Naruto Hatake

Chunin Exams Finals

-Konoha Hospital-

The Hokage was an old man but at times like this he truly felt his age, when the young are injured or killed it reminds him of all those that fell before over the years. At the moment he was in a hallway with Hiashi. After Hiashi and Naruto managed to get help and bring Hayate to the hospital it had been looking grim. The man had so many injuries and had lost so much blood, it was true that medial jutsu could do wonders that even doctors that couldn't use chakra could do, and it still had limits. It also wasn't like his old student Tsunade was still around either. Ever since she left the medical field had lost someone that could have tough so much to the next generation. Although Konoha's medical ninja were top of the line thanks to her earlier work, there was still room to grow.

After Hiashi had left, the Hokage had been given the details, that night he hadn't slept very well and even now the lack of sleep showed. Hayate had been at death's door the entire night and as he came to the hospital in the morning he had checked up on the man.

"So there was nothing to be done then," Hiashi stated as he was told that Hayate had passes away in the night.

The Hokage sighed, "None, the wounds were too bad for him to survive for long. That is why I called for you and Naruto, as the only witnesses I need to know if there was anything he said or anything you saw that would tell us who did this, and why. Although what were you two doing out at night anyway?"

Hiashi to his credit didn't show any emotion on his face given the reasons why they had been out there. After everyone he had gone home last night to his frantic daughter. Apparently she had asked what had happened and why Naruto wasn't around, she heard the story of her father chasing Naruto for some reason. So after a very long and embarrassing talk, he found out that Naruto hadn't made his daughter do something inappropriate. Although the boy would have to be watched just in case that he got it into his head that he could take liberties with his daughter before a deadline was set. He would have to make it known that in no uncertain terms, that Hinata would remain 'pure' until she was married. And as head of clan Hyuga he would see to that and heaven protect anyone that tried to stop that.

"It was a private manner that has been resolved for the most part," Hiashi said not wanting to go into detail.

The Hokage gave him a look but didn't press the matter, he got the feeling it was unimportant to these events and where of a personal nature. Normally he would be curious but not with something like this hanging over their heads. It was very troubling, there was an ill wind blowing in the village, he could feel it in his old bones but where it was coming from, and what it brought he didn't know.

Down the hallway another figure was lurking, Kabuto had heard the report from Baki and he was disappointed in the Suna ninja for not making sure the job was done. Now he had to see if Hayate not only lived but spoke to anyone. The problem was getting in there he could dress up as an ANBU, that was easiest to slip in after taking one out. But two deaths this close together would make everyone go on high alert. He had tried to sneak in several times but ANBU were everywhere in teams. He had first tried to sabotage the operation his medical skills were good enough to do that unnoticed. But he couldn't slip in, by the time he had got to the hospital it had already been underway and anyone else just walking in would have been noticed.

He had tried later to sneak into the intensive care room, there were many little things he could have done to make it look like the man just hadn't survived the surgery. But the place was too well guarded he couldn't even get close, at least not without killing anyone. If Orochimaru's plans were ruined things would not go well, the man did not tolerate failure.

He felt someone walk up behind him and quickly turned around and put on his 'mask' of the innocent little genin. He was surprised to see Naruto Hatake of all people walking upt he hallway. The young masked boy looked at him and seemed to get happier.

"Hey, Kabuto-san!" Naruto hadn't expected to run into the white haired genin. He felt bad that the older boy had to drop out of yet another chunin exam. Plus he never got to see how strong Kabuto was either. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh a friend of mine was injured and I just though to check in. What about you?"

"Oh, the Old Man wanted to speak to me about...well something," Naruto didn't go into detail. That night had been one crazy night but the body covered in blood had been something he wouldn't forget. "Well I better not keep him waiting, plus I'm missing out on training, bye I hope your friend gets better."

Kabuto smiled and waved it off as he slipped against the wall like he belonged there. With luck if they didn't go anywhere maybe he could pick something up in the hallway. He had been listening earlier to the Hokage and the head of the Hyuga clan before Naruto showed up.

