Chunin Exam Starts

More time passed as I continued to train both by myself and with my team. We hadn't been sent out on a new mission after our A-rank one, so most of my time was devoted to refining my abilities.

One of the things I had been ingesting to strengthen my body was calcium. I had built up an incredibly large reserve of calcium in my body, which meant that I had finally been able to begin working on new techniques.

Using the calcium, I manipulated my body so that I could grow bones out of anywhere on my body, to either form weapons or bone armor around myself. I was essentially replicating Kimmiaro's kekkai genkai with my control. With the new variability in battle this ability gave me, I began practicing the speed at which I could produce bones and how to fight with the extended reach and unpredictability of attacks the bone growth provided me.

Other than that, I generally improved my arsenal of jutsu. Kakashi taught me a couple of jutsu from each element, which helped to expand my versatility. As always, I continued to refine my Lightning Armor, making it thicker and increasing my speed even more. It was my biggest trump card at the moment.

I was walking through the village when I heard yelling. Moving towards where I heard it, I found Naruto and Sakura looking at a couple of teenagers with Sand headbands, one of which was holding Konohamaru.

"So the Chunin Exams are starting soon." I said as I walked up.

"Sasuke, what are you doing here? And what are the Chunin Exams." Naruto asked.

"I was passing by when I heard the commotion you were making. As for the Chunin Exams, they're exams held to determine which Genin get promoted to the rank of Chunin. Ninja from foreign villages come to participate, with Konoha hosting this year. The ones this year must be pretty dumb, though, to attack the Third Hokage's grandson."

As soon as Kankuro heard that, he dropped the kid, who proceeded to run behind Naruto.

"Anyways, you in the tree, what's your name." I said.

From the tree dropped a kid our age with red hair and a giant gourd on his back.

"Gg-aara..." Kankuro stuttered.

"Kankuro, shut up or I'll kill you." Gaara said.

He turned to me before saying "I am Gaara of the Desert. What is your name?"

"Sasuke Uchiha."

"You will prove my existence, Sasuke Uchiha." Gaara said before leaving in a sand shunshin with his siblings.

"Hey, why didn't he ask my name?" Naruto yelled.

Without dignifying that with a response, I left in a shunshin to return to training.

The next day, I headed to Training Ground 7 to meet up with my team. When I got there, Sakura and Naruto were waiting. We waited a little longer, until Kakashi arrived.

"I have nominated you three for the Chunin Exams. Fill out these forms if you wish to participate and head to the school tomorrow at 7." Kakashi said before vanishing again.

"Cool, these exams will give me a chance to prove myself to everybody." Naruto exclaimed.

"Are you sure we shouldn't wait another year to take them?" Sakura asked nervously.

"No, it will be fine. We can work as a team, if we work together I'm sure it will be fine." I said.

'I can't have Sakura not showing up. She's not holding me back from the Chunin Exams, if she needs some fake encouragement, so be it.'

With that said, we all left to train before tomorrow would come.

I showed up to the school at 5 minutes to 7. Waiting outside was Sakura. Walking over to her, I greeted her and we both waited for Naruto to show up. He did in a minute, and we all walked in. Seeing the crowd that had formed outside the wrong door, I grabbed Naruto and Sakura and pulled them with me past the door. As we were walking towards the correct door, Rock Lee jumped in front of me.

"You are Sasuke Uchiha, are you not." Lee said.

"I am, what of it."

"I wish to challenge you to a fight."

"Save it for the Chunin Exams, I'm not wasting energy now when the exams haven't even started yet." I said before pushing past him and heading in the door. Naruto and Sakura followed after me, and we found Kakashi waiting for us.

"So you all decided to take it. That's good, the exam is designed for teams of three, if one of you hadn't taken it, none of you would've been able to."

Kakashi said his piece and left, so we all walked in the door. When we entered, we found everyone in the room glaring at us and flaring whatever meager killing intent they could. Ignoring it, I began to walk forward before I sense someone jumping towards me. Taking a step to the right, Ino went flying headfirst into the floor.

Standing up and rubbing her head, she said "Sasuke, why did you dodge my hug."

