Golden Hour

The Chunin Exams

"Yo." Kakashi appeared in front of Sakura as she woke up.

"Hey, Kashi. What are we doing today?" 

"Something that'll decide if you elevate your status in this village." Kakashi replied with a big grin plastered on his face.

"Oh, is this about the Chunin Exams?" Sakura asked nonchalantly. 

"Yes. Actually, I thought that you would be a bit more excited and interested in this subject."

"Eh. Naruto's been screaming all night that he's going to pass the Chunin Exam, so I've heard enough of it already." Sakura told Kakashi, sleep still visible.

"Well, you need to get up now, Sakura, or else we're going to be late. The exams start at 12pm; it's 11:45am right now. So chop-chop. Get up, or else you're going to be a genin for the next year."

"Fine." Sakura said sluggishly as she awoke with droopy eyes and obscured joints. She took a while to stretch as she got up and donned her headband to start a new day. She would become a Chunin. She would swear that she would.

As she walked out to check on Kakashi and the boys, she noticed that they weren't inside the cabin that they had been staying at. She checked around for the 3 'missing' teamates. She couldn't find them. She searched everywhere for them. They were missing. She had checked the toilets, the kitchen, the bedroom, she even checked the Forest Of Death; they were nowhere. 

Then she finally noticed a little post-it note stuck on the entrance of the cabin.

It read: "Gone to C.E. Come quickly or we're disqualified. - Kashi, Ke, To."

"Dammit! They've already gone to the Exams!" Sakura thought rapidly. She had been in her own world of thoughts that she didn't notice that the most noisy person in her life right now had left to go to an incredibly important event.

She ran. She sprinted. She dashed. 

She. Was. Speed.

She arrived just in time to see Sasuke being challenged to a duel with a boy with a green jumpsuit, bushy eyebrows and a bowl cut. Naruto was standing next to Sasuke, his arms crossed.

"Hey, Sasuke." She arrived, panting.

"Oh, hey Sakura. You should probably go sign up now, otherwise you're going to get us disqualified." Sasuke greeted her.

She ran off at top speeds.

"Now where were we, Uchiha?" 

"Who are you again?"

"You'll find out from the outcome of this battle."

Sasuke just looked confused as he cocked his head to the side.

"My name is Rock Lee." He sighed.

"I'll call you Bushy-Brows." Naruto finally spoke up.

But he put all the unimportant things to the side. This was a duel. In a duel, every ethic, every rule that you were ever taught gets chucked out the window.

Suddenly, Bushy Brows ran at Sasuke with a hand curled into a fist, ready to punch the Uchiha.

Sasuke had already seen this and with his Sharingan blazing with 2 tomoe's, he dodged Bushy-Brows' attack and then proceeded to catch Lee's swinging fist and then pin it to the ground using his foot. Lee was taken aback by this, but it didn't matter as Sasuke kicked Lee hard in the face and sent him flying backwards. Lee landed on his feet though, as Sasuke wiped a smidge of blood off his lip. 

"He's fast. But the question is, why isn't he using any Ninjutsu?" Sasuke thought. 

"I assume that you are thinking about why I am not using Ninjutsu, correct?"