50 First Stage

"Sakura-chan. What did he say to you?" Naruto asked Sakura who blushed and didn't answer him. Naruto pouted and crossed his arms.

"Good thinking back there by the way, you chose your battles wisely. Although he can't do ninjutsu and Genjutsu, Lee is an absolute monster in taijutsu. He has far more experience and his training methods are ridiculous." Naruto said while looking at Satsuki.

" Hn." Satsuki hummed back with a nod.

'That means I just need to push myself even more to get to his level.' Satsuki thought. She raised an eyebrow when she saw Kakashi standing in front of room 301, the room they were supposed to enter to take the first stage of the Chunin exams.

"Sensei? Why are you here?" Satsuki asked him. Kakashi hummed and looked up. Noticing that it was his students, he closed his adult novel and put it away into his pouch.

He gave his students an eye smile. "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." Kakashi revealed.

"I thought the exams were optional?" Sakura asked in confusion. Kakashi nodded.

" They are, Sakura. But at the same time they have to be taken as a team." Kakashi explained. Naruto smirked and looked at Satsuki and Sakura.

"It's a good thing we're all here then. Let's smash this exam and be Chunin together! " Naruto declared with a broad grin on his face.

" Hn! " Satsuki nodded back seriously.

" Got it! " Sakura replied with a smile on her face. Kakashi smiled under his mask.

"You're all here for the right reasons. I know I don't say this too much, but I'm proud of you three. Now go in there and make me the proudest sensei in Konoha." Kakashi ordered them. Naruto's grin looked like it was about to slip his face, Sakura's smile couldn't get any warmer while Satsuki had a confident smirk on her face.

The three Genin stepped past their sensei. They opened the doors and entered the room where the first part of 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.

Team 7 who've been through far worse from Zabuza, shrugged them off and began glaring back at them, giving them a dose of their own killing intent that they had Kakashi help them develop.

They smirked as some teams shivered while some of them quickly looked away from them. Naruto hummed as he looked at Team 10 approaching them. Shikamaru yawned as he gave Naruto a fist bump.

"Hey. You guys are here too?" Shikamaru whispered lazily. Naruto nodded while giving Choji a fist bump.

" Yup. You guys ready for this?" Naruto asked Choji and Shikamaru, making sure not to raise his voice. Even though Naruto is loud, he knows when to be quiet and right now, he does not want to be annoying to others.

"Well, I don't think so strength wise. But if we strategize, be observant and cautious, I think we can ace this. " Shikamaru replied. Ino meanwhile was having a girl talk session with Sakura and Satsuki.

" H-hello, Naruto-kun. " Naruto hummed and turned around to look at Hinata who was smiling shyly at him.

" Hey, Hinata. How are you?" Naruto asked Hinata.

"I'm doing well. Thank you for asking. Um... Listen.... A-after this... C-can we—

"Yo! Naruto!! Finally found you—" Kiba who greeted Naruto cheerfully immediately froze and shivered uncontrollably. He looked at Hinata who had her Byakugan activated and was glaring daggers at him.

"Wh-what did I do?" Kiba mumbled. Shino who stood beside him shook his head.

"You interrupted Hinata when she was being courageous." Shino explained, confusing Kiba even more. Naruto scratched his head.

"Um, Hinata. Whatever you want me to do, I'll do it." Naruto replied to her. Hinata blushed vividly, her only reply was to smile happily at him.

"You know, you guys should really keep it down and find your seats." The three Genin teams looked over to see one of the older Genin walking towards them. The older genin's name was Kabuto.

Kabuto has onyx eyes and ash-grey hair, which he normally keeps in a ponytail. His most consistent feature are his black rimmed circular glasses.

Kabuto wears a dark purple shirt with a high collar, a white under-shirt, and dark purple pants with a white cloth waistband. He also wears dark purple fingerless gloves with armoured plates on the back of the hand and a blue Konoha forehead protector.

Kabuto pushed up his glasses. "You guys are the rookies who just came out of the academy right? I wouldn't be so loud if I were you." Kabuto advised them. Naruto narrowed his eyes at him.

" And who are you?" Naruto asked him.

"My name's Kabuto Yakushi and before you say anything more, look behind you. " Every followed Kabuto's instructions and turned around.

They were subjected to another dose of killing intent particularly from the genin from Amegakure, the Village Hidden in the Rain.

"That team from Ame, I heard they have short tempers." Kabuto muttered to them. Naruto smirked, deciding to add fuel to the fire. He jumped onto one of the tables and grinned broadly at them.

"Listen up your 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!!!" His declaration earned various reactions in the room.

"Yosh! Naruto-kun seems to be in full youthful form today!" Lee said energetically after seeing his friend and sparring partner being so enthusiastic. Tenten giggled.

"Is it just me, or has he gotten even worse with that mouth of his?" She wondered.

"It's the fate of losers like him to be loud." Neji Hyuga sneered. Lee and Tenten frowned at their Hyuga teammate.

Neji had fair skin and long black hair, which the anime usually depicted as dark brown. When his Byakugan was not active he has featureless white eyes with a slight lavender tint.

