(And here I am with another installment. Hope you're all ready for the beginning of the Chunin Exams.)

Morning came, and it was the first day of the Chunin Exams. Naruto got up and got ready for the big day.

After leaving his house he was walking through the village on his way to the academy. As he walked down the road, Sakura came from around a corner and started walking at Naruto's side at the same pace. The two looked at each other and smiled knowing they were both excited for the big event.

Soon enough, coming from around another corner was Sasuke who joined the other two. As he walked on Naruto's other side, the two boys looked to each other and smirked, before doing a fist bump.

"I wonder what kind of competition we're going to have?" Sakura wondered.

"Hopefully they're challenging opponents." Sasuke answered.

"So do I," Naruto replied, "After seeing guys like Zabuza, Haku, and Karok, I wonder how many other guys could compare to them?"

"Guess we'll find out soon enough." Sakura said, as they approached the ninja academy building.

After submitting their forms at the entrance, they walked inside and saw a crowd of people gathered in the hall trying to get into a room, but two other shinobi kept blocking them.

"What the hells going on here?" Naruto asked.

Sakura looked up and saw the sign above the doorway read a room for the third floor, "It's a trick."

The two boys looked up and saw the sign, seeing Sakura was right. Deciding to break this up, Naruto approached, "You're all waiting around for nothing."

"What do you mean?" a shinobi asked.

"This isn't the right room we're supposed to go to." Sasuke answered.

"Behold." Sakura used the release technique and the sign above showed it was for the second floor.

Everyone present felt embarrassed for falling for such an obvious trick, while squad seven walked past them. One shinobi took notice of this and looked interested.

On the next floor, Squad Seven had reached an indoor training area before being called out from above in the balcony.

"You down there!"

They looked up seeing a boy with black hair in a soup bowl cut and bushy eyebrows. He was wearing a green leotard tape wrapping around his hands, and around the bottom of his knees were orange leg warmers. He jumped down from the balcony and landed perfectly on his feet.

"Who're you?" Naruto asked.

"I am Rock Lee," he looked to Sasuke, "And you are Sasuke Uchiha, correct?"

"I am. What of it?" Sasuke answered.

"I have heard you Uchiha were natural born prodigies," Lee began, "I wish to test your skill against mine. So we can see that hard work and determination surpasses those born with talent."

"What? But we can't do this now, the exams will be starting soon." Sakura warned them.

Sasuke answered to Lee, "My teammate is right on that, but I don't have any reason to fight you."

"What?" Lee gasped, "You dishonor my request?"

"If you wanna fight someone you should fight my teammate, Naruto," Sasuke motioned to Naruto who in turn looked surprised, "He'd make a better challenge for you."

Lee turned to Naruto, "Is this so?"

Naruto deciding to play along spoke up, "Yes, he's right. My name is Naruto Uzumaki. And if it's a spar you want, I'd be more than happy to oblige."

Lee reluctantly answered, "Very well. We shall use only our basic hand to hand skills."

"Fine by me." Naruto smirked.

"Then come." Lee beckoned him.

Naruto smirked, as he and Lee charged and fought hand to hand. Sakura and Sasuke stood back watching the fight play out.

Sakura saw how fast both Naruto and Lee were moving while intercepting each others attacks, "Sasuke, look at them move."

"I know. That Rock Lee is fast." Sasuke admitted.

"And yet Naruto is still keeping on his feet." Sakura added.

As the two boys fought, Naruto thought to himself, 'This guy's good. If he had to train his ass off to get this strong then he's seriously a worthy opponent.'

Lee himself was deep in thought, 'This Naruto is a quick one. I haven't fought someone this good since Neji.'

As Naruto and Lee were about to exchange one final blow, they were quickly blocked by an adult man who looked like an older version of Lee only was wearing a Chunin jacket.

Sasuke and Sakura gasped at the man's sudden appearance, and how he was able to block both boys attacks.

