After a seemingly endless string of D-ranks, the genin of Team 7 were finally on the way for some post-mission ramen when they were set upon by a familiar academy student.
"Oh, hey, Kuree-chan!" Naruto greeted Kuree, "What's up?"
"Naruto! Rezaa! You're gonna be chuunin!" the girl squeaked in excitement.
"Huh?" Naruto asked, "What do you mean?"
"Were you spying on the Hokage again?" Rezaa questioned instead.
"Uh, well, anyway, I heard the dog man signed you up for the Chuunin Exams!"
Naruto grinned, "Hell yeah! We're totally gonna win against these chuunin!"
Shou gave his teammate an unimpressed look, "You have no idea what the chuunin exams are, do you?"
The blond crossed his arms over his chest, "Of course I do!"
Kuree agreed, "Yeah, I bet Naruto-oniichan is gonna be chunin before you!" she hackled the Uchiha.
"Do you want to join us for ramen?" Rezaa asked her before Shou could start a fight with the eight-year-old.
"Yeah! Are you going to Ichiraku's? He's the best!"
Chuunin Exams forgotten, Naruto agreed loudly with the girl and the two dashed ahead to the ramen stand.
Shou scoffed, "We're never gonna pass those exams."
"I think we will," Rezaa told him. "A lot of it will include fighting. We're all good at that."
"Maybe. But there's no way Naruto will pass any written exams."
Rezaa shrugged, "Then we help him."
"You want to cheat in the chuunin exams?"
The smile that Rezaa gave him made him look very much like his father.
"It's not cheating if we don't get caught."
After the two blondes polished off an inhuman amount of ramen bowls, Team 7 and their tag-along made their way through the village to bring Kuree home.
As they were on their way, they came across two shinobi their age with foreign hitai-ates.
"I like your make-up!" Kuree told one of them.
It was a boy dressed completely in black, his face–the only part of him aside from his hands that was uncovered–was marked with numerous purple, triangular, stripes. That and the cat-eared hood he was wearing gave him a very feline look.
"Uh, thanks?" the boy replied.
"Why do you have a mummy on your back?" Naruto asked him, eyeing the boy's back curiously.
"I think the better question is what two shinobi from the Sand are doing in our village," said Shou. "Are you here for the Chuunin Exams?"
"Yeah, we are." the second shinobi replied.
She seemed to be around the same height as the boy (though it was hard to tell with his hood) and was carrying something on her back as well. Unlike her companion, her clothes were a light pink colour and covered a lot less of her skin.
Rezaa looked between the two of them. "We look forward to facing you in the exams," he told her diplomatically.
She looked him over, "You related to that copy-nin or something?"
Rezaa nodded, "He's my father and our team captain."
That earned him a nearly feral grin from the kunoichi, "Then I look forward to beating you."
"Who says you're gonna win?!" Naruto exclaimed in offence, "We're the best team ever, 'ttebayo!"
The cat-like boy huffed, "I doubt you punks could even keep up with our academy students."
While Naruto started to splutter in offence, Rezaa put a hand on Kuree's shoulder. She had gotten a contemplative look on her face after the academy students comment.
"No explosions," he told her, decidedly.
"I don't know what you're talking about," the girl looked up at him with big, innocent eyes.
Rezaa was not fooled.
Before he could continue (or Naruto could launch himself at the Sand-nin that kept spouting insults), another boy appeared, seemingly out of nowhere.
The boy was almost a full head shorter than the other two Suna shinobi and was also carrying something on his back (a big gourd), but despite his small stature and general physical meekness, the two immediately paused and stood straighter.
"You're an embarrassment to our village," he told them, voice oddly raspy for a child their age.
"R-right, sorry, Gaara," the boy apologized, pale-faced, "We were just-"
"Shut up, or I'll kill you."
The boy's jaw snapped shut with a click of his teeth.
"I'm sorry for any troubles they caused," Gaara told Team 7 over his shoulder as the Suna-nin followed his lead and started walking away from them.
