiba."

Naruto felt his blood boil the second he heard his name. A wide grin appeared on his face. His time had come. He heard Sakura wish him good luck and he almost missed it over the rush of his blood in his ears. He answered something loud and cheerful. Just before he turned away he met his sensei's gaze, the single dark eye starring into him. He used it to focus himself. "Be discreet" Kakashi had said. "Be careful". "You' re not stupid, you only forget that you have a brain sometimes". He walked down the stairs, trying not to rush. Kiba jumped down from the balustrade.

"Think" Naruto urged himself. "Analyze" a cold voice whispered in his ear, a voice that sounded like Sasuke.

Kiba was a good shinobi. One of the best in Taijutzu at the academy, he had his clan techniques and Akamaru. But in a way, him and Kiba, they were made of the same fabric. They were brawlers, they were hot-heads, they were pranksters. However, regarding the later if there was one thing all of Konoha would gladly agree on, was that he was unmistakably the master of that art.

"So dead-last ready to get your ass handed the boy shouted across the arena. I mean , this is so cool, it' s like we' ve already won Akamaru!"

"Shut the hell up mutt. And why the hell are you bringing a puppy, is that even allowed?"

"Idiot, he' s fighting with me. For an Inuzuka there is no fight without your companion dog."

The jonin confirmed Kiba's claim and both readied themselves. He could feel Kiba's eagerness like current under his skin. He would not lose his fight.

"Think" he repeated in his head.

"I will end you in one punch. He heard Kiba say."

Naruto gritted his teeth and forced his heartbeat to slow down. "Don't get angry, that' s always how Sasuke gets the upper hand", he thought.

Kiba was preparing a technique, some kind of henge. And then he came up to him, all sharp nails and feral grin, quick in a way he hadn't been a few month ago. But Naruto had had month to change too. The one technique Kakashi had hammered into him before the second task came to him without thinking. Building chakra up in his hands, wait for the perfect moment and just before the collision, release.

They were both thrown back by the momentum, Naruto without sustaining a scratch. Kiba was fixing a suspicious gaze on him.

The Inuzuka threw a smoke bomb and jumped away. Amidst the blinding fumes Naruto swore silently. This could be dangerous. Kiba was playing his strengths perfectly: Naruto couldn't see anything, Kiba didn't need to see anything.

"But I can still sense chakra", Naruto thought, and he was still terrible at it Kakashi said but that was better than nothing.

A second later he felt a presence jump at him and it didn't have any kind of human chakra. He caught Akamaru easily. "Think", "Press your advantage", "decipher the flow of the battle, what does your opponent expect". Certainly not what Naruto planned to throw at him. One henge and two clones. He would attack Kiba while taking his dog's appearance, the first clone was to hold said dog.

He ran up to Kiba on four legs. The boy had already noticed the slumped form of his opponent and welcomed his dog with open arms. He got a punch in the face instead and a second later an arm was holding him into a choking grip.

What Naruto had not anticipated was that Akamaru; sweet, cute Akamaru, could grow into a wolfish looking beast. In three leaps it was on him and he felt fangs ripping his jumpsuit. Kiba escaped and Naruto felt his disadvantage acutely.

There was no more time to think. Only reaction. A paw to the face. He dodged low on all four, jumped back, rolled, went up again, used a clone as a shield, felt more than saw a kick flying his way. He let himself fall forward, rolled, jumped again in a backward backflip. Used all the tricks of his mismatched fighting style that his teacher was no longer trying to correct but encouraged instead.

Kiba was seething.

At one point he realized that just dodging Kiba's attack would not work long enough. He slapped an explosive tag onto the ground. It bought him only a second, Kiba' s sharp nose picked the scent of fire, powder and ink the second he activated it and Akamaru's animal senses made him flee it. Not a solution. He was condemned to run. Shit, hadn't he said that he wouldn't run. That he would be the shield, the unmovable force on which the enemy crashed and behind which the allies were protected.

Kiba meanwhile must have thought enough was enough and activated a strange kind of transformation that let both him and Akamaru share some traits and now he had two feral creatures barreling at him in a rotating motion.

He should dodge.

Kakashi would probably tell him to dodge.

He should definitively dodge.

He concentrated all his chakra into his hands, let it build. Like tons of water pressing against a dam. Materialized three clones before him, nothing more than cannon fodder, and three behind as damper and waited for the impact.

He felt the explosive output of energy, felt himself be thrown back violently and roll into the dust.

Both of his arms hurt, he had felt the sheer strength of the impact down to his bones. Long, bleeding gashes ran down his arms from Kiba's claws and his entire left side throbbed from where it had crashed into the dirt. He saw Kiba's form lying at the bottom of the wall against which he had been projected.