"Hn" was all the response I dignified the fangirl with.

"Hahaha Ino-pig, looks like Sasuke doesn't like you." Sakura cheered.

"I don't like you either Sakura." I said.

Sakura's had a depressed look on her face as Ino jeered in her face instead.

Shikamaru and Choji came in the door.

"So you all are taking the exams too. What a drag." Shikamaru said.

Team 8 arrived with Hinata, Kiba, and Shino.

Everyone started talking, but I tuned them out until Kabuto took the chance to insert himself.

"You all are rooking right? Would you like some information about the competition."

"What kind of information?" Naruto asked.

Kabuto took out his cards, showing them to the group and saying "These are my nin-info cards. I have information on all of the contestants this year."

"So you're experienced then?" Kiba asked.

"I've taken the exam 7 times." Kabuto responded.

Everyone looked shocked it had taken him that many tries, but I finally chimed in saying "Show me Gaara of the Desert."

Pulling out a card, Kabuto responded. "Gaara of the Desert. He's the same age as you from the sand village. He's done 8 c-rank missions and, get this, one B-rank mission. He's returned from all of his missions without taking any damage."

"Woah, he did a B-rank without taking damage." Naruto said.

Kiba took this chance to step forward.

"Show me Sasuke Uchiha."

I wasn't surprised he asked about me, but he was kind of bold to do it right in front of me.

Kabuto pulled out a card and read it out.

"Sasuke Uchiha. Member of the Uchiha Clan, so most likely has access to the sharingan. He's done 20-D Rank missions and, woah, one A-Rank mission."

"When the hell did you guys do an A-Rank mission." Kiba asked.

"Our C-Rank turned into an A-Rank." was my reply.

"What about the sound village?" I ask.

"I don't have much information on them. They're a small village and not really worth mentioning." Kabuto replied.

The sound ninja took this opportunity to stand up and move towards Kabuto.

"What about us is not worth mentioning." One with bandages covering his face said before he swung at Kabuto. Kabuto dodged and moved back, but his glasses still shatter.

Ibiki takes this opportunity to walk in and say "Sit down and shut up."

Everyone moved to the seat they were assigned, although I noticed Kabuto walking a little funny at first.

From there, the first stage of the chunin exams passed exactly like it did in the anime. I used my sharingan to cheat, while Sakura knew the answers and Naruto just didn't answer anything. Finally, the tenth question came.

"First, you need to choose whether or not you'll take the tenth question." Ibiki said.

"Why wouldn't we take it?" Temari asked.

"If you choose not to take it, your score will be 0, but if you do take it and get it wrong, you will never be able to take the chunin exams again."

Everybody let out a noise at that, but I was confused on why anyone from another village would even believe that.

'It would be impossible for Konoha to somehow bar every other village from taking the exams again. No one has anywhere near that kind of authority.'

"Those who will not be taking the question, raise your hands. If one person from a team leaves, the rest of the team must as well." Ibiki said.

From there more and more people raised there hands. I could see Naruto twitching and Sakura looking like she was about to raise her hand. Naruto quickly stopped that by making a big scene about how even if he was a Genin forever he'd still be Hokage.

'You know, this is pretty ironic when you consider he went directly from Genin to Hokage anyway.'

With Naruto's outburst, most of the people thinking about raising their hands stopped. After a small amount of time passed, Ibiki said "For those who are still here... You have passed the first exam."

"What!" A lot of people yelled.

"The nine questions were to test your information gathering skills. Information can be more valuable than your life." As he said that he reached up and untied his headband, revealing his scarred head to the world.

"The last question was focused on testing your resolve." before he could get any further, the window shattered and a woman flew through it.

She rolled to the ground before standing up and saying "The sexy and single Anko Mitarashi has arrived."

Ibiki sighed and said "Anko you're early."

Anko looked around before saying "Damn Ibiki, this many left, you must be getting soft."

"No, this is just an exceptional batch." Ibiki replied.

Anko shrugged before turning to us and saying "I'm the proctor for the second part of the exams. Everyone head to Training Ground 44, don't be late."

