Chapter 17

Team 7 looked at the spandex wearing teen with a mix of confusion. They had never seen him before and he was randomly challenging Sasuke. Suddenly, the boy turned his attention to Sakura. They noticed that he had a small blush on his cheeks.

“Y-Your Sakura right?” he asked nervously

“Uh… yes, I am Sakura.” She answered. He suddenly stuck out in what will forever be named ‘the nice guy’ pose; he said the most amusing thing, at least in Naruto’s opinion.

“I love you. Go out with me and I’ll protect you for life.” He said. The cawing of a crow was the only thing heard for what seem like an eternity. Suddenly, Naruto was on the floor, laughing his ass off. He was banging his fist on the ground and tears were falling out of his eyes. Sakura was glaring murder in her eyes but it did not deter Naruto’s laughing. Sakura sighed and turned her attention to Lee.

“As flattering as that was, I’m not interested. I’m sorry but I’m attracted to someone else.” Sakura said. Lee looked dejected at that. Sakura looked sad at what she did. Naruto finally stood up and wiped tears from his eyes.

“That was a good laugh. Haven’t had laughs like that since the girl’s locker room incident back in the academy.” Naruto said

“That was you!? You little pervert, do you know how embarrassed I was?” Sakura shouted

“Hey, you knew that there would be payback when you and the Sasgay club decided to use my hair as a toilet brush.”

“Sasuke is not gay.”

“You have half of the female class that is pretty chasing after him and throwing themselves at his feet and he doesn’t even flinch. If that doesn’t mean your gay, then I don’t know what does.”

“He just doesn’t want to pick yet.”

“He’s gay.”

“I’m warning you Naruto.”

“Excuse me.” Lee interjected

“WHAT!?” they both shouted. Lee jumped back a bit but he turned his attention back to Sakura.

“Even though you have rejected me, I will not give up. Your beauty is so ravishing that it would be so un-youthful for me to give up.” Lee declared. Sakura actually blushed at that. Naruto looked at him like he was crazy.

“Are you serious? You’re attracted to her?” Naruto asked Lee. “Are you sure that you’re not seeing her properly because of those eyebrows of yours? If you shave them,” Naruto tirade was cut off by Sakura punching him in the head. Sasuke, who was very annoyed, step up to Lee.

“You said that you would like to challenge me? You know who I am and you still want to challenge me? You’ve got guts.” Sasuke boasted

“Or, he can whoop your butt. Come on teme, we have an exam to take and we do have the energy to carry your ass.” Naruto explained

“Don’t worry dobe; this won’t take more than five minutes.” Sasuke said and got into a fighting stance. Lee did the same. Naruto hung his head and walked over to the stairway and sat down leaning on the wall. Sakura followed but stood next to Naruto. She watched as Lee and Sasuke engaged in a taijutsu battle. Naruto watched as Sasuke was getting creamed by the boy in spandex. Sakura couldn’t believe how good this guy was. Lee sent Sasuke to the ground with a spin kick. Sasuke growled and activated his Sharingan. Thinking that he had the advantage, Sasuke charged at Lee. Again, Sasuke was surprised that Lee was still beating him up quite badly.

Though Naruto knew that Sasuke deserved the beating, he was still impressed by this guy. He noticed that he was incredibly fast, maybe faster than him. He also noticed how heavily his bandages were wrapped and that he was wearing weights around his ankles.

“He’s holding back.” Naruto said suddenly

“What? How do you know?” Sakura asked

“If you pay attention to certain things you could pick out some things. There is also something up with this guy. He hasn’t used a single ninjutsu or genjutsu.” He explained. This shocked Sakura and she turned to her teammate in wonder.

“You don’t mean that he has been using taijutsu all this time? That speed has to be an illusion.” She said. A sound of pain was heard and she turned back to see Sasuke in the air. The boy named Lee suddenly appeared behind him. He was explaining the same thing that Naruto was explaining to her. Lee’s bandages were about to wrap around Sasuke when a pin wheel held one of the bandages firmly. A red turtle appeared and berated Lee for attempting to use a forbidden move. Lee tried to apologize for it but the turtle said it was too late and to prepare himself. Suddenly, in a puff of smoke, a man dressed in the same clothing as Lee with big eyebrows and a bowl cut appeared Naruto sighed and stood up and dusted himself off. He walked up to Sasuke and held his hand out. Sasuke scoffed at him and Naruto sighed. He just shrugged and walked toward the third floor. Before he got to the stairs, he turned slightly to Sasuke.

“Perhaps you will take this more seriously Uchiha. Your Sharingan means nothing in these exams.” Naruto said and walked off.

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Naruto had a scowl on his face as he entered the room filled with other Chuunin hopefuls. Sakura decided to stare clear of him since she knew the reason for his anger. She had walked onto the situation with Sasuke after meeting Maito Gai.

-----Flashback-----

Sakura was still disturbed at the hugging scene that she was just witness to between Rock Lee and his sensei. She attempted to get the image out of her mind and tried to focus on Sasuke who was still angry at being defeat by Lee. She suddenly heard Naruto’s loud voice and wanted to see what he was shouting for. As she neared, she saw the blond glaring at Kakashi. His sensei had his book up to his face and was ignoring the blond. They walked up to the two.

“Hey, what’s going on?” she asked

“Nothing, just discussing the view of irresponsible sensei’s and the retarded decisions they make.” Naruto said sarcastically

“Ok, I’ve had enough of your attitude Naruto. If you had a problem with doing the exam, them you should have stayed home.” Kakashi said while closing his book.