Naruto froze when he saw Hiashi there next to the Hokage he gulped and started to look for exits. The windows didn't open in the hallway so unless he wanted to break them (which would get him in trouble with the hospital staff) they were out. He saw a linen cart so maybe he could hide in that until the man was gone. Or slip into another room, as long as the man didn't use his eyes to look for him through objects, Naruto had various options.

"Ah, there you are Naruto." The Hokage said noticing the black and orange clad boy.

Naruto winced, knowing that he was screwed. Hiashi now saw him, there was no way to hide now and the man was fast. No room to really dodge in the hallway either, yeah he felt like his life was nearing its end. His face went pale as the head of the Hyuga walked slowly towards him. All those threats of death came back into Naruto's young mind.

'Well...it wasn't so bad a life. Had a great dad, nice family, good friends and I had a really cute girlfriend.' Naruto prepared himself for the afterlife, wishing that he could have at least became Hokage, or maybe at least second base with Hinata...maybe third. Homerun when they were old enough, oh well, life didn't always get you want you wanted and he really wished he made a will out.

Hiashi stared down at the boy with an expressionless face. Although on his return his daughter had explained everything, he was inclined to believe her. After all she couldn't lie to really save her life, but that was besides the point. He needed to make sure that the boy knew his place, he may like the boy but that didn't mean Naruto could ever take liberties with his daughter. He needed to ensure that if thoughts like that ever entered the boy's mind, he would remember this moment.

He leaned down so only Naruto would hear what he was going to say. "I will refrain from killing you, for the moment. My daughter explained but let this moment be perfectly clear in your mind. If I ever even suspect that you actually try anything like what I thought was going on. I have a large amount of land, and the only people that could see through the ground to where a body could be buried, all of them are under my command. Keep that in mind."

Naruto looked up and nodded quickly as suddenly images of him being buried somewhere in the Hyuga compound came to his mind.

"Now let's not keep the Hokage waiting," He said as he turned around and walked back to the leader of the village. Naruto followed looking like a scolded dog, and a bit paler. As they came up to the Hokage they were to give a report on what happened. Mainly it wasn't much just that they stumbled upon his body. Hayate had been in no condition to talk about what had happened, so it was still a major mystery. While they were talking a medic took in a gurney where the body would be placed and taken to the morgue.

"Let me see him!" A female voice yelled out. "Damn it I want to see for myself!"

The voice was of Yugao Uzuki, a beautiful young woman with long purple hair, she was also Hayate's girlfriend and lover. She had been on an ANBU assignment and had only just heard the news. She needed to see for herself the truth that her love was dead, murdered by the sounds of it. She was currently being held by two hospital staff.

"Let her through," the Hokage said as the two staff members let go immediately.

She paused only for a moment before running into the room, a moment later a wail of anger, pain and of loss filled the air. It soon turned into crying as those in the hallway turned as if trying to give her space for her grief and pain.

The Hokage sighed hearing the poor young woman, whose heart was just shattered. "Death is never an easy thing to face when it is the one you love."

"No...it isn't," Hiashi stated remembering the death of his own wife. Although it had been years since she had passes away the hole in his life had never been filled.

For Naruto he remained silent, he couldn't stand listening to that woman crying. It brought back the memory of when Hinata had lost her mother and she had cried in his arms. Is this the thing that would happened to her if he died one day, or what if she was killed? What if anyone he knew would be killed one day and then what? He knew that death came to anyone, he had liked Hinata's mother and she had died.

Kabuto grinned as he pushed his glasses back up, it would seem that maybe all wasn't lost. Although he didn't like the fact that the man's body would be taken to Inoichi Yamanaka, if he could find anything in the memories that still lingered deep inside of the brain, it wouldn't go well. The body would be put into the morgue to keep the deterioration slowed, but the body wouldn't be as guarded. It would be much simpler to go into there and ensure the brain wouldn't be accessed. A simple little injection that would make the brain turned into jelly.

