15 Start Your Engines, the Chunin Exams Begin

The next morning found Naruto being woken up by that damned infernal clock of his, its blaring beep annoying him to no end. Before it could beep too much Naruto picked it up and hurled it across the room, shattering it as it hit the wall. A few seconds later the blond shinobi sat up in and yawned, stretching himself out before swinging his legs over the edge and getting out of bed. Putting his hand in the ever-familiar ram seal he made a Kage Bunshin cook him breakfast while he headed towards the shower and began to get ready.

After he finished drying himself off Naruto made his way over to his new dresser, one he had bought with the money he made from his A-rank mission since the amount of cash he had come out with on that had given him enough money to do a little splurging. Even though he had been forced to henge into a random civilian in order to get it since they had kicked him out the moment he had entered the shop as himself.

Opening up the necessary drawers he grabbed his clothes. A pair of black ANBU-styled pants, a fishnet shirt that went under a black sleeveless Chinese style shirt with dark orange trim. He also wrapped his bandages around his calves and foot before putting on a new pair of black ANBU-issue shinobi sandals that Tenten had managed to get for him.

Walking over to his closet Naruto opened the door to reveal several sets of black full-body cloaks. Naruto had originally let Tenten choose them for him because he felt they added a mysterious aura; however, they also had the practical use of hiding his hand seals and masking movements until when he was in a taijutsu battle, an advantage that had helped him in his fights quite a bit. He grabbed one of them and pushed the rest aside to reveal a cubby that had been created from a modified containment seal.

He reached in and pulled out the box, setting it and his cloak on the bed. Opening it Naruto grabbed the containment scrolls he had created that were inside. Each one contained a set number of necessary supplies; kunai, shuriken, ninja wire, flash bangs, smoke bombs, custom-made exploding notes, and various forms of weaponry. Having hung out with Tenten as much as he had, Naruto had obviously learned the value of being a walking armory.

Naruto grabbed several scrolls. Each one contained well over the necessary amount for a standard A-rank mission, another habit he had picked up from his weapon-using friend. He also grabbed some that held food, camping, and camouflage equipment. Next, he unrolled one of the scrolls that held his weapons. Unsealing them Naruto looked at what he wanted to bring. There was a bo staff, naginata, katana, nodachi, kodachi, his new gauntlet, and kusarigama. Tenten had proclaimed he was decently sufficient in the use of all of them, meaning he could hold his own for more than half an hour against her. But he really only excelled with the bo staff and a katana.

Deciding it was better to be safe than sorry Naruto grabbed the bo staff and sealed it into the containment seal on his left hand, and the katana on his right. He picked up the gauntlet and put it on his right hand after that and then placed his special containment scroll for the kunai and senbon into the containment seal for the launcher.

After that he placed his cloak on, hiding his body from view.

Feeling ready he went into the kitchen to eat and then he would head over to the academy.

Coming up to the academy, Naruto found his two teammates already there, sitting outside of the entrance and obviously waiting for him.

"How come you're here so late!" Sakura asked in a loud voice.

"Sakura it's 3:30, we've got half an hour before the Chunin exams start. Why would I want to wait for kami knows how many hours in a room with loads of other people when I can just relax at home?" Naruto asked in a bored voice.

Sakura turned red with anger at what she perceived as Naruto insulting her.

"Anyway, the teme over there looks like he's getting antsy, so let's go," Naruto did not give the pinkette a chance to reply as he walked inside and began walking up the stairs.

After a minute or two, his teammates began to follow him, making their way towards the door he had left through.

The said teammate was already walking up the stairs, making his way towards the room where the first stage was supposed to begin. When Naruto reached the next floor it was to find at least a dozen Genin standing around the designated door with two other Genin blocking said door and beating anyone who tried to get past them.

Now that's odd, I could have sworn I had only gone up one flight of stairs, Naruto frowned as he watched the two Genin bully everyone else and replayed the last few seconds in his mind to confirm that he was indeed on the second floor. So then how come that door says 30...1... his eyes widened as he realized what was going on. Of course! Idiot! That door obviously has a genjutsu on it or something.

Genjutsu was one of his worst subjects, he could break out of several C and even a few B-ranked ones thanks to Naruto asking Kakashi to place him under several genjutsu and make him break out of them. However detecting genjutsu was something he still had trouble with, Naruto had to actively pulse his chakra and search his own system to find foreign chakra that would indicate he was in a genjutsu.

This form was useless when in battle since it took far too long and it also did not work on area-wide genjutsu since they were not genjutsu that invaded the body but was dispersed around the area the genjutsu was cast; which would explain why he was unable to detect this one and had to rely on his memory and knowledge of the area to realize what was going on.

Now that he knew what was going on, Naruto looked over at the two 'Genin' who were guarding the door more closely, If this is a genjutsu then those two must be Chunin who are supposed to keep unworthy from passing. Now that I look at them they do remind me of Kotetsu and Izumo so they must be under henge, He snorted, what a lame ass henge; they didn't even change their appearance just their age. Idiots…

With that sorted out in his mind, the whiskered blond began to walk on, ignoring the conversation that was going on at the door.

"C'mon, let us through!" One of the Genin in the hallway yelled.

"Psh…you think we're going to let you through just because you tell us to? People die in these exams and those who don't sometimes quit being a shinobi altogether simply because of the mental and emotional trauma they go through," The Henge'd Kotetsu said, "Really, we're doing you guys a favor."

"Please let us through."

Naruto stopped just as he was about to reach the exit to the next set of stairs when he heard the familiar voice, turning around he focused his attention on a familiar brown-haired girl. Tenten? I should have known her team would be in these exams, they have a year's worth of experience over me and their sensei is a training nut after all.

"Didn't you hear me," Kotetsu said as he reared his fist back. "I said get lost!" He threw his fist at Tenten. However, before it could hit Naruto intercepted it.