She then jumps back out the window. Standing up, I move towards the window as well, with Naruto and Sakura following me. We quickly arrive at the Forest of Death and stand around while we wait for everyone else to arrive.

Looking at Anko, I couldn't see the curse mark on her, it was covered by her trench coat.

'Orochimaru should try to give me the curse mark in the forest. He shouldn't be able to even pierce my skin at this point, so I doubt he could give it to me. Even if he could somehow pierce my skin, I could just eliminate it with my control of my body. I doubt Orochimaru will care that much, he still wants and Uchiha body, but if he decides he doesn't need me anymore my plans will have to change.'

Eventually everyone else arrived and Anko began speaking. "Welcome to the second part of the Chunin Exams. For this portion of the exam, you will be entering the forest aptly named the Forest of Death behind me. Each team will be given either a heaven or earth scroll and to pass you must have one of each scroll. You can use any method to obtain the scroll, so do whatever you want. In order to participate in this portion, however, you must sign this release form so Konoha will not be held responsible if you die."

She quickly designated two people to pass out the forms. We all signed them when Naruto piped up and said "It can't be that dangerous."

Turning towards him, she said "Well you sure are energetic" and threw a kunai past him. Then she used Shunshin to appear behind him. "Boys like you die the fastest."

Suddenly she pulled out a kunai and turned to find a Genin from Kusagakure with the Kunai she had thrown. She had her tongue extremely far outside her body holding the Kunai and said "Here's your knife."

'Well that Jutsu has to have many uses. One more very good reason to go to Orochimaru.'

Anko took the knife and returned to her position, and began handing each team an envelope with their scroll inside, so that the other teams couldn't see who had what scroll. We were then taken to separate entrances to the forest and told to enter.

Once we were a little ways into the forest, I stopped and turned to Naruto and Sakura. "We need to find a team quickly. Naruto, make some shadow clones and send them out to find people near us."

"But I won't know what they find." Naruto said.

My eye twitched as I remembered he somehow doesn't notice he's getting the clones memories.

"The shadow clone technique is such a good technique because the user gets the memories of the clones back."

"Wow, really that's so cool." Naruto said. He then formed 15 clones which jumped in different directions.

"We can stay here and wait for Naruto's clones to give us information."

We found a good hollow tree and entered to camp out in it. While we were waiting for his clones, I said "I'm going to go use the restroom."

'I want to deal with the Orochimaru fight by myself. We're not going to win anyway, so it's better if I get it over with by myself so that they can tell anyone I came into contact with Orochimaru.'

Walking away from where Naruto and Sakura were, I began moving quickly through the trees until I heard sounds of fighting. Heading to where those sounds were, I found Team 8 in a fight with some Rain ninja. Watching the fight, Hinata was doing well fighting them, but she looked like she was holding back as well. Shino had one on the ground having his Chakra drained by his bugs, while Kiba was charging towards the last one. The Rain ninja dodged his charge, however, and quickly put his arm around Kiba's neck, holding a Kunai to it.

"Don't move or the mutt is dead."

Hinata instantly stopped fighting, while Shino was much more hesitant, but moved his bugs off of the guy.

"Hand over the scroll and your friend doesn't die."

Hinata didn't hesitate to reach into her bag and go for the scroll, but I could see the Rain ninja reaching behind him and placing a seal on Kiba.

Pushing off the ground, I blitzed the Rain genin, slitting his throat as I passed by him quickly. Turning around, I moved to Kiba and cut the portion of his jacket with the seal off, throwing it away from us.

"Sasuke! What are you doing here? And why'd you cut my jacket?" Kiba asked.

Holding my finger up, I waited a few more seconds before an explosion was heard. Kiba's face turned white at that.

"Come on, grab their scroll and let's move, everyone nearby will have heard that explosion."

Shino reacted the fastest and moved towards the Rain genin, one of which was unconscious from lack of Chakra, while the other was on the ground due to Hinata closing his chakra points. He picked up the scroll from their bag, with it being a earth scroll. I didn't know if that was the one they needed, but Hinata looked happy so I assumed it was.