-10 Days Later-

"Water Style: Aqua Tower!" Sakura's voice rang out in the training area. A pillar of water shot out of the ground as it moved forward to attack several training dummies. The water tore the straw scarecrow like beings into pieces. Sakura was sweating and breathing hard from the training but she was smiling.

That had been the first time she had used that jutsu perfectly like she had. It hadn't been easy to learn water manipulation, and even harder to learn how to make water when there was no nearby source. Although there was water in the human body and in the air it was dangerous. Using too much of your own water that reside inside of your body could apparently kill you from dehydration. Using the moisture in the air took time and more chakra.

But still, the two women training her and Hinata had made the two girls train in how to use the water style jutsus with little to no water to draw on.

"Water Style: Water Shockwave!" Hinata called out as a spiral of water was formed from the water in the air. The spiral moved and hit a large rock as it exploded on contact.

"Nice one Hinata," Sakura said to the dark haired girl. Hinata smiled at Sakura's encouragement, over the last few days they had spent a lot of time helping each other out. Hinata felt a sense of strength from how sure Sakura always seem to be, at least in the training.

"Not bad girls," Kurenai smiled proudly at the two of them. "Keep this up and you two will have some major surprises for your teams. What do you think Anko?"

Anko who had been sitting in a tree watching them jumped down and walked over to the two girls. Out of the two women, Anko was always the hardest, she didn't believe in being gentle in training. She never did anything that would hurt the girls permanently or land them into the hospital. But she wasn't gentle either, she pushed the girls because she felt they could take it. So far she hadn't been too disappointed, but she tried not to show it too much.

"It's getting better," Anko simply said to the two young girls. "At any rate I think it's time for a break before you girls collapse."

That had been music to their ears as they both felt like collapsing at that moment. As they rested in the grass both girls minds went to thinking on the future. For Hinata, she was thinking of her future with Naruto. Ever since her father gave him that warning about what the Elders could do, it worried her. She couldn't think of her life without Naruto being a part of it. Now that they were a couple she felt like she would rather cut an arm off than lose him. He made her happy, made her feel confident in herself and she felt like she could do anything. He was a source of great strength and inspiration for her, plus she trusted no one else more so than she did.

Sakura's mind was occupied by two things the first was the upcoming matches. She wasn't sure how the training with the others were doing but she was sure they were training hard. She needed to be ready for her own match Sakura hadn't seen Ino since that day of the preliminary matches. She was sure that Ino was doing better now, but no matter what she would get even for Ino. The other thing her mind had been on as always was Sasuke. She sighed in a bit of depression ever since she had made the deal with him she had kept her word.

She never once asked him out again but she still wanted to. Sakura looked over to Hinata and felt a bit of envy of the other girl. She had at least got the boy she had been crushing on, while Sakura was still behind in that point. "Hey Hinata, can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"How did you get Naruto to ask you out?" Sakura asked the girl plainly, she figured that it had to be Naruto to take the initiative as Hinata couldn't muster the courage to do something like that. If she could, she would have asked a long time ago.

Hinata blushed as she found out the real reason Naruto noticed her, she didn't think telling Sakura to train naked at night and having Sasuke see her was the best thing to say. Plus it was too embarrassing to confess to that. She had been thinking about that, on the one hand it wasn't the best way to get a boy to notice her. Then she remembered how Naruto couldn't stop talking about the mysterious girl. It had made Naruto see her as a girl and not just as a friend.

But she had no way to tell Sakura how she had done it and the other girl was waiting for an answer.

"I think she just used her body," Anko chimed in as she had been listening in.

"Anko," Kurenai snapped. Although she too had been listening she didn't like Anko implying such a thing.

"Hey I know the brat better than you do," Anko said in her defence. She then struck a pose to help her next point. "Besides a woman's body is her main weapon against a man. Don't you remember that as one of the private lessons in school only for the girls?"