"Now that's not very nice," Naruto said with a slight grin, a grin that made Kotetsu and Izumo actually shiver as it reminded them of Anko when she was looking for blood. Or that one time Izumo had knocked her over while eating Dango, it was a particularly traumatizing memory that they did not want to recall.

Internally grinning at the way they shivered, and mentally thanking Anko the spiky-haired blond continued, "Didn't your mother teach you not to hit a lady?"

"Hmph! We were just doing her a favor," Izumo replied, trying to regain his bravado. "I suggest you heed our advice, this exam isn't for something just anyone can take and hope to survive."

Naruto smirked as he let go of Kotetsu's hand, "Don't worry, I was just looking for my friend who you were about to hit by the way."

The blond Konoha shinobi turned around to look at Tenten and winked, "Yo! I was looking all over the place for you Tenten!"

He turned her around and wrapped an arm over her shoulder, leading her to where he saw Neji. When they had gone a certain distance away, Naruto leaned in and whispered into her ear, "You do realize that this is the second floor right?"

Tenten looked at him strangely, "The second floor? But that door said…" Her eyes widened a bit as she remembered going up only two flights of stairs. She turned a glare on Neji, "Why didn't you tell me we were only on the second floor!"

Neji shrugged, "I did not deem it necessary."

Tenten scowled a bit while Naruto rolled his eyes, "You know, you sure treat your teammates like shit. Has anyone ever told you that you're a douchebag?"

Neji's eyes narrowed at Naruto, and veins began to pulse around his eyes as he activated his Byakugan in an effort to enhance his glare. The two of them had never gotten along; Naruto was a lot more like Lee, believing that hard work can overcome anything, including genius. While Neji believed everything was controlled by fate and had gone out of his way to inform the blond on the error of his ways on many occasions. Needless to say whenever the blond would come and train with team nine the two would always butt heads.

"Oi! Drop the genjutsu and let us pass!"

The pair both turned around to see Sasuke standing there with a smirk on his features as he looked at the two disguised Chunin at the door, "Sakura noticed it the moment we got here. Isn't that right Sakura?"

Despite being surprised by the raven-haired Genin's words, Sakura became ecstatic that her Sasuke-kun was involving her in something. She nodded her head and immediately backed him up, "Yeah, that's right! We're only on the second floor. It's so obvious even a child could see through it."

Naruto groaned as the pair made asses of themselves, even he could tell this was supposed to weed out the losers who would not even stand a chance in the exams. Seriously, how was he the dead last when there were people like that?

Sasuke at least should have known…

Naruto sighed and tried to control the irritation he was feeling. While he did not like Sasuke in anyway and enjoyed making fun of him every chance he got, he would at least acknowledge that his teammate was intelligent. However, sometimes the Uchiha heir was just a pain in the ass especially when he tried to show off like he was now.

"So you noticed it did you?" Kotetsu smirked as the genjutsu on the door was dispelled, revealing it to be the second floor, "Impressive. But just because you saw through it, doesn't mean you good enough to enter!" Kotetsu launched a kick at Sasuke who retaliated with a kick from the opposing leg.

However both kicks were caught by the green blur that was Lee, who managed to catch both their legs with just one hand.

"Now is not the time to be fighting," The green clad Genin said in a calm voice, releasing their legs.

That guy caught both our legs like it was nothing, Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he looked at the green clad Genin; he must have some serious chakra in his hands.

"Way to go and make an ass of yourself teme," Naruto said as he made his way over to them. "I can't believe you actually let all these people pass. Now we're going to have to content with a bunch of losers who couldn't even see through a simple genjutsu."

Sasuke scowled at the insult. However, being an Uchiha he did not deign to give Naruto a response other than his standard grunt, "Hn."

"Lee, what happened to disguising our strength. I thought that was your idea," Neji said with a frown. "Wasn't that the plan we agreed on?"

"Yes but…" Lee turned his attention to Sakura and blushed.

Oh boy here it comes, thought Naruto as he resisted the urge to snicker.

"You are Sakura-san yes?" asked Lee as he appeared in front of her.

"Umm…yeah," Sakura replied, taking a step back from the creepy spandex wearing Genin.

"I am Rock Lee. Let's go out sometime, I will protect you with my life," Lee gave the pinkette the nice guy pose complete with gleaming teeth and wink.

"Umm…no," Sakura said in a deadpan voice.

Anime tears began to stream down Lee's face, "But why not?"

"Because you're weird," Sakura stated, causing Lee's shoulders to slump.

Naruto snickered a bit before patting Lee on the back, "There, there Lee. There are plenty of other fish in the sea."

Plenty of better looking ones too, He winced slightly as the thought crossed his mind and an image of Haku appeared. He promised that he would not let her death consume him, that he would move on but always keep her in his memories.

Sometimes it was hard to keep that mindset, but he was working on it.

Neji just sneered as he watched his teammates and the blond kid who occasionally trained with them. He turned his attention to Sasuke, "You, what's your name?"

"Hn," Sasuke smirked, "Isn't it considered proper manners to give your name before asking for someone else's?"

Neji scowled while Naruto stuck a fist in his mouth so he would not laugh. Leaning over he whispered to Tenten, "Looks like Konoha's number one emo-teme has finally met Konoha's number one snob in what's sure to be the battle of the century."

As Tenten giggled he looked back up to the two who were glaring at each other. Naruto leaned back and cupped his hands around his mouth to make a microphone, "Hey Neji! I'm sorry to inform you, but you're too late! Sasuke-chan has already found the love of his life in one of the Suna Shinobi here!"

"Shut up dobe!" Sasuke yelled. Meanwhile, Neji had activated his Byakugan and glared at the blond, who had gone back to ignoring them.

"That wasn't very nice Naruto-kun," Tenten said, though she could not help but let the small giggle escape, finding what he had said and the insult on the pair's sexuality to be hilarious.