Neji wore a beige-coloured shirt, a dull blue shirt beneath that, and mesh armour beneath that. He wore dark brown shorts, blue shinobi sandals, and wrapped bandages around his right arm, chest, and right leg.

He tied his hair back in a loose ponytail tied a few inches above the end. He wore a black forehead protector, under which was a smaller headband with two straps that frame the sides of his face.

"It's that damn kid again, that punk is gonna get himself killed for sure. That's a good thing." Kankuro grinned as the blonde stepped off the table. Temari looked at Kankuro with a smirk on his face.

"I don't know about that, Kankuro. I think he makes things kind of interesting. Maybe I should ask him on a date after this." Temari replied to him, making Kankuro stutter while Gaara just stared at Naruto impassively.

Two Kumo nin stared at them. One of them scowled deeply at Naruto while the other sighed and shook his head.

"Your name is Kabuto right?" Sakura asked him. Kabuto nodded while pushing up his glasses.

"Yea, that's right."

"So is this your first time taking these exams?" The pink haired kunoichi asked. Kabuto chuckled and shook his head while having an embarrassed blush on his face.

"No, this is my seventh." Kabuto replied, surprising her.

"Seventh? Either you sucked the proctor's dick or these exams are harder than I thought." Naruto commented. Kabuto chuckled.

" It's the latter I assure you. However you know what they say, seventh time's the charm. And it's not like I didn't get anything out of it. Since you guys are new and all, why don't I give you a hand?" Kabuto offered while taking a deck of cards out of his pouch.

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 widened his eyes hearing that there were Kumo Shinobi in the room and looked around to search for them.

He saw a man and a woman. The man's name is Omoi. Omoi is a young, dark-skinned Kumo-nin with short, spiky, white hair and dark eyes accentuated with eyelashes curving upwards from the corners.

He wears a dark outfit consisting of an overlong shirt with a hood, with red bandage hand guards, Kumogakure shin guards, and a black forehead protector along with a Kumogakure flak jacket. He is always seen with a thoughtful expression, as though always in deep contemplation and sucking on a lollipop. He also carries a long sword on his back.

Naruto then looked at the girl sitting beside Omoi. Her name is Karui. Karui is a dark-skinned kunoichi with long spiky red hair and amber eyes.

She is flat-chested. She wears a long, short-sleeved dress with frilly edges complete with the Kumogakure flak jacket, two simple yellow earrings, fishnet stockings, thigh-high boots with white soles and a forehead protector which she wears like a bandanna. She also carries a long sword on her back.

'Beautiful. ' Naruto thought, noticing how beautiful the dark skinned kunoichi was despite her cold serious demeanor.

Karui and Naruto locked eyes with each other. Karui blushed a little and scowled at Naruto. She gave him the middle finger before turning back to talk with Omoi.

Naruto sighed as his attention was brought back to Kabuto. "Do your cards hold individual information?" Shikamaru asked him. Kabuto smirked.

" Of course, all I need is a name, or even initials and I can find them for you." He replied. Shikamaru nodded, already having several on his mind.

"Give me everything you have on... Rock Lee of Konoha, Gaara of the Sand, Satsuki Uchiha, Haruno Sakura and Uzumaki Naruto." Choji looked at Shikamaru, wondering why would he want information about them.

"It's called planning ahead." Shikamaru whispered as Choji quickly understood his reasons.

"Man, you know their names and everything, that's no challenge at all." Kabuto mumbled as he held up three cards. One of them went up in smoke to reveal Lee's card.

"Let's see, Rock Lee has completed 25 D-rank and 21C-rank missions. His teammates are Higarashi Tenten, who is last year's Kunoichi of the Year and Hyuuga Neji who is 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 Gaara of the Sand. It says here he's done 8 C-rank missions, 27 B-rank missions and get this, 1 A-rank mission. His teammates are Temari of the Sand and Kankuro of the Sand who are 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 Gaara. 'So he's pretty strong then, bet it'll be a blast fighting him.' He thought as Kabuto continued.

"Then we have Uchiha Satsuki. She has completed wow.....210 D-rank and 2 A-rank missions. Her teammates are Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura. She has a One Tomoe Sharingan, is great at ninjutsu, taijutsu, Genjutsu and kenjutsu."

"Then comes Haruno Sakura. Her mission records and teammates are the same as Satsuki's. She is a genius at chakra control, has great medical knowledge and knows the Mystical Palm Jutsu."

" Last is Uzumaki Naruto. Let's see... huh, that's odd. It says he also has one B-rank mission that was not given to his other two teammates. He's great at taijutsu, Fūinjutsu, great at dispelling Genjutsu with his Chakra Disruption Jutsu and knows the Shadow Clone Jutsu."

Shikamaru was narrowing his eyes at Kabuto's descriptions about everyone, especially Naruto's.

'These are very descriptive, too descriptive. And it looks like Naruto has the same train of thought as I do.' Shikamaru though while looking at the blonde who is narrowing his eyes at Kabuto.

'That B-rank about dealing with Mizuki is supposed to be off the records. How does he know about it?' Naruto thought as Shikamaru approached him and pulled him in.

"Naruto, I don't wanna sound paranoid but this situation right now might be a matter of Konoha's security."

To be continued...