Now both Sakura and Hinata were blushing, there were certain things that kunoichi learned differently than the boys. Flower arrangement had been one, but the more embarrassing where the ones when a professional courtesan came in for an introduction to seduction. That had been extremely embarrassing day for those girls.

"There are better ways at getting a man than that," Kurenai said to Anko clearly not amused.

"Says the woman that's still single," Anko stuck her tongue out at the older and now slightly fuming woman. "How much longer are you going to wait for Asuma to make the first step anyway?"

"Asuma, as in Asuma-sensei?" Sakura looked up in surprised at the red eyed woman.

"I-I didn't know that Kurenai-sensei, liked Asuma-sensei." Hinata spoke up in surprise.

Kurenai felt her cheeks heat up as Anko made this public. She was about to deny it but Anko beat her too it. "Are you kidding? She's totally has had a crush on that guy since she was still a chunin. Kind of pathetic really, at least when I started to like Kakashi as more than a friend, I did something about it. And I got what I wanted," Anko smirked at Kurenai who was now blushing much like Hinata.

Sakura thought about this, Anko was always so confident and she took no prisoners. She was a great kunoichi that Sakura had come to respect and she did get Naruto's dad. If there was one woman that could help her with Sasuke, than Anko was the person for it.

Sakura quickly got to her knees as she bowed her head to Anko, "Please Anko-sensei, can you help me with getting Sasuke to like me?"

Anko was surprised by the girl's request but she couldn't help but also feel a sense of perverse pleasure in moulding the girl. Kurenai sighed as she saw the look in her friend's eye she had seen that look many times and felt a bit sorry for the girl. Anko asked Sakura to explain everything, she went into the things she had tried, the deal she made even how jealous she was when Sasuke took noticed of Tenten. Anko asked for a better explanation on what kind of person Tenten was.

Anko thought about it all of it and soon to came to a conclusion.

"Okay first things first, you made one hell of a bad first impression," Anko said bluntly as Sakura hung her head feeling even more depressed. "From what I can tell the kid hates 'fan-girls', they just annoy him and you went along with the pack in school. Big mistake there as he placed you into the same grouping, but there is hope. You haven't been like that anymore so maybe his opinion of you has changed."

"He also seems to like the more mature types and strong girls. Given that you said he wants to restore his clan, he'll want to have a strong woman to do it. Now in order to get him to notice you, you'll have to show him that you're more mature and stronger. Thankfully we're working on the stronger part now and you can show him that in the matches. Now you'll have to work on your personality a bit, you have to come off as more confident, make the boy want to chase you instead of you chasing him."

"Last thing...you need a new look."

"I-I do?" Sakura looked down at her red dress.

"You're not a little girl anymore you're a ninja and its time to dress the part. So after training I'm taking you shopping to get you looking like a real ninja. As well as making him take notice of you as a woman."

Sakura liked the sound of that, if she looked more mature it might help.

Anko looked to Hinata, "Maybe we can do something for Hinata, get the brat a little hot under the collar. Hell I saw what you looked like in a bathing suit I wish I had developed like you did when I was your age."

"Anko, you are not dressing up my student," Kurenai said sternly with her friend. "Hinata is a proper girl and I will not have you dressing her in anything else."

"Are you making a comment about me or something?" Anko asked a little angry. She hated it when people made very negative comments on her look. She liked the functionality of her choice in clothing as well as the physical appeal. "Besides I'm not saying anything drastic, just maybe lose the jacket or at least get a slimmer one."

As the two adults started to argue over fashion it left their students wondering which one had the right idea. Kurenai dressed in a more exotic look but it didn't show too much, while Anko dressed in a provocative manner but it still held function. At any rate it was awhile before they started training again that day.

-Later that Night-

Gaara had been very bored lately there was no real reason for him to train. He had never found anyone that could challenge him so there was no need to get stronger. He was already the strongest there was, even adults were afraid of him and they were right to be afraid of him. He was the walking death of the desert. He didn't sleep either, since the demon within would devour his mind. The sand was the only thing that he could trust it had been the only thing that protected him, that was there for him constantly. It had been his mother for his life, already wrapped up in its comforting embrace and he would feed his mother the blood of his enemies.