Naruto raised an eyebrow as he looked at her in curiosity, "Since when did you call me '-kun'?"

Tenten blushed as she realized what she said. She did not get a chance to say anything however as Sakura grabbed him by the back of his cloak.

"C'mon baka! Let's go or we're gonna be late!"

"Hey!" Naruto ripped the pinkette's hand off of his clothes, "Hands off the merchandise pinky!"

Tenten watched Team Seven leave, shaking her head in amusement.

"Tenten!" Neji called, making her turn her attention to him, "Let's go before the exam starts."

"Oh right. I'm coming," Tenten began walking in Neji's direction before she stopped when she noticed her green clad teammate was standing still, looking in the direction Naruto's team had left in, "Lee, you coming or what?"

Lee who had not been following them turned and looked at her, "You and Neji may go on ahead, there is something I need to check out. Do not worry, I will catch up."

Teten looked at him for a moment before she shrugged and began following Neji.

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura walked towards the set of stairs that were in front of them. However as the moved they saw Rock Lee standing on the next floor with a serious expression on his face.

"You, the one with the black eyes and bad attitude, I wish to challenge you," Lee jumped off the stairs and landed in front of them. "My name is Rock Lee."

The green clad Genin got into the beginning stance for what Naruto knew was the Goken, feet together with one fist tucked into his side and his other hand out in a 'bring it on' gesture. "You said it was common courtesy to give your name before asking for someone else's. Am I right?"

Sasuke smirked as he looked at the kid and gave him an answer, "Uchiha Sasuke."

"So it is true. You are this year's Rookie of the Year that everyone has been talking about. It would be an honor to fight you," Lee exclaimed.

Naruto groaned, "Listen Lee, I know you've wanted to beat the snot out of emo temes like him and Neji for a while now, but since he's my teammate I need him alive and in one piece alright?"

"Do not worry Naruto-kun, I will not hurt him too badly," Lee gave Naruto the nice guy pose.

Sasuke scoffed at the mere thought that the dobe thought he would be defeated, "Hn. You know my name and yet you challenge me? You must be dumber than I thought."

Oh great, there goes mister ego, Naruto sighed at how large Sasuke's head had been getting since he unlocked his Sharingan.

"I'll see you two up there, I have no desire to watch Sasuke get his ass kicked," Naruto left, not paying attention to Sakura screaming at him about how her Sasuke-kun wasn't going to lose.

As Naruto reached room 301 it was to find Kakashi standing outside the doorway, reading his smut.

"Kakashi-sensei? What are you doing here?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi looked up from his book and eye-smiled, "Oh I'm just here to wish you luck." He blinked for a moment as he noticed something, or rather someone's were missing, "Naruto, where are Sasuke and Sakura?"

Naruto shrugged, "Sasuke's getting his ass beat by your 'eternal rival's' clone." He chuckled as he watched Kakashi shudder, "And Sakura is probably cheering him on, or trying to help him up after his ass got beat."

As if on cue Sasuke and Sakura came up with the ladder looking worried and the former looking bruised.

"So…I can see how you really proved your superiority as an Uchiha," Naruto smirked.

"Shut it dobe," Sasuke hissed, rubbing the bruise on his cheek.

Naruto sighed, "I told you he would win. That kid has been a Genin for a year longer than we have, he has far more experience than either of us and his method of training is utterly ridiculous. You need to learn to choose your battles teme."

Sasuke did not say anything, but the small wince told Naruto that the raven-haired Genin at least recognized what the blond was saying. Something could be considered a miracle in and of itself, since the last Uchiha in Konoha had not listened to any of his advice since they had gotten back to Konoha.

"Ahem," Kakashi coughed into his hand, getting the attention of his team before things got out of hand. "Well, I'm glad to see you three came. Had one of you not made it, I would have had to disqualify all of you."

Naruto tilted his head in confusion, "Why? I thought the Chunin Exams were optional?"

"They are, but they also have to be taken as a team," Kakashi shrugged.

"So then why didn't you tell us that?" asked Naruto, a little annoyed that his sensei would leave out something so important.

"I didn't tell you and Sasuke that because I knew either one or both of you would have tried to pressure Sakura into taking it."

Naruto sighed and conceded the point, "Yeah I suppose that's true."

"But none of that matters now. You're all here, and all for the right reasons," Kakashi gave them an eye-smile. "I know I don't say this too much, but I'm proud of you three."

The three genin grinned. Well Naruto grinned; Sakura had a small smile, while Sasuke was smirking. The three genin stepped past their sensei and opened the doors where the Chunin Exams would start.

The very moment team seven had entered the room; every single Genin began glaring at them. Many of the genin teams, who were older than them by several years began leaking killing intent at the trio. Sakura paled and began to shake, having not had much experience with killing intent other than Zabuza and the Kyuubi's at the battle on the bridge, and even then she had passed out before it could get too bad. Sasuke looked a tad nervous, but soon regained his Uchiha bravado.

Naruto, who had been subject to far worse, both from Zabuza and Anko shrugged it off and began glaring back, giving a few teams a dose of his own killing intent that he had Anko help develop. He grinned when several genin began to look away.

Just as the trio were about to find a place to sit a loud squeal erupted behind them.

"Sasuke-kun! I missed you so much!" Ino jumped on top of Sasuke, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, "Did you miss me too?"

Several tic marks appeared on Sakura's forehead, "Get the hell off him Ino-pig!"

Ino looked over at Sakura and pulled her eye lid down while sticking her tongue out, "Why would I do that forehead girl. After all, Sasuke-kun and I have a lot of catching up to do."

"Man you guys are here too, so troublesome."

Naruto turned and smirked at seeing Shikamaru and Chouji walking up to them, "What's up you two? Been having fun?"

"Meh, trying to do something 'fun' is far too troublesome," Shikamaru said with a yawn.