"He's kinda scary," Kuree remarked when they were out of earshot.
"Yeah, what was his deal?" Naruto wondered.
Shou looked at the retreating genin, "I think they're the Kazekage's children."
Rezaa nodded, "That's why they knew about my father."
Both blondes looked at them in confusion.
"Genin don't usually learn about other village's ninjas until they make chuunin," Shou explained, "We're not supposed to deal with enemy ninjas yet. That's why Zabuza knew who Kakashi was but we didn't know who he was."
The Hatake nodded in agreement, "But as the Kazekage's children, they would have learned about their enemies while growing up since Suna's Kage title is passed down from parent to child. My grandfather killed a lot of Suna-nin during the Second War, so my family is not very well-liked there," he finished with a shrug.
"So your grandpa was a super cool shinobi too?" Naruto asked, "Man, having ninja clans like that must be nice."
Shou looked at his teammate as if he thought he was stupid (which he probably did). "You are from a ninja clan."
"What? No, I'm not."
"Uh, you are actually," Kuree told him.
"What?"
"The Uzumaki were a clan from the Village of Whirlpools. Konoha and Uzushio were allies up until its fall but Konoha still commemorates our fallen sister city by putting the Uzumaki spiral on all uniforms. You have it on your jumpsuit too," she pointed at the red spiral on Naruto's back.
"How do you not know any of this?" Shou questioned the gobsmacked blond.
"I- Well, no one ever told me."
"The Hokage is really weird about Uzumaki stuff," Kuree nodded, patting his arm in consolation, "That's why Dirukku-ojisan wasn't allowed to adopt you, I think."
"I guess we also never learned about Uzushio in the academy," Shou acquiesced, "I doubt most civilians know about it either."
Kuree nodded, "I only know because I asked Dirukku-ojisan until he told me about it."
"I wonder why Hokage-sama doesn't want people to know," Shou pondered.
"Well, whatever," Naruto decided with a defiant look on his face, "I don't need a clan to be Hokage! The Yondaime was a civilian too!"
Decision made, the four continued on their way.
Two days later, Team 7 was gathered in the Hatake residence. Kakashi had announced their participation in the Chuunin Exams to them the day before and was highly disappointed at having the surprise taken away from him.
(Petty as he was, he had made them run laps around Konoha to the point of utter exhaustion under the guise of training.)
Now they were intent on studying for the written part of the exam, which is why Shou had gone and gotten some reading material from his clan compound.
"What happened to you ?" Naruto questioned when the Uchiha showed up at the Hatake home looking completely dishevelled and with a slight trail of blood coming from his mouth.
"Nothing," Shou dismissed.
"You're lying!" Naruto insisted, poking at his teammate's arm.
Shou swatted his hand away in annoyance, "No, I'm not."
Naruto continued his poking. Rezaa looked at the Uchiha questioningly.
"Sasuke didn't agree with me taking the scrolls," he finally admitted. "But I have just as much of a right to them as he does."
Naruto looked at the material on the scrolls. They were all on topics he struggled with. "Did you get these for me?" he asked wide-eyed.
"Of course not," Shou denied, "I got them for me. But you can borrow them when I'm done."
"Right."
"Right."
Rezaa looked between his teammates before rolling his eyes and looking back at his own readings.
A week after finding out about the exams, it was time to meet up in the academy for the first stage
"There it is!" Naruto exclaimed as they reached the designated room.
Rezaa looked at the sign doubtfully before casting a quick Kai for himself and then his teammates.
"A genjutsu," Shou realized.
"Oh, right. Let's sneak past before anyone else notices!" Naruto decided, loudly.
Shou rolled his eyes but followed his teammate as the three of them walked past the crowd that had already gathered in front of the room.
As they left, a small group of people followed. They were lucky that Naruto had been dead-last in the academy and most people were hesitant to follow his lead, even with his teammates following him.