But there was someone else out there whose blood called out to him. He wasn't sure if he could wait until the end of the month. His mind kept going back to that one match, the man that had tried to drain the chakra out of the masked genin, the one called Naruto Hatake.

The screams of that man still rang in his mind, it was a glorious sound. But Gaara knew what had happened he knew what that masked boy was. He was like him, he had a demon inside as well, he could just tell. This was the first time he met someone like him, someone that interested him this much. He would have to kill that boy he felt every part of his body screaming out for the blood of Naruto Hatake.

Naruto groaned as he walked home, today had been even a harder day than normal. After Jiraiya had found him practicing that trick with the water balloons that his dad taught him the old man hadn't left him alone. He didn't really see why at first, he kept the practice of that training test ever since his dad showed his team how shape manipulation worked. But at any point whatever interests was in the old man was gone as they continued on their training.

Although the old pervert left him alone for some time, mainly for more 'research' so Naruto was left to experiment, and it had been his shape training that made Naruto remember that one move in the Forbidden Scroll he and Hinata had been tricked into stealing. He remembered that one jutsu that if done wrong would rip apart someone's hand. Wind jutsus were apparently dangerous but what if he could find a way to control the shape of the chakra? It was then that he had begun his experiments and when Jiraiya had found him.

-Flash back a few days ago-

Naruto stood by the river as he tried to figure out his new move. His own dad came up with an original jutsu at about his age, then again his dad was a genius. But that never stopped Naruto, so he had been trying to create a move similar to what he had seen. He wished that he had read that scroll more, he kind of forgot a few parts. He had been trying with hand seals and the balloon training but so far nothing.

"Come on, it can't be that hard to create a jutsu is it?" Naruto said as he tried something else. He closed his eyes as he thought of drawing out his wind chakra. He held the image in his mind, then Naruto extended his hands slightly apart and the palms facing each other. He slowly began to picture the wind chakra moving through his body and going into his hands. Next step was to force it into the shape of the balloons. For a minute he thought that he had just started to get somewhere.

"Alright I'm doing it, I'm-" BOOOOOM!

The explosion of the mismatched chakras ended up exploding in his hands he was sent flying back as he hit a tree. He had blacked out after that and it wasn't until he felt someone shaking him and someone calling his name.

"Hey kid, Naruto wake up!"

Naruto groaned as he felt his arms tingling like they had been numb for a bit. He slowly opened his eyes as he looked up to see sky, and Jiraiya looking down from him.

"Oh good you're not dead," The man grinned as he looked over the area. "What the hell were you doing? I thought you were supposed to be training with the summoning and calling out your other chakra to help give you a boost."

"I was trying to make up my own move," Naruto explained what he had planned to do but somehow it had backfired.

"Kid do you have any idea how dangerous that was?" Jiraiya couldn't believe the kid would do something so dangerous. Although he had to admit, for the kid to try something so advanced on his own was impressive. "Look kid, you're nowhere near ready for using such an advanced move. Hell, what you were trying to do was infuse chakra into an unfinished technique."

"Unfinished technique?"

Jiraiya nodded, "Yeah that thing your dad showed you is actually the first step of training to use a different technique. Although you got the first part down, it would take too long to train you to use it." He noticed Naruto's downed expression. "How about this, for the last week I'll teach you how to use that jutsu that is similar to the one that you were trying to recreate."

"Really, you can teach me that?" Naruto said excited but then he remembered that was still some time off. "But what about before then?"

"Well you still have trouble with the damn chakra you can't seem to access the Fox's at will. I have an idea how to fix it but it's pretty hard and I'm not sure you're up for it." The Sannin told the young boy.

"I can do anything, so bring it on Ero-Sennin!"

-Present-