Naruto rolled his eyes at the answer he had come to expect from the lazy Genin. He had occasionally taken to hanging out with the two on Sunday when he was not training, and had come to know the two decently in that time together.

"Yahoo, we found you guys!"

Turning again everyone saw Kiba, Shino with Hinata staring at Naruto as she hid behind Shino. Kiba walked up to the group with a large, cocky grin, "I hope you guys are ready to lose to my team! Cuz we're gonna rock!"

Naruto smirked, "I was wondering what that smell was, I should have known it was you Kiba."

Kiba stopped and growled at Naruto, "What was that dobe! You want me to kick your ass!"

"Just try," Naruto's grin widened a small trace of bloodlust in his grin, "I'll take you to the pound."

Kiba began to growl at the blond and looked like he might actually attack him. But before he could, a new voice entered the picture.

"You know, you guys should really keep it down."

The three new genin teams looked over to see one of the older kids walking up to them. He was wearing a purple shirt and pants of the same color. He had round glasses on and white hair with a Konoha headband strapped to his head.

He pushed his glasses up onto the bridge of his nose, "You guys are the rookies who just came out of the academy right? I wouldn't be so loud if I were you."

"And just who the hell are you!" asked Kiba with a growl, still upset that the dead last had made fun of him.

The purple clad Genin just smiled as if not bothered by the rude remark, "My name's Kabuto and before you get angry at me, you should look behind you."

Everyone did and was instantly subject to the glares and the wave of killing intent sent to them, particularly the genin from Amegakure (Village Hidden in the Rain). Most of the rookie genin shivered at the killing intent they were now feeling.

"That team from Ame, I hear they have rather short tempers," Kabuto muttered to them.

While some of the other rookies were trying to regain their lost courage, Naruto just smirked as he jumped on top of one of the tables. "Alright listen up you chicken shit pansies! My name is Uzumaki Naruto, if any of you want a piece of me get in a nice and orderly single file line and I'll kick each and everyone one of your asses real quick!"

That statement was met with various reactions from the ninja in the room.

"Yosh! Naruto-kun seems to be in full form today!" Lee said at seeing his friend and sparring partner so enthusiastic.

Tenten chuckled, "Is it just me, or has he gotten even worse with that mouth of his?"

"It's the fate of losers like him to be loud," Neji sneered.

Both Tenten and Lee looked at Neji with a frown. Their teammate had been getting progressively worse with his fate rants, ever since Naruto had shown up and started training with them in fact. Both of them were nearing their wit's end on what to do about Neji's attitude. However, they kept their peace for the moment.

"It's that damn kid again," Kankurou glared at the blond as he hopped off the table, "that punk's gonna get himself killed."

Temari looked over at Naruto with a smirk, "I don't know, I think he makes things kind of interesting. Maybe I should see if he wants to go on a date after this."

While Kankurou began to sputter, Gaara just stared at Naruto with an impassive gaze.

Two of the ninja from Kumo looked over at the odd blond kid who was yelling before turning their attention back to their conversation.

The other Kumo ninja, a blond-haired kunoichi also stared curiously at the blond for a few seconds before dismissing him.

"Wow Naruto, enthusiastic much?" asked Chouji, feeling a bit better now that the killing intent was gone.

"You know, sometimes you're more troublesome than Ino," Shikamaru muttered.

"What was that Shikamaru?" Ino glared at him and pretended to roll up her nonexistent sleeves.

After the rookies got over Naruto's proclamation of lying on a heavy ass kicking, they turned back to Kabuto.

"Your name is Kabuto-san right?" asked Sakura.

Kabuto pushed his glasses up, something Naruto was beginning to think was a habit for the other Genin, "Yea, that's right."

"So is this your second time taking these exams?" The pinkette asked.

"No this is my…seventh," Kabuto replied, an embarrassed blush on his face.

"Seventh?" Naruto asked incredulously, "Either you suck so much balls it's amazing you're still alive, or these exams are harder than I thought."

"It's the latter I assure you," Kabuto chuckled. "However you know what they say, seventh time's the charm. And it's not like I didn't get anything out of it," The purple clad shinobi reached into his pouch and pulled out a deck of cards. "Since you guys are new and all, why don't I give you a hand."

He kneeled down on the ground and began channeling chakra into the top card. There was a small burst of smoke as he flipped it over. The rookie genin leaned in to see that it showed a map of the elemental nations, on each nation was a bar with a number.

"These are my info cards. Look here, as you can see Konoha has the most teams participating. Of course that's a given since we're on home turf. But just about every shinobi village has brought genin here to participate. We've even got a team from Kumo this year, a rarity considering we're not on good terms with them."

Naruto lifted his head up and searched for the team from Kumo, figuring they must be powerful in order to be in the exams while in a somewhat hostile village. As he did his eyes made contact with the blond Kumo kunoichi who had watched him earlier. He took a brief moment to notice her features. She was slightly older than he was by maybe a few years, with long blond hair several shades lighter than his and bound in bandages that went down to mid-back. She had a black sleeveless shirt with a purple armor piece that covered her stomach up to the middle of her sizable chest. She also wore matching pants and sandals with a violet sash around her waist. Spending time with Anko as much as he had, the small pervert in him that she had created could not help but notice the woman's beauty.

However he also sensed some kind of strange connection to her. Not that she was familiar in anyway, but that she felt…similar would be the best way he could put it. Like Gaara but different. Both of them soon noticed they were staring at each other and blushed a bit as they looked away.

"Do your cards hold individual information?" asked Sasuke, bringing Naruto's attention back to the rookie group.

Kabuto smirked, "Of course, all I need is a name, or even initials and I can find them for you."

"Give me everything you have on Rock Lee of Konoha, Sabaku No Gaara of Suna…and Uzumaki Naruto."

Everyone looked at Sasuke, wondering why he wanted information on the dead last and his teammate, or any of the other people here.

