(Welcome to my next installment, readers. Hope you're ready for the exam kick off starting now.)
The next morning, Naruto had left his home and headed to the squad meeting point by the bridge. Upon arriving he saw his teammates already there.
"Morning, guys."
"Morning." they replied.
"Well, looks like sensei won't be here for awhile. Better do something to preoccupy myself." Naruto started bending the river water around creating all sorts of abstract forms.
"Well, at least it's some kind of entertainment." Sakura admitted, as she and Sasuke watched Naruto continue to bend the water into different forms.
An hour later, Kakashi arrived, "Hey, guys."
"So what's your excuse for being late this time?" Sasuke inquired, while crossing his arms.
"Actually, I swung by the administration building to pick these up for you." Kakashi held out three application forms, that he distributed to each of his genin.
Sakura looked at it, and was surprised, "Wait a minute, these are..."
"Applications for the Chunin Exams?" Naruto asked in shock.
"Whoa." Sasuke was equally surprised.
Kakashi eye smiled, "I've decided to nominate you three for this years Chunin Exams. You're welcome."
"Sensei, this is so generous of you." Sakura said feeling lost for words.
"Well, I'm confident enough you three will do fine. Now then you're to sign those forms and bring them to the Ninja Academy tomorrow."
"Hai, sensei." they answered.
"Well, I'll leave it all up to you." Kakashi said, as he took off.
The three looked at their application forms again, as Sakura spoke, "Wow. The Chunin Exams. An event that happens every three years."
"It gathers the best crop of shinobi from just about every village from the five great nations to even the lesser nations." Sasuke added.
"To partake in a serious of tests to determine ones strength and how they rank above other nations selected shinobi." Naruto finished, "It's the perfect opportunity to learn about other nations shinobi and pit your skills against ones with abilities you've never seen or heard about. I'm definitely joining."
"So am I." Sasuke added.
"And I will too." Sakura finished.
"Then it's decided." Naruto said, "But since it's not till tomorrow. What do we do for the rest of the day?"
Sasuke answered, "Why don't we go and see our competition?"
"What do you mean?" Sakura asked.
"If the first part is tomorrow, I can assume other shinobi will be arriving today."
Naruto remembered, "Of course. Yesterday I met up with three Sand shinobi from Suna who said they were here to partake in the Chunin Exams."
"What were they like?" Sakura inquired.
"One of them was a jerk, another was quite reasonable, and the third... He made me feel uneasy."
"How so?" Sasuke wondered.
"He felt similar to me in a sense."
"Similar to you?" Sakura asked in confusion.
"Yeah," Naruto said, and after a brief paused moment, he spoke, "Anyway, let's go see if anyone else has arrived yet." So the three hurried off.
Soon they were sitting on top of a roof each with binoculars and looked through them seeing the entrance to the village. Walking past the gate entrance were multiple shinobi in groups of three. Squad seven took notes of the participants entering, as Naruto spoke.
"Looks like we got some teams from Rain, Grass, and Waterfall."
Sasuke inspected, "And we got teams from Mist, Cloud, and Earth."
"And some more from Suna." Sakura pointed out.
"And with who knows how many shinobi from our village are participating this is sure to be one big competition." Naruto finished.
"Probably won't be too much trouble for you, Mr. Avatar." Sasuke joked.
Naruto looked at him, "Just because I'm the Avatar doesn't make me invincible."
"Speaking of, you think you'll be using your bending during the Chunin Exams?" Sakura inquired.
Naruto hearing that felt taken aback, having not thought about it, "Well, I'm not quite sure the village or the rest of the nations here are ready to know the Avatar has been found. So for the time being I will stick to normal or elemental jutsu... Unless things take a turn and calls for me to use my bending."
"Well, it's still early, what should we do right now?" Sakura asked.
"I think I'm going to go home and plan for tomorrow. You two should probably do the same." Sasuke suggested.
"We'll be sure to do that." Naruto replied.