The staircase, as it turned out, contained a number of traps to deter them from easily making it to the third floor.
"Man, they really don't want us handing in our registrations, huh?" Naruto muttered as they finally made it.
"It is more so that they want to weed out the hopeless cases," Kakashi told him, appearing as if he had been waiting for them for at least half an eternity, even though they knew he had only just appeared.
"Kaka-sensei? What are you doing here?" the blond questioned.
"I am just here to tell you that I am proud of you, even if you don't pass the exams. I couldn't have asked for a better team."
"Aww yeah, sensei, we won't let you down!" Naruto promised.
"You won't regret signing us up," Rezaa agreed.
"Hn," Shou nodded.
With a last "Good luck", Kakashi stepped aside to let them enter the registration room. He was going to disappear before Gaia could arrive to greet his own genin.
Shou glared at the room full of people in front of them.
Naruto's eyes widened in surprise.
"There are a lot of people," Rezaa pointed out the obvious. They hadn't expected this much competition.
"You guys got signed up too?" a voice asked from beside them, "This is gonna be such a drag."
Team 7 turned to see another Konoha rookie team.
Rezaa looked questioningly from the strangers to Naruto.
"Oh, right, I forgot you didn't go to the academy with us. The pineapple-head is Nara Shikamaru–always complaining, never does anything about it, the laziest kid in the academy. The guy next to him is Akimichi Chouji, he's okay, I guess. His snacks are really tasty at least, I wonder where he gets them from."
"And I'm Yamanaka Ino," the third teammate said, brushing a long blonde ponytail over her shoulder, "I'm the best part of Team 10."
"I'm Hatake Rezaa," he introduced himself.
"Well, well, what do you know," a boy with a puppy on his head said as he approached with his team, "looks like my mom was right about there being a Hatake in the exams this year."
"You're Tsume-sama's son?" Rezaa questioned.
"Yeah, I'm Kiba."
"Rezaa."
Kiba motioned to his teammates, "And these are Hinata and Shino."
Both the Hatake and Inuzuka flinched when Ino suddenly gave a shrill yell and lunged towards to open door.
"Sasuke-kun! I missed your brooding good looks!"
Shou sighed when both Ino and Sakura started arguing about his brother.
"What's up, guys?" Benetto asked the group in lieu of paying attention to his teammates. "Looks like all of us rookies got signed up for this."
"We're totally gonna make chuunin this year!" Naruto exclaimed.
"It's gonna be fun," Kiba agreed, "at least for those of us good enough to make the cut, right Sasuke?"
Sasuke (having shaken Ino off) smirked back at the boy, "Kiba, careful you don't get overconfident."
"Just wait, we're gonna blow you guys away."
"Why is Sasuke-kun even talking to this guy?" Sakura questioned.
"Looks like you've got more competition," Shou deadpanned.
"What?" Sakura hissed.
"Come on, we need to stand in line to hand our forms in," Shou urged his team.
"Come back here!" Sakura demanded at the retreating Uchiha's back, "You can't just say things like that and not explain them!"
Shou soundly ignored her.
"Sorry, Sakura-chan, he's just a little weird sometimes," Naruto apologized for his teammate before following him.
"See you later," Rezaa nodded in goodbye before leaving as well.
They were eventually led into a different room by Morino Ibiki.
"That's the guy Ben-chan lives with," Naruto told his team, "he's a pretty cool guy usually, don't know why he's acting all weird."
"It'd an intimation tactic," Shou told him, "he wants to make us nervous."
Rezaa looked around the people around them, "It seems to be working."
Most of the other genin were looking very nervous at the prospect of spending any more time with Ibiki.
"Eyes up front," the man in question demanded when they were all seated. "There are a few rules you need to be aware of and I won't be answering any questions so pay attention!"
The test would begin with everyone having 10 points. The more answers you got wrong, the more points were deducted. If your team didn't have the required amount of total points–or you were caught cheating five times–you failed.