"Man Sasuke, all this time we've been a team and you don't even know my skill set." Naruto gave a mock pout, "You really don't know how much that hurts, I almost feel like crying."

Sasuke scowled at the dobe's act, but did his best to ignore him.

"Man, you know their names and where they come from, that's no fun," Kabuto said as he held up three cards. One of them went up in smoke to reveal Rock Lee's card, "Let's see, Rock Lee has 246 D-rank missions and 22 C-rank missions, his teammates are Higarashi Tenten and Hyuuga Neji, last year's Rookie of the Year. Says here that in the academy he had no skills to speak of, but in the last year his taijutsu made a phenomenal jump. Last year he could have entered the Chunin Exams, but his sensei held the team back a year to gain more experience."

"Next we have Sabaku No Gaara. It says here he's done 8 C-rank missions, 27 B-rank missions and get this, 1 A-rank mission. His teammates are Sabaku No Temari, and Sabaku No Kankurou, his older siblings. Apparently they're the children of the Kazekage. Also this is just a rumor but apparently he's come out of every single mission without even getting a scratch."

Naruto eyed the red-haired Genin curiously, So he's pretty strong then, I bet it will be a blast to fight him.

"And finally we have Uzumaki Naruto. Let's see, his stats show 65 D-rank missions, 1 C-turned-A rank mission and…huh, that's odd. It says he also has one B-rank mission that was not given to his other two teammates. Said teammates are Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura. He's average at both ninjutsu and taijutsu but has no skills to speak of in genjutsu."

"Dobe, how do you have a B-rank mission when I don't?" asked Sasuke, his scowl back in place.

Naruto gave his raven-haired teammate an indifferent shrug, "Sorry, but its classified information, if you don't know, I can't tell you." The Sandaime had told him that he could not tell anyone of Mizuki's betrayal as it was a matter of village security.

Of course I think the whole thing was off the record wasn't it? Naruto looked at Kabuto with a frown. So how did he know about it? The blond shook his head; he was starting to get paranoid. Damn Anko and her frickin paranoia, next thing you know I'm gonna start watching for shadows creeping up on me when I'm sitting on the john.

"So as you can see there's a big turn out this year. All of these teams are the cream of the crop, the best of their villages." Kabuto paused for a moment before adding, "Well, I'm not sure about Oto, since they just started up last year they're pretty small time and only managed to send one team."

"You hear that?" asked a teen with bandages covering his entire head except for the right eye. "He called us small time."

"Why don't give him a piece of our mind Dosu?" suggested their female raven-haired teammate.

"I say we do more than just give them a piece of our minds," Suggested the shinobi with spiky black hair.

"Yeah…let's show them what Oto shinobi are capable of," Dosu said right before all three disappeared.

Only a few of the genin within the room could see them; those being the team of Kumo ninja, the Sabaku trio, Team Nine, Kabuto and Naruto.

Naruto's eyes narrowed as he watched the trio close in on Kabuto. He was not sure what they were doing, but there was no way he was going to let them hurt a Konoha shinobi.

A second later a spiky haired Oto shinobi threw two kunai at Kabuto, who jumped back to avoid them. As he stopped Kabuto looked up to find Dosu right in front of him, with the other two on his left and right. The Oto Genin was just about to swing the odd looking metal gauntlet at the purple clad Genin, when Naruto appeared right in front of him.

"Konoha Senpuu (Leaf Hurricane)!" Naruto shouted as he spun around in the air and smashed his foot into Dosu's face, hard. The Oto Genin was sent flying backwards, smashing into the wall on the opposite side hard enough to leave cracks.

His two teammates might have helped, but before they could even make a move two solid copies of the blond appeared behind them, placing a kunai against their neck.

The rookie genin, including Team Seven stared at the blond in shock; most of them had not even seen Naruto move, much less figured out when he had the time to make clones. What's more the clones were solid!

"I don't know who the fuck you people think you are, but if you're going to attack a Konoha shinobi in Konoha territory you must have been hit with every single branch when you fell out of the retard tree," Naruto spoke with a rare scowl. Very few things could actually piss him off, and one of them was when people tried to hurt comrades for no real reason other than to prove their own superiority.

Interesting. That kid is much stronger than one might give him credit for at first glance, the blond Kumo kunoichi thought, I wonder if he acts the way he does to purposely make people underestimate him.

"You've been staring at that kid quite a bit Yugito-san," The male Genin on their team said. "Finally found someone for yourself?"

A light blush spread across Yugito's cheeks, however she quickly dispelled it and glared at her teammate, "I don't know what you're talking about Daisuke!"

Daisuke just smirked, "Whatever, just remember why you were put on this team in the first place."

Yugito just turned her head, not deigning to look at her teammate who had always been an ass to everyone no matter who they were.

Dosu groaned a bit as he stood up and shook his head, trying to clear the cobwebs out of it. That blond boy hit hard.

"Oi! You still conscious?" Naruto said with a smirk, "I hope I didn't hit you too hard, after all, someone as stupid as you are needs all the brain cells they can get."

"You talk big boy, but that was nothing more than a lucky shot!" Dosu growled, angered at being embarrassed and hit by someone who he had not anticipated as being that strong.

"Well then, why don't you just try again," Naruto taunted, leaking a bit of his killing intent. "The next time you try that shit, I'll make sure you get acquainted with that wall so well you won't be able to leave it!"

"Alright that's enough! Quiet down you little bastards!" A gruff voice spoke up.

There was a puff of smoke erupted at the front of the room. When it cleared it revealed a tall scarred man in a black trench coat and blue proctor's uniform, along with a dozen Chunin in similar outfits minus the trench coat.

"I'm Morino Ibiki, the proctor for this exam. So long as I'm here there will be no fighting! Do I make myself clear!" The man asked, glaring at the Oto genin before turning his attention to the blond. However the moment he did Ibiki felt pale.