We quickly tree hopped away from the area. Once we were far enough away, we stopped and I turned towards Team 8.

"So what the hell was that."

"What do you mean what the hell was that?" Kiba asked.

"I mean that you all just almost died because of what you did."

"What do you mean Sasuke?" Hinata asked shyly.

Sighing, I said "If Hinata had given the scroll to them and they had given you Kiba you all would've blown up, not just Kiba."

Hinata's eyes widened while Shino remained stoic. He probably already realized that.

"And the only reason you guys even got into that situation was the way you fought. Hinata held back because she didn't want to hurt the enemy. She could've taken them both down much faster if she had just gone for the kill, or even quick incapacitation. And Kiba just charged in with no thought and got captured."

"Hey, I might've charged in, but Hinata did fine." Kiba said.

Turning towards Hinata, I said "You were holding back. You didn't want to hurt them. If you keep holding back or not putting your all into this, either you or people you know are going to die. You could get by in the academy because the female side of our graduating class was pitiful, but that's not going to work in the real world."

I stared at Hinata as she looked at the ground. After a few seconds, she looked back up at me with a resolved look on her face.

"I'll try." Hinata said.

Shrugging my shoulders, I said "We'll see."

Before anyone else could say anything, a giant snake suddenly came from above us.

'Shit, I forgot about Orochimaru while I was rescuing them.' We all jumped out of the way, and as we did I formed hand signs.

'Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu.' The smaller fireballs flew towards the snake, creating a smokescreen for us to escape out of the way. We made it up to a higher branch, to find a woman fading out of the tree. Suddenly, a heavy pressure assaulted us.

Kiba started shaking and fell to his knees, while Shino was holding up a lot better, but was still shaking. Hinata, even if she didn't act like it, had been trained by the Hyuga clan to resist killing intent so she wouldn't freeze up on a mission. The Uchiha clan had been wiped out before I could undergo that training, so I had to clamp down on my emotions so I wouldn't react.

Orochimaru began walking towards us.

"We need to run, now." but before I could try to get Kiba and Shino to move, Orochimaru charged us with a kunai. I dodged out of the way, with Hinata doing the same.

Orochimaru chased me instead of Hinata, so I called out "Hinata, grab those two and run, I can escape by myself." Without waiting for a response, I activated my sharingan. I had to devote my entire focus to trying to dodge. Even if I knew Orochimaru wasn't trying to kill me, I didn't want to test what would happen if he could break through my skin to give me the curse mark for no reason.

Orochimaru's body became serpentine as he continued to follow me. As she got close, we got into a taijutsu fight, but I could tell he was holding back and just testing how far along I was. After a few exchanged, he punched me solidly in the face, although it didn't do anything to me due to how strong my skin was now.

"Well isn't that interesting, what have you done to make your skin that strong I wonder. I will enjoy studying this immensely."

Jumping away from him, I formed the hand signs and shot a fireball at his face. He just broke through it and rushed me, pushing me up against the tree, with his arm barring my neck.

"You've entertained me, why don't I give you a little gift."

His neck extended and reach forward with his fangs barred. As soon as the fangs came into contact with my neck, the fangs broke. Orochimaru didn't look displeased, however, instead he looked excited.

"I'll just have to try a different method then."

'Fuck, he has a different way to apply it.'

Before he could do anything, however, he suddenly jumped into the air. In front of me stood Hinata, with her hands outstretched lit up in Chakra.

"I thought I told you to get out of here." I said.

"You said I'd have to be more decisive, my teammates will be okay she seems focused on you." Hinata replied a little more confidently than usual.

'Well I didn't expect that, she'll be a lot more help than Sakura and I might be able to avoid whatever the other method he has then.'

Orochimaru stood vertically on the tree a little way above us. "Well would you look at that, the Hyuga and Uchiha working together. Fugaku is rolling over in his grave."

Ignoring him, I activated my Lightning Chakra Mode. Hinata looked surprised next to me, but she soon focused in and the veins around her eyes flared as she activated her Byakugan.