"Later." Sasuke said, as he took his leave.
Naruto was prepared to leave, until Sakura took his hand, "Whoa! Sakura?" he looked at her.
Sakura looked up at Naruto, "Naruto, you think we could spend the day together, you and I?"
Naruto did a double blink, "Sakura, are you asking me on a date?"
Sakura felt embarrassed, "If I did, what would you say?"
Naruto smiled, as he pulled her up to her feet, much to her surprise, "I'd say I'd be delighted."
Sakura felt flustered, but smiled, "Thank you."
"Well, then. Let's go." Naruto said, as he and Sakura took off.
And so Naruto and Sakura took a walk through the park together enjoying the day, before stopping at Ichiraku to get a bite to eat. They sat at the counter each having a bowl of ramen.
Sakura started to make conversation, "So, you nervous about tomorrow?"
"Well, I'd be lying if I said 'no'," Naruto began, "I mean we may be going up against shinobi like Zabuza and Haku, maybe shinobi with surprising abilities like Karok. But I do have confidence we'll manage. What about you?" he inquired.
Sakura looked at him before looking down at her soup, "Well, the truth is I am worried."
"I'm listening." Naruto said, feeling open for discussion.
"It's just I'm worried about my worth as a shinobi," Sakura began, "I mean look at you and Sasuke. Sasuke has his family bloodline, you have your abilities. What much do I have?" she asked with a depressed sigh.
Naruto laid a hand on Sakura's hand, much to her surprise and looked at him seeing a warm smile adorned on his face, "Everyone has their strengths, Sakura. You just need to be patient. One day you will find your strength."
"But when?" Sakura asked.
"Have patience, Sakura. Good things come to those when they need it the most."
Sakura smiled, "Since when did you become so wise?"
"Blame my years up in the Air Temple with the monks." he joked, and the two laughed. As the two continued to enjoy their lunch, Teuchi and Ayame watched with smiles seeing how happy the two looked.
When the sun went down, Naruto had walked Sakura back to her place, "Well, this is it." Naruto said.
"Yeah." Sakura agreed.
"Hope you think hard about what I told you, Sakura."
"I will. Goodnight, Naruto." Sakura answered, and to her shock was pecked on the cheek by Naruto, leaving her flustered.
"Goodnight, Sakura." Naruto said, before using Airbending to propel himself up to a roof and hurried off from there.
Sakura stood there in shock, before resting her hand on the cheek Naruto kissed her. Her surprised look faded into a smile, as she looked out in the direction Naruto left.
'He sure is something special.' she thought, before going inside.
At Naruto's place, the boy was in a meditating position as his spiritual self was already in the spirit world. His spiritual self was currently having tea with Iroh, going over the events of what happened.
"It's such an honor to be chosen to participate in the Chunin Exams, Naruto," Iroh began, "Not many shinobi after graduating the academy are nominated like they used to be."
Naruto nodded, "Yeah. I heard my sensei became Chunin when he was younger than me."
"Just be careful, Naruto. The Chunin Exams are much more difficult than Ninja academy exams," Iroh warned him, "You and your team will have to be prepared for just about anything."
"I understand, Iroh." Naruto answered.
"Good. Now you best return to your body and get some sleep. Tomorrow's a big day."
"Yes, sir." Naruto said as he concentrated, and his spiritual self vanished back to his body.
Meanwhile somewhere in the forest area of the village, a figure in a cloak was walking before stopping. He saw a figure in the darkness leaning against a tree, "All is prepared, my lord. Tomorrow the Chunin Exams begin."
"Yes. You remember what you're supposed to do?" the figure asked in a slithery voice.
"I do."
"Excellent. I'll leave you to your job. Right now I have stuff of my own to prepare for."
"Yes, my lord." the one in the cloak said, as the other figure took his leave, while the cloaked one left as well.
(And that's the chapter. Don't miss next time where it's part one of the Chunin Exams.)