"Is that you scar face-san?" asked Naruto with a smirk. "Who knew you'd be proctoring these exams. I thought you would be smashing heads in or something over at I&T with Anko-nee-chan."

"Uzumaki, I had not realized you were going to be in these exams," Ibiki shifted a bit, not liking the very Anko-like grin on the Genin's face.

"Oh you know me," Naruto walked up to the much larger man, the grin never leaving his face. "I always gotta be a part of the action. It's a good thing you're here though, since you still owe me 200 yen from last week's poker game. Unless of course you want me to tell these wonderful genin about the time you *cough* dropped your *cough cough* drawers *cough cough* while interrogating someone*Cough*."

The blond held out his hand, smirking as Ibiki began grumbling a bit before pulling out his wallet. "How you managed to convince Anko to let you into our poker game I'll never know. Though you'll forgive me if I hope it doesn't happen again," Ibiki placed the money in the blonde's hand.

Naruto grinned as he unsealed his wallet and put the money in it before sealing it back up, "Well I suppose I can't blame you. It must be embarrassing getting cleaned out by a twelve year old Genin. But hey! That's life right? Well it's a pleasure doing business with you scar face-san."

Grin still in place Naruto walked through the surprised crowd and made his way back towards the other rookies.

"Naruto, how do you know Ibiki-san?" asked Ino.

Naruto looked at her and shrugged, "I have a friend who works in the I&T division. I managed to convince her to let me play poker with her, Ibiki and a few others. I managed to clean them out completely. A few were left walking home in nothing more than their underclothes." The blond shinobi tilted his head, "How do you know Scar face-san?"

"That's easy, my dad was the former head of the I&T division, Ibiki-san worked under him as an apprentice for a time so I would often see him over at the house," Ino replied.

Naruto clicked his tongue, "Huh, small world."

"Now that that's out of the way," Ibiki started, hoping to regain some of his lost composure. "We will now start the first stage of the Chunin Exams. Now then I want all of you to come up here and grab a tab so you can find your assigned seats. Once that is done the written test will begin."

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN A WRITTEN TEST!" Naruto shouted. Studying or no, written tests have always been the bane of his existence and he doubted that would ever change.

Ibiki smirked, feeling the need for some payback, "That's right Uzumaki, a written test. Now I suggest you shut the hell up and sit down before I kick you out!"

Naruto began to cry anime tears as he sat at his assigned seat, which was coincidently right next to two other blonds. Temari was on his left, while Yugito had gotten the seat to his right.

Temari looked at Naruto and smirked, "I take it you don't like written exams?"

"Not liking something is like saying it's mildly disdainful," Naruto answered with a derisive snort. "It's something that is a minor nuisance to do, but not outside the realm of actually doing. I despise written exams. They have been the bane of my existence ever since the academy. If I could I would gladly find every single exam ever written and let the Shinigami eat all them, though he would probably get indigestion."

Temari blinked for a moment before letting out a small laugh, "Well it seems you're in for quite the dilemma."

"You're telling me," Naruto groaned, "stupid scar-faced teme, I bet he did this on purpose. But I'll get him back for this travesty." Naruto stood up and pointed a finger at Ibiki, "You hear that teme, next time we play poker I'm gonna clean you out so badly you'll have to walk home in the buff!"

Ibiki tossed Naruto a glare as the blond sat himself back down with Naruto returned the glare.

What an odd ninja, thought Yugito as she looked at Naruto. Though, he is kind of cute with those whiskers. She stopped her train of thought right there as a small blush spread across her face before shaking the thought away. What's wrong with me? Thinking about competition like that...

Naruto sighed as his glaring contest ended when Ibiki began to explain the rules for the exam.

"Alright! I will now explain the rules of this test and pay attention because I'm only going over this once!" Ibiki waited for a moment to see if anyone was dumb enough to speak. When no one did he turned to the board, "The first rule for this test is that each of you will start off with ten points, the same amount to the number of questions on this test. For each answer you get wrong one point will be deducted from your overall score. The second rule is that this will be a team test, meaning that if one of you fails, all of you fail."

"Wait a minute!" Sakura shouted raising her hand, "I don't underst-"

"I said no questions!" Ibiki barked, cowing the girl to bring her hand back down, "the third rule of this test is that anyone who gets caught cheating, either by one of the chunin or myself will automatically have two points deducted from their test."

"I've got my eyes on you," one of the chunin said, freaking out a few of the more susceptible genin.

Well, I don't think Naruto will do well. Even if he sounds smarter occasionally he's still a baka, Sakura thought. But I know Sasuke-kun will do alright, and I'm confident I can do this, so we should be ok.

"As for the final rule, anyone who loses their initial points during the test or those who don't answer any of them correctly will fail, along with their teammates!"

"What!" Sakura shouted.

"We're doomed," mumbled Sasuke.

"Somehow I feel like someone's trying to kill me with their eyes," Naruto said to himself as he felt the killing intent from his teammates. Not one to be outdone he simply flipped them the bird without turning his head.

"The last question will be asked at the end of the hour," Ibiki paused as he looked at all the genin, "Begin!"

"Good luck," Naruto said to Temari, who felt a smile come onto her face. He looked over at Yugito and gave her a grin, "Good luck to you as well."

Yugito blinked for a moment surprised that someone from another village, especially one her village did not get along with was wishing her luck.

"Thank you," She mumbled before looking away.

Naruto sighed as he flipped over his test. He looked at the first question and frowned. It was way too hard for him to even begin answering, despite the studying he did. He went down each and every question and found that all of them were too hard for him to even begin to understand.

In fact, I don't think anyone can answer these except for a walking dictionary like Sakura.

Behind him Sakura sneezed before writing down the answer to another one of the questions.

