Here's the new chapter. The chunin exams begin.


She'd quickly realized what the first phase was about. They'd sent all the genin into one large room and told them to wait as the first phase would begin shortly. She'd noticed the proctors watching all the genin and noting down things on their notepad. She guessed that they were checking for genin who caused disturbances and weren't focusing on the mission at hand i.e the exams.

She checked her team's tools and had Kiba and Akamaru scout the other teams. According to them, the redheaded sand genin was dangerous, and his teammates weren't weak either. Their were a couple other genin who they felt were strong, like a Kiri hunter nin, a black haired Iwa kunoichi, a hyuga, and a couple of her own classmates, like Sasuke.

A glasses wearing konoha ninja had come up, introduced himself as Kabuto, and offered information on some of the participants of the exams. That seemed suspicious, but there was no harm in taking the info, so she asked about the redheaded sand nin, who she'd learnt was called Gaara. The info he'd shared agreed with Kiba and Akamaru's findings. This Gaara really was dangerous.

After that, Naruto had come to talk with Kiba, and they had Kabuto check which one of them had kicked more ass.

She rolled her eyes with a smile went and talked to Ino for a bit about how their teams had been. Apparently Naruto was actually a pretty cool guy, if a little rough-mannered. Chouji had come with her to talk to Shikamaru, and the two best friends caught up on each other's lives.

Shortly after, the proctors announced that the first phase was over and explained what it had been about. Chunin were expected to be capable of focusing on the mission at hand and not get carried away by personal vendettas, and were expected to be capable of noticing being observed by other ninja.

So her team had managed to get through the first phase without any trouble. None of the genin except maybe Gaara gave of the 'you can't touch me' feeling that Kakashi gave off either, so she didn't expect her team to fail.


The second stage had been very well suited to her team's skill set. Kiba and Akamaru could track down lone fighters and the weaker teams. She could use her limited sensing abilities and check for traps. And choji's attack could take out all their enemies in the right circumstances. The first team they found was Kabuto's team. She felt a little bad, since they were a Konoha team, but they went through with the attack. Kiba's surprise attack with Akamaru managed to take out one of them. Chouji had tried to follow up, but the other two dodged. Chouji decided to focus his attacks on Kabuto, who seemed to be able to dodge with ease, though he couldn't attack either.

She went up against the third guy. He had an interesting technique which let him absorb chakra. But he wasn't very good at taijutsu, and he only barely dodged her shuriken shadow clone jutsu. She used the distraction to close in and knock him out with a senbon. He'd managed to steal some of her chakra, but was knocked out in the process.

Kabuto then surrendered. It was a clean victory, but it seemed a little strange. It felt like Kabuto had been holding back. He'd managed to dodge the simultaneous attacks of her 3 teammates for a decent amount of time. He hadn't even thrown out a single counterattack. Sometimes he gave of a similar feeling to that of Kakashi. But they couldn't not accept a surrender. Maybe she was just wrong. The guy was just a genin.

Anyway, she was more curious about the chakra absorption jutsu. It seemed simple, though it probably needed natural ability to absorb as much as that guy had in an instant. But she didn't need to do that. If she figured out that technique, it could help fix her main weakness right now.


The second stage had started relatively well. They'd been given a heaven scroll and were told to climb up the 3 Wolves mountain and reach the top with 2 scrolls. They'd decided to focus on climbing the mountain while Shino looked for enemies to beat. They found the sound team, or rather they were found by them. But he liked their odds. The kunoichi didn't seem like much, Hinata could probably take her, which would be a good confidence booster. He figured that the guy with the metal arm was the strongest, so he decided to go for him. Shino could easily take the second guy. He signalled the plan to his teammates and blitzed the metal arm guy. The hit was blocked, which caused some sound to come out which caused his head to spin. He was able to retreat for a bit, and launched a fireball. No matter what that arm did, it probably couldn't block that. When the guy dodged the flame by jumping up, he managed to get under him and use a move he copied from Rock Lee. It was almost worth getting his ass kicked for that move. It managed to finish the metal arm guy. By that point both Shino and Hinata were done with their fights.

A pretty good result in his book, though he had to vomit for a bit to deal with the vertigo, which was embarrassing. While he was getting the scroll from him, which was thankfully a earth scroll, just what they needed. The metal arm guy croaked out "Orochimaru awaits your arrival." Of freaking course that guy had to get involved here. The seal on his neck had already been messing with him for months, and now he's getting involved in his chunin exams. What a pain. He kicked the guy shut and regrouped with his team. He'd worry about Orochimaru when he had the time to do so.