"You'll have one hour total," Ibiki bellowed, "Begin!"
Rezaa looked down at his sheet. The questions became harder and harder as they went along. The trivia questions came easy to him but he couldn't be entirely sure that he solved the math problem correctly. Either way, his score should be high enough to pass.
Similarly, Shou was answering most questions without a problem. He was better at solving numerical problems than his teammate but had some trouble with the cryptographic question.
Naruto, on the other hand, couldn't make heads or tails of the whole thing. He knew he should know this, he had been studying with his teammates for days! But no answer was coming to him. How was this possible? Maybe he should have followed one of his teammate's advice after all.
("Just write important things on your arm or something," Shou suggested. "Then you can check over it during the exam."
"That's the first place anyone would check!" Naruto exclaimed. "I stopped doing that a year into the academy!"
"What if you write it on your leg then?" Rezaa suggested.
Naruto gave him an incredulous look, "That's just as bad! How would I even see it?"
"You would have to wear shorter pants for the exam," Shou told him, "Then you could access it."
"Or wear a skirt," Rezaa suggested, "It's rude to look under other people's skirts. The proctor wouldn't be able to check."
"No, I think it would be allowed if the proctor was a woman," Shou denied.
"Are you sure? What if-"
"Have you guys never cheated before?!" Naruto exclaimed, interrupting the two of them.
Shou wrinkled his nose, "Of course not, I studied hard every day while we were in the academy."
Rezaa shook his head as well, "Tou-san doesn't like written tests. Most of my tests weren't things I could cheat on, even if I needed it."
Naruto took his head in his hands. Why did he have to be stuck with these stupid smart guys who didn't know how cheating worked.)
Thinking back on it, maybe it was better that he hadn't followed their advice. He would have probably been kicked out already if he had. Seriously, you'd think that two prodigies would be able to figure out a better way to cheat than a six-year-old could.
"Alright, listen up everyone," Ibiki suddenly broke through the tense silence, "Here's the last question."
He stepped towards the window of the room, "There are just a few more rules you need to know. Try not to get scared off," he smirked back at them, distorting the long scars on his face.
"Rule number one: you are free to not take the tenth question," he ignored the confused murmuring and continued, "Rule number two: if you don't take the tenth question, you and your teammates fail."
"What's that supposed to mean?" someone from behind Rezaa asked.
Someone else agreed, "Of course, we'll take the question then."
"Not so fast," the proctor chuckled, "Rule number three," he paused for dramatic effect, "if you fail the tenth question, you'll be banned from ever entering the Chuunin Exams again and remain a genin for the rest of your pitiful career."
"Bullshit!" Kiba yelled, "You can't do that!"
Ibiki laughed, "I can do what I want, kid. You guys were just unlucky enough to have me as your proctor. Now, everyone who doesn't want to risk it, raise your hand and leave."
After a moment of hesitation, hands started to rise in the air as genin began to leave.
"Anyone else want to leave?"
Both Rezaa and Shou looked questioningly at their teammate as he raised his hand. Ibiki, too, seemed surprised.
Then Naruto lowered his hand again, "Quit trying to scare us off!" the blond yelled, "I'm not scared and I'm not gonna run! Even if I remain a genin for the rest of my life, I'm still going to be Hokage!"
Their proctor grinned, "Well then, seems like you all… pass."
"What?" someone asked as Ibiki laughed to himself.
Naruto cheered, "Yeah! I totally knew it, dattebayo!"
Ibiki–whose face had transformed from a stoic mask to a cheerful grin–explained to them that the test was simulating both information-gathering missions and the choice between retreating or pushing on when it came to dangerous missions. Just as he was done talking, a cannonball came flying through the window.
Said cannonball then unfurled to reveal a purple-haired kunoichi with a dangerous glint in her eyes, "I'm Mitarashi Anko, the proctor for the second part of the Chuunin Exams! The next stage begins now!"