The blond shinobi discreetly looked around to see what the other genin had figured out. He saw Neji was using his Byakugan to get the answers as was Hinata, Tenten was using mirrors that were controlled by ninja wire to get the answer and other genin were using various ways to find the answers as well.

It seems that everyone else has also realized that the questions are too hard for them. That has to mean Scar-face never intended us to know the answers, he made it hard enough so that we have to cheat without getting caught. Figures he would do something like this, Anko always said he specialized in mental torture.

Having figured out what was going on Naruto now had to find a way to get the answers without anyone finding out.

First, I need to find someone with the answers. Looking around the blond noticed that the person in front of him was scribbling away and seemed confident that he had all the answers. Bingo.

Naruto smirked as he waited for the Genin in front of him to finish his test before enacting his plan.

Using his control over wind Naruto created a large gust that forced the windows open, scattering the papers all over the place. Naruto kept his eyes on the paper he wanted and used the confusion to Kawarimi it with his own paper. He replaced the other Genin's name with his own, before grinning and leaning back in his seat with his feet propped up on the desk.

Both Temari and Yugito looked over at their fellow blond who just minutes ago, had been freaking out and raised an eyebrow, wondering what had changed.

Ibiki frowned as he watched people shout and try to grab their papers; he had felt a quick burst of chakra but had not been able to determine where it came from. He looked around the room before his eyes caught Naruto, leaning back in his chair with his feet propped up on the desk.

Could he have been the one to make that wind? He narrowed his eyes for a moment before looking away.

After a while he looked over at the clock, Times up. "Alright pencils down, it's now time for the tenth question."

Just as the man was about to reveal the tenth question the door opened and in walked Kankurou.

Huh? I don't remember him leaving. Naruto scratched his cheek in though before shrugging.

"Ah! I hope your 'trip' to the restroom was 'enlightening'," Ibiki said with a smirk.

Crap! He knows about Karasu! Kankurou thought in shock. He tried to play it off as he walked to his seat, absently tossing a piece of paper on Temari's table.

"Now that we're all here I can begin the tenth question," Ibiki started. "However, before that there are some rules pertaining to this question that you need to know about. First rule, you have to decide whether or not you wish to take a question."

"Choose? What happens if we don't take it?" asked Temari.

Ibiki smirked, "If you don't take it then your points will be reduced to zero, and you will fail along with your teammates."

"Well then of course we're going to take it!" A random Genin shouted.

"Shut up! I haven't finished explaining the rules yet," Ibiki snapped. "If you do choose to take the tenth question, but get it wrong, you will not only fail, but you will be barred from taking the Chunin exams ever again! You will remain Genin for the rest of your lives!"

"What! That's bull! There have been plenty of people who have taken this test more than once!" Kiba growled as he stood up.

"Well it seems you just got unlucky this year. I wasn't proctoring those exams, but now that I am, we're playing by my rules! Here I am Kami, and you will all listen to what I say!" Ibiki chuckled a bit at the shocked and scared looks, "However that's why I'm giving you a way out. If you don't feel you can complete the tenth question then you can bow out now and try again next year."

"Now for the final question! I will ask those who don't wish to take it to raise their hand. When your number is called you will be forced to leave along with your teammates."

Nobody spoke for several long seconds. However several people began to raise their hands, bowing out and taking their teammates with them. Naruto frowned as he watched people quit, angry that people could be such cowards. As he continued looking at everyone he saw Sakura about to raise her hand.

Damn it Sakura! Not now, of all the times for you to get cold feet!

Naruto tried to think of a way to get her to stop. Flying by the figurative seat of his pants he did the only thing he could think of. He raised his hand, shocking the other rookie members. They, along with everyone else were in for another surprise when Naruto slammed his hand back on the desk with enough force to leave small spider web cracks.

"That shit's not gonna fly here scar face-san!" Naruto glared at the man, "You can't use such pathetic scare tactics on me, perhaps the head of the I&T division is losing his touch."

Leave it to the dobe to say something like that, Sasuke shook his head before smirking, at the very least, he keeps things interesting.

I know I keep saying this, but this kid is so odd, Yugito looked at the defiant blond and smirked. Odd, but as I already said, definitely cute and I like his attitude.

I knew this cutie would keep things interesting, Temari smirked; I wonder if I can get to know him better after the exams.

Ibiki glared at the blond before looking at the other occupants, noticing that everyone who was about to quit were sitting back down. "I'll only ask this once, are you sure you wish to continue? Realize that if you fail, you will remain a Genin for the rest of your careers."

"If I wasn't willing to risk something as mundane as my career on this question, how could I be asked to risk my life on a mission." Naruto said with a smirk, "If someone's actually enough of a pussy that shit like this scares them, then they don't deserve to be Chunin anyway."

That little bastard dispelled the illusion of fear I was trying to create, Ibiki frowned as he saw everyone sit back down. Though I do have to hand it to him, he's quite an interesting one, Uzumaki Naruto, he looked around and counted the number of people still there, There's seventy-eight people left. Stretching this out anymore would be pointless.

He glanced over at the Chunin proctors to see them giving him a nod, "To those of you still remaining I only have one thing to say…congratulations on passing the first stage of the Chunin Exams!"

"What!" A random Genin shouted.

"What about the tenth question!" asked Ino.

Ibiki opened his mouth to speak however a sound cut him off. He along with everybody else turned to look at Naruto who was laughing maniacally. The two blond girls leaned away from him, wondering if he had somehow lost his mind.

"You care to share what's so funny, Uzumaki?" asked a disgruntled Ibiki.

"It's just that Ino is supposed to know you since her dad was the head of I&T before you," Naruto laughed, a wide grin on his face. "I would have thought she realized your specialty is in psychological torture. She should have known that the entire test was a sham."

"A sham?" asked Yugito, tilting her head in confusion, "What do you mean?"

"I mean the question on whether or not to continue taking the test was the whole point of the entire exams." Naruto answered with a wide grin, "Isn't that right proctor-san?"