Naruto and Lee stood down, as the man in between them spoke, "Pack it in, you two. Save some of that hype for the competition."

"Guy-sensei." Lee gasped.

"Who're you?" Naruto asked.

"I am Might Guy, Konoha's Beautiful Green Beast!" he explained dramatically, before giving a thumb's up, followed by a ping sound from his grinning smile.

Sakura and Sasuke looked disturbed by the man's dramatic introduction, as the man continued, "And if I'm not mistaking, you're Kakashi's squad, aren't ya?"

"We are," Sakura confirmed, "Do you know him?"

"Kakashi? He and I are eternal rivals." Guy boasted with pride.

"Sensei's never mentioned having an eternal rival." Naruto replied, as Guy face faulted.

"Ooh, Kakashi, your coolness always prevails!" Guy ranted, before calming down, "I apologize for Lee's interruption. My student is always eager to prove himself to an opponent. Lee, what do you say now?"

Lee nodded and bowed his head to Naruto, "I apologize for holding us both up. You are a worthy opponent, Naruto Uzumaki. I hope we can have a proper battle someday."

"Thanks. And I do too." Naruto answered.

So Lee and Guy left Squad Seven, as Sakura asked the blonde, "You ok?"

"Never better, Sakura. That was quite a workout to pump me up for whoever I get to fight next," Naruto flexed his arms, before turning to Sasuke, "Though did you really mean about me being a better challenge to Lee, or were you just trying to pawn the challenge off on me?" he asked suspiciously.

Sasuke shrugged, "A little bit of both."

Naruto rolled his eyes, as the three pressed on before spotting Kakashi waiting for them in front of a class room door.

"Sensei?" they asked.

"Good to see you all made it." Kakashi greeted them.

"What're you doing here?" Sasuke inquired.

"I just wanted to wish you all the best of luck, and no matter what happens I couldn't be more proud than to be your sensei." the jonin eye smiled.

The three genin smiled at their sensei, as he walked away leaving them to join the rest of the competition inside the next room.

Upon entering the room, they stood by the doors seeing the room was cluttered with shinobi from various nations including ones from their own village. They saw all the competition bore gruff and serious looks on their faces.

"Quite a gathering, wouldn't ya say?" Naruto asked his team.

"I knew there was going to be a lot of competition, but seeing it for myself feels edgy." Sakura said, as she felt nervous.

"Hey, guys!" came a voice.

Squad Seven looked over, and saw Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji approach, "Ino!" Sakura called, as the girls embraced.

"So you're here too, huh?" Naruto asked Shikamaru and Chouji.

"Unfortunately." Shikamaru sighed.

"Sounds like you don't even wanna be here." Naruto joked.

"I don't. But if I denied I would've gotten an earful from my mom and you can imagine the headaches from that."

"Point." Naruto agreed.

"Well-well, look who's here," came another voice. The two teams looked and saw Kiba, Hinata, ans Shino approach, "Now this is what I call a reunion." Kiba said.

"It's good to see you all again." Hinata greeted them, while Shino kept silent.

"Even you guys?" Shikamaru asked Squad Eight, "Jeez, so troublesome."

"Aw quit complaining Shikamaru. Save that for when we blow you guys away." Kiba said smugly.

"Don't bite off more than you can chew, Kiba." Naruto warned him.

"Oh, who asked you, Naruto?!" Kiba snapped, as Akamaru gave a bark.

"Kiba, do you want to start a scene?" Shino hushed him. Kiba growled, but backed off.

"Hey, over there!" came yet another voice. The three looked over seeing a white haired bespectacled Konoha shinobi come over, "Based off your behaviors you nine are genin fresh out of the academy aren't ya?" he asked.

"Yeah, so?" Kiba asked.

"I'd listen to your teammate there and not start a scene. Drawing attention to yourselves is a bad move." he warned Kiba.

"And who're you?" Ino inquired.

"My name's Kabuto Yakushi, and this actually isn't my first time here."