A/N

Hope you liked that. Have a bunch of stats below. I know this might be annoying, but it helps in keeping track of the power scaling and establishing the level each character is at at any moment. Next chapter, we'll see the matchups for the final round, which will be team vs team fights. It'll have all 4 kage spectating. It won't be starting next chapter though. Next will be setting up the one month training arc, which won't be fully shown. The tournament will start in the chapter after the next one.

Naruto Uzumaki

Ninjutsu: 3

Taijutsu: 3

Genjutsu: 1.5

Intelligence: 1.5

Strength: 3

Speed: 3

Stamina: 4

Hand Seals: 1

Total: 20

Notes: Incredible physical abilities and stamina due to special status. Can sense negative emotions. Beginning to master sensing abilities.

Shikamaru Nara

Ninjutsu: 2.5

Taijutsu: 1.5

Genjutsu: 2

Intelligence: 4.5

Strength: 1.5

Speed: 2

Stamina: 1.5

Hand Seals: 2.5

Total: 18

Notes: Incredibly clever, incredibly lazy. Needs to put in more effort. Surprisingly charismatic, natural leader.

Ino Yamanaka

Ninjutsu: 2.5

Taijutsu: 1.5

Genjutsu: 2

Intelligence: 2

Strength: 1.5

Speed: 2.5

Stamina: 2

Hand Seals: 2

Total: 16

Notes: Is smarter than she looks with good understanding of psychology.

Shino Aburame

Ninjutsu: 3

Taijutsu: 2

Genjutsu: 2

Intelligence: 3

Strength: 2

Speed: 2

Stamina: 2

Hand Seals: 2

Total: 18

Notes: Good skill with kikaichu and is smart. Has potential to use kidaichu. Is now a true all-rounder with no weaknesses.

Hinata Hyuga

Ninjutsu: 2

Taijutsu: 2.5

Genjutsu: 1.5

Intelligence: 2.5

Strength: 2

Speed: 2

Stamina: 2

Hand Seals: 2

Total: 15.5

Notes: Has the potential to get stronger but lacks the killer instinct. Also holds back due to self-doubt. Shows signs of improvement.

Kabuto Yakushi

Ninjutsu: 4

Taijutsu: 2.5

Genjutsu: 4.5

Intelligence: 6

Strength: 3

Speed: 4

Stamina: 3

Hand Seals: 4.5

Total: 31.5

Notes: Highly intelligent, excellent liar and spy. Good combat sense. High-level medic.

Yoroi Akado

Ninjutsu: 2

Taijutsu: 2.5

Genjutsu: 2

Intelligence: 1

Strength: 3

Speed: 2

Stamina: 2

Hand Seals: 1

Total: 15.5

Notes: Can absorb chakra.

Misumi Tsurugi

Ninjutsu: 2

Taijutsu: 2.5

Genjutsu: 2

Intelligence: 1.5

Strength: 2

Speed: 2.5

Stamina: 2

Hand Seals: 1

Total: 15.5

Notes: Can stretch his body and wrap around targets. Still carries risk of breaking bones.

Rock Lee

Ninjutsu: 0.5

Taijutsu: 3.5

Genjutsu: 0.5

Intelligence: 1.5

Strength: 3

Speed: 4

Stamina: 3

Hand Seals: 1

Total: 17

Notes: Relies almost entirely on taijutsu.

Dosu Kinuta

Ninjutsu: 2.5

Taijutsu: 2.5

Genjutsu: 1.5

Intelligence: 2.5

Strength: 1.5

Speed: 3

Stamina: 2

Hand Seals: 1

Total: 16.5

Notes:Has a powerful gimmick in his metal arm, but is far less effective once gimmick is found out.

Zaku Abumi

Ninjutsu: 3.5

Taijutsu: 2

Genjutsu: 2

Intelligence: 1

Strength: 1.5

Speed: 2.5

Stamina: 1.5

Hand Seals: 1

Total: 15

Notes: Has a powerful jutsu, but is reliant on it.

Kin

Ninjutsu: 2

Taijutsu: 1.5

Genjutsu: 2

Intelligence: 1.5

Strength: 1.5

Speed: 2

Stamina: 1.5

Hand Seals: 1.5

Total: 13.5

Notes: No special techniques, other than one sound based genjutsu.