Ibiki grunted in acknowledgment, "Give the gaki a cookie. Yes, that's right the last question was the point of the exam."

"Then what about the other nine questions?" asked Temari, confused and angry at being led on like that.

"That's easy to figure out," Naruto said as his more analytical mind began taking over. The blond looked over at Ibiki and raised an eyebrow.

Ibiki sighed as he gave a wave, gesturing for Naruto to continue.

"Right, so the first nine questions were quite obviously an intelligence gathering session," Naruto began as he recalled some of the information that was in the books Anko had suggested when he asked her. "Gathering accurate intelligence in a timely manner has always been one of the key components towards learning more about your enemy, especially in wartime. It's one of the fundamental skills for a Chunin to know, and so Scar face-san over there wanted to make sure we could gather accurate information while under pressure. Hence the Chunin watching us," Naruto looked over at Ibiki and grinned. "How am I doing so far?"

"Accurate," Ibiki grunted before continuing where the blond left off, "I'm sure most of you figured out that the questions on the test were far too hard to answer. So you had to cheat in order to get the answers. Though even knowing you had to cheat would have been useless if you didn't have the answers to begin with. Therefore we placed two Chunin in the room with you who did have the answers."

It was here that the two Chunin raised their hand; one of them was the person that Naruto stole the test from.

Ok, I did not see that coming, I must have incredible luck, Naruto thought with a sweatdrop.

"As the gaki said accurate intelligence is important," Ibiki took off his bandana to reveal a head full of scars.

"Holy shit!" Naruto shouted in surprise, "When I called you scar-face I didn't realize it was so literal! Man. It looks like Ten-chan decided to use your head as target practice."

A little ways behind Naruto, Tenten blushed, secretly vowing vengeance against her blond friend.

"You better learn to keep that mouth of yours shut gaki," Ibiki threatened while a few of the class snickered. This kid was ruining his reputation!

"This is the result the result of when misinformation is more valuable than a life. On missions and on the battle field people will risk their lives to get that information."

"But that doesn't explain the point of the tenth question," Temari said.

"The tenth question is where this test really comes into play," Ibiki said as he regained his lost pride. "The choice to take your chances and answer the question or give up; it's meant to be a hard choice between those two options, though most people are more than willing to bow out and take it next year. Those are the people who don't deserve to be Chunin. Only those who decided to stay and are willing to risk their careers and quite possibly their lives are the ones who deserve the title Chunin."

"What are you trying to get at?" asked Kiba, who was starting to get annoyed with the man's pointless speaking.

"What he's saying dog breath, is that in order to be a Chunin you have to be someone who is willing to risk your life for the sake of your comrades and mission." Naruto said, smirking as Kiba growled at him, "You know if the dead last of your academy class is telling you that, it probably means you should do some more studying."

"Just because you can know something as pointless as that doesn't make you any less of a loser dobe!" Kiba growled.

"Didn't I tell you there would be no fighting!" Ibiki shouted, finally having enough and blasting everyone with killing intent. The genin were instantly cowed, even Naruto began to feel uncomfortable at the amount he was putting out.

"I swear…" Ibiki mumbled before getting back on track, "anyways congratulations on passing, and good luck in the next exam."

The genin who passed only had a moment to celebrate before the window next to Ibiki shattered and a black ball of…something flew in. Not even a second later there ball unfurled and showed a large banner that became hung in the middle of the room by two kunai on each side and stuck into the walls. The banner read 'The Single and Incredibly Sexy, Second Proctor of the Chunin Exams, Mitarashi Anko' on it for all to see. That was when said trench coat clad kunoichi stepped into view.

"Alright guys this is no time to be celebrating!" Shouted Anko as she put her fist on her hips and grinned, dutifully ignoring the nose bleeds and looks of lust she caught from the men, and the glares from the women. "My name's Mitarashi Anko and I'm the second proctor for the next exam, now everybody follow me!"

She pumped her fist into the air, giving the male genin a good look at her nearly unclothed assets.

"Anko you're early…again," Ibiki muttered.

"Hehehe," Anko laughed as she rubbed the back of her head in an embarrassed manner. She looked out across the genin and frowned.

"What the hell is this Ibiki? There are twenty-six teams left!" She smirked at her partner, "You must be losing your touch."

"Actually you can thank that gaki of yours for all the extra…baggage," Ibiki said.

"Gaki?" Anko asked in confusion before her eyes caught the sight of a grinning Naruto. "Hey look, it's my favorite gaki! I didn't know you were in these exams!"

Naruto gave her a fox-like grin, "I was hoping to surprise you. Besides, you didn't think I would miss this party did you?"

"Heh, I guess not," Anko smirked. "Well this makes things more interesting. Alright you little bastards, I want all of you to follow me. Failure to do so and I'll feed you to my snakes!"

Anko grinned as she jumped out of the window.

"Well we'd better follow her," Naruto stood up and looked at the two girls who he had been sitting by. "If you don't do as she says she really will feed you to her snakes." He shuddered a bit before moving towards the window and jumping out, leaving the two girls confused.

After everyone had gotten their wits back they walked several minutes following Naruto and Anko, who were having an animated conversation about Dango.

How the hell does Naruto know this…slut? Sakura wondered as she stared at the scantily clad woman in disgust.

This woman has the same way of speech that Naruto does, Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the pair. Could she be the person he occasionally refers to?

Many of the other genin had similar thoughts ranging from curiosity to jealousy, with the boys wondering how Naruto knew such a hot kunoichi, while a select few of the girls wondered what that woman did to get the blonde's attention. Eventually, they reached a fenced-off forest that held some of the largest trees any of the genin had ever seen.

Naruto walked back to the other genin, standing beside Tenten as Anko spun around and grinned at them. "Welcome one and all to the second stage of the Chunin Exams, training area forty-four. Or as I like to call the Forest of Death."