Both had suffered from the collision. Naruto was still conscious, Kiba was not. Which meant...he had won. In one move he was back up on his feet and let out a loud shout, both arms thrown over his head. His legs almost buckled under him but he didn't' t care. He had made it. In front of all these people who had to recognize him as the winner. This right know was the first step to becoming the legend he dreamt to be. His eyes met the Hokage's and the old man's dark eyes were twinkling with mirth. He inclined his head lightly and Naruto smiled even wider. The Sandaime better watch out, soon enough he would have to find a new job.

Naruto, once officially declared victor, limped up the stairs more than he climbed them up. Sakura awaited him with a warm smile. Kakashi ruffled his hair. "We will have to teach you some other defensive jutsus, you seem to like them."

Sasuke only looked at him with his dark, angry eyes but just for once Naruto decided to ignore him and instead collapsed against the wall a few meters away from him.

Kakashi looks warmly at his student, his mask hiding a small smile. He was proud of Naruto and it was a truly strange and alien feeling for him. Pride for himself is something he hasn' t felt since he was his genins' age. It was quickly washed down by regret and old guilt. When he looks at them however he sees all the ways in which they have grown and thinks, hopes that at least a little bit of it was thanks to him. He is more than aware of his many lackings as a teacher, but he just may get some of his hopes back up if he is exposed too long to these three insufferable children.

He sees the young boy beam at the crowd of people who have been underestimating him for so long. Kakashi knows that most Jonin are taking note of his development, that the strongest genin are learning to see him as a worthy opponent. In the next few days a few seasoned shinobi will come see him and will say, in their shinobi-typical roundabout kind of way that the boy, the blond one, well, you know that one. They said he was hopeless, guess people were wrong.

He thinks he should tell the boy that but he doesn't know how to so he remains silent. He will buy Naruto ramen later.

He concentrates back onto the arena. The next match is about to begin. When he sees who will fight he feels an entirely different kind of tension fill him. He looks around the room and sees that most jonin are settling a worried gaze onto the opponents: The Hyuga boy on one side, long brown hair and unnerving clear eyes, a prodigy they say, the epitome of Konoha' s military power. On the other side a boy in a large black coat with hood was looking fixedly at his adversary. His dark gaze had something old and wary that spoke of difficult times past. Around his forehead, almost unnoticeable under his hood was the ame-headband.

Konoha had never had good relationships with Rain. The country these days was completely isolated from the rest of the world. The civil war had stopped seven years ago and since then Ame's elusive leader served as both its Kage and Daymo. Several minor skirmishes these last few years had raised tensions and when the Hokage had asked for a meeting with Ame's leader he had declined but offered to send a few participants to the genin exams. That had been two years ago in Konoha. Last year all genin from Ame had made it past the 2nd task, in the 3rd all of their opponents had been gravely injured, two of them had made chunin.

It had prompted a lot of talk. All Konoha shinobis had learnt to be warry of Ame-nins.

Today again the two countries' history hung like a third presence at the two opponents side. A history older than these two boys, older than Kakashi even. Hate and fear born at the time of his own father's youth. The second great shinobi war with Konoha and Uzugakure on one side and Suna and Iwa on the other had been fought mostly on Ame's territory and the local population had been the innocent collateral damage of a war between greater nations. It had been a strategic choice by the 2nd Hokage to avoid damage to the fire-country's civilian population. Ame's civilians had been an afterthought. When twenty years later Ame joined Iwa and Kiri to fight Konoha it had surprised no one. One could argue, Kakashi mused, that it served Konoha right. Kakashi remembered fighting Ame shinobi, remembers blind attacks in dark forests, smelling the acrid gasses that they were so found of, killing children younger than even he was after they threw themselves at him in a suicide attack.

He had to remind himself that that time was long past. These Ame-children maybe would lead different lives.

The fight was bloody. The Ame kid could summon leeches but against the Byakugan it was hard to employ tactics based on distraction. The Hyuga quickly found the other boys weakness and killed the one leach that mothered the others and after that, it was superior taijutzu skill against sheer determination and sense of duty. Every time the Hyuga landed a hit the Ame-nin stood up and attacked again. Blood was dripping from his lips and almost black bruises were blossoming all over his skin. Finally, the proctor had to end the fight and the Ame-boy fell to the ground.

Kakashi resented the dismissive words the Hyuga threw his opponent before leaving the arena and looked away when the Ame-boy tried to stand up again futilely to defend his country' s honor even at the cost of his own life.

God, they were messed up. The whole business was messed up and Ame especially.

An uncomfortable mood took hold of most older Shinobi. The next fight was a sand boy against a slightly older rain-nin. Again, the rain-boy lost against a stronger enemy. Again, he persevered, driving himself to the limit, a mad glint in his eyes.

Hayate ended the fight again.

Voilà!