"It isn't?" Sakura asked.

"Nope, I've actually taken this exam a few times."

"And you haven't passed?" Chouji asked in surprise.

"Unfortunately."

"Guess the Chunin Exams are tougher than we thought." Hinata said in worry.

"This is just great." Shikamaru sighed.

"Tell you what, how about I give you some inside tips with my ninja info cards?" Kabuto whipped out a deck of cards.

"What're those?" Sasuke inquired.

"These cards each contain a certain piece of information on the Chunin Exams I've gathered during each of my tries." Kabuto pulled out one card and upon channeling his chakra to it revealed a map of the ninja land.

"What's this one?" Ino wondered.

"This card contains the number of participants send from the nations participating in this years Chunin Exams."

"Based off everyone in this room, we know there's plenty," Naruto said before squinting at one of the villages and low amount of shinobi sent, "What's with that village?"

Kabuto looked down seeing the village Naruto was questioning has a musical note symbol next to it, "Oh, that's the hidden Sound Village."

"Hidden Sound Village? How come they sent the least number of participants?" Naruto wondered.

"Because it's relatively new and not as known as well some of the other lower countries."

Naruto curiously spoke up, "Kabuto, do you have information on the candidates for this years competition?"

Kabuto looked up at Naruto, "Oh, do you have someone in mind?"

"As a matter of fact I do."

"Well, actually I do. I have info on every competitor even you guys," Kabuto answered, "Although I can't guarantee everything's perfect, but I do have basics. Just tell me who you want and I'll see what I can whip up."

"Sabaku no Gaara of Suna." Naruto answered.

"I see. Well, all right. Just give me a sec." Kabuto looked through his deck.

Sakura whispered to Naruto, "Naruto, who is this Gaara you want to know about?"

"I met him two days ago here in the village. There's something about him that has me curious. So I'm hoping I can get some answers."

Kabuto picked out a card, "Ok, here we go. Sabaku no Gaara," he revealed the information on Gaara, and read the contents, "Teammates and siblings are Kankuro and Temari. Mission experience include eight C-ranks, and one B-rank. There's not too much other information on this guy, but one thing. He survived every mission without getting a single scratch on him."

The nine genin looked shocked, as Sasuke spoke, "A genin doing a B-rank mission without even getting injured?"

"Is that even possible?" Ino asked in equal shock.

"Hmm." Naruto pondered on this piece of information, but didn't have enough time to think on it, as he felt something was about to nail him. He spun and whipped out his staff and twirled it. The rookies and Kabuto were startled at Naruto's action, before he revealed some needles embedded into his staff.

"Who did that?" Sakura asked.

They looked ahead seeing three genin presenting themselves. The first was a boy with spiky black hair, the second was a girl with long black hair going down her back, and the third was a boy who's face was wrapped in cloth save for one eye. All three wore headbands with the Sound Village symbol.

"What the hell's your problem?!" Naruto demanded in anger.

The first boy spoke like a smart allec, "We just felt like the place was getting too serious. So we decided to liven things up."

Naruto's eyes tightened, and answered, "You three better watch yourselves."

"Or what?" the girl challenged him.

Naruto aimed his staff at them, "Otherwise, I'm gonna have to open a can of beat your asses to a pulp!"

"We'd like to see you try." the mummy one replied.

Suddenly in a poof of smoke appeared a towering man dressed in black. He looked at both sides, "All of you stand down and shut up! Any misconduct and you'll find yourselves out of here!" he shouted.

The three Sound genin and Naruto backed off, as the Avatar put his staff on his back again. The man saw he had their attention and continued, "Good. Now listen up. My name's Ibiki Morino, and I will be your proctor for stage one of the Chunin Exams. Got it?" there were no objections, so he continued, "Good. Now everyone form a line and you will be given a seating number and your written exam. And then... The fun begins." he smirked.

(And there you have it. The exams have just begun, and already competition and sparks are flaring. Don't miss next time readers.)