“I shouldn’t have to make the decision. After what I just saw, I know at least one member of this team is taking not taking this serious enough.” Naruto roared

“He was lucky dobe and you don’t get lucky twice.” Sasuke said

“You see, Sasuke is serious about this exam. Perhaps you should have more fate in your teammates.” Kakashi said. Naruto growled at his sensei. He turned away from his team and kicked in the doors and walked in.

------Present-----

Naruto stood away from his team and leaned against the wall. He was angry at his lazy sensei and cocky teammate. When he had asked Iruka about how he made Chuunin, he was told a gruesome story of Iruka’s first kill. He knew that he had yet to have blood stain his hands despite he had helped Kakashi in killing Zabuza. Despite his training with Anko, he was scared of taking the life of another, enemy or not. He watched at Sakura and Ino fought over Sasuke. He shook his head as he watched Sakura revert back into a fan-girl. He just hoped that she would snap out of it. He suddenly felt a hand on his arm. He turned to see Hinata.

“You didn’t react to my touch. Either you’re sick or someone pissed you off.” She said

“The second choice, I’m sure that your sensei told you about this exam?” He asked

“Yes, she did. Didn’t yours?”

“My sensei is a total waste of space. Truth be told, Sakura and I are the only one’s ready for this exam. Sasuke is the one who will probably get us killed.”

“That’s why you’re there.”

“Thanks.” He then stared at Hinata for a while. He looked her up and down and cocked his head to the side. Hinata blushed a little at his gaze and twiddled her fingers.

“N-N-Naruto-kun, y-y-you’re making me a b-bit u-u-uncomfortable.” She stuttered. Naruto realized what he was doing and blushed as well.

“O-Oh, I’m really sorry about that. It’s just that you’ve changed a bit.” He said while scratching the back of his head.

“Y-You think so?” she said. Naruto grinned and nodded while Hinata just smiled. That’s when Naruto noticed that he was being watched. He turned to see two pairs of eyes. One pair belonged to Neji, the other belong to a red haired boy. He had a large gourd on his back and tattoo of the word ‘love’ on his forehead. The boy was standing next to a silver haired teen with glasses. The teen had two cards in his hand. He couldn’t see what was on them but the two were looking at him.

“Let’s see, Uzumaki Naruto, genin of squad seven, teammates Hanrou Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke, jounin sensei Hatake Kakashi. Well, this is quite impressive. Has kage like charka. Taijutsu is average and has no ability in genjutsu. Seems to have an array of ninjutsu and is starting to take an interest in seals.” He said. Naruto eyes narrowed a bit. How the hell did he have such information on him? The teen turned back to red head. “Is that all you wished to know?” he asked. The ninja turned away and walked back to his teammates.

“You were there, weren’t you?” Naruto called out to him. The boy stopped and turned to Naruto. The bags under his eyes were kind of freaky. It was as if he didn’t sleep at all.

“Excuse me?” he asked

“I wasn’t too sure about that fourth charka that was in the area. Mummy boy over there and his team,” Naruto said while pointing to the three sound ninja who were shocked. “Were the only three I sensed when your teammate decided to pick on one of my friends. I thought I imagined it or it was because of the beating I suffered from the pink haired Amazon that attacked me,”

“Shut up Naruto!!!” roared Sakura

“But since you seemed so interested, them you must have been there in the tree that was above me. That’s pretty good; nobody has gotten that close to me without me knowing. It would take someone of high jounin skill to get that close.” Naruto explained. He watched as his two teammates stiffened as he said that. The sand-nin just looked at him.

“Impressive but cheap tricks won’t fool me like my brother.” he said

“Never know until I try. Seeing how you know my name, mind telling me yours?” Naruto asked

“My name is Sabaku no Gaara.” He said. He then looked him over. “You do not interest me.”

“Excuse me?” Gaara did not answer him and moved back to his team. Naruto scratched his head in confusion.

“He scares me.” Hinata said. Naruto turned to see he a little shaken. Naruto placed his hand on her shoulder and gave her a smile.

“Don’t worry about panda-man over there. If you think he’s scary, wait until you see me in action.” Naruto boasted. He then caught everyone attention by jumping onto a desk and slamming his foot down. “ALL RIGHT YOU MORONS, I’M GOING TO SAY THIS ONCE. MY NAME IS UZUMAKI NARUTO, FUTURE HOKAGE AND FUTURE CHUUNIN OF KONOHAGAKURE. I’LL KICK ALL OF YOUR ASSES IF YOU GET IN MY WAY. GOT IT, YOU TEMES!!?” He roared. Everyone looked at Naruto with various reactions. All the foreign ninja glared at him and muttered curses. The rookies pretended not to know him and Hinata seemed to feel better. Naruto let out a sigh of relief. “Now I feel better.”

Suddenly there was an explosion and smoke filled the room. Once it cleared, Naruto went white as a sheet. ‘Sweet Kami, of all the individuals to run into, it had to be scarface.’

“All right you maggots shut and sit down. The first part of the exam is about to begin.” He roared. The man was surrounded by other ninjas but he was the tallest of them all. He wore a bandana on his head and a standard Konoha uniform and vest that was covered by a black trench coat. “I am the first proctor of the Chuunin exam, Morino Ibiki. Welcome to hell.”

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Authors’ Notes: Hey what’s up everybody? Here’s the newest chapter of this story. Sorry if it is a bit short. Hope you like it.