In a flash I charged Orochimaru and appeared behind him, throwing a punch. I punched him, throwing him down towards Hinata, who threw a flurry of palms strikes as Orochimaru arrived where she was. Each palm made contact, 32 of them, before Orochimaru fell to the ground.

Orochimaru's mouth opened, spitting out a new version of him without the fake Grass genin appearance. "Let's see what happens when I get rid of the Hyuga." He thrust towards Hinata with a kunai, but I appeared in front of her, blocking Orochimaru's kunai. He reacted quickly, however, and threw a foot around towards the back of my head. I dodged it and grabbed Hinata gaining some distance from Orochimaru.

"I think I've gotten a good enough look at your abilities Sasuke." Orochimaru said, before he charged at me much quicker than he did before. As I watched him charge me, he started moving slower in my eyes. Unknown to me at the time, a third tomoe appeared in each of my sharingan. He moved insanely quickly, however, and appeared in front of me.

Three of his fingers lit up in chakra before he thrust them towards my neck. The cursed seal formed on my neck, while I could feel the presence trying to invade my body. I quickly used my control of my body to isolate it, so that it couldn't affect my body. I could deal with it later, but I needed to get away from Orochimaru first.

It turns out I didn't have to do it alone, as a swarm of bugs charged towards Orochimaru, which he dodged by jumping back. Kiba and Shino landed next to me and Hinata. They looked shaken up, but still determined.

"We can't leave you guys to deal with this by yourselves." Kiba said.

Shino nodded along with what Kiba said.

"I've accomplished what I wanted to, enjoy my gift Sasuke." Orochimaru said before fading into the tree and vanishing.

Looking next to me, Hinata appeared okay considering she just got through an encounter with a Sannin.

"We need to get back to Naruto and Sakura, I left them somewhere a while ago when I came upon you guys." I said.

Team 8 nodded, and we began tree-hopping back towards where I had left Naruto and Sakura. As we did, I devoted some of my focus to suppressing the curse mark. I would need to examine it later when I was in a safer location, but for now I needed to completely eliminate any influence it could have on my body.

Along the way, we came across a clone of Naruto.

"Hey Sasuke, we got worried when you didn't come back. I sent out even more clones in different directions, we got the scroll we needed, my clones took them out. Look at that, did all the work didn't I." Naruto said happily before taking a closer look at how banged up we looked.

"What happened?" Naruto asked.

"I'll talk about it later, let's just get back to the real you and Sakura." I said.

"Alright follow me we moved a little bit." The clone said.

We follow him quickly until we arrived where Naruto and Sakura were. Naruto's clone dispelled, giving him the memories of our conversation.

"Sasuke, why'd you take so long?" Sakura asked.

'I wanted to be able to avoid everyone finding out about Orochimaru, but since Team 8 was there, they're going to find out anyway.'

"We had a run in with a Sannin, we can talk about it later, let's just all get to the tower." I said.

Sakura looked surprised, but Naruto looked confused since he didn't know what a Sannin was. Team 7 and Team 8 all quickly moved towards the tower. We didn't have the encounter with the sound ninja, or Team's 9 and 10, but I was happy to not have to deal with all of that. As we moved, I noticed that Hinata wasn't blushing like she usually did when she was in close proximity to Naruto. Ignoring it for now, we eventually made it to the tower and headed inside.

Once we entered, we saw writing on the wall. Wanting to get this out of the way, I just said "Open both of the scrolls at the same time."

Shino and Naruto who had the scrolls did what I said and smoke filled the room before Kurenai and Kakashi appear in the room.

"You all pass the second phase of the exam." Kakashi and Kurenai both said.

"Kakashi, we need to talk with the Hokage." I said.

Kakashi looked at me, seeing how serious I was before nodding and motioning for me to follow him.

"Everyone else needs to come too." I say.

He looked surprised at that, but nods his head and we all follow him out of the room.

'Well this will be an annoying conversation to deal with, I can handle the curse mark on my own, but Hinata saw me get it so I have to tell the Hokage about Orochimaru now. I'll deal with it in the moment.' I thought, wondering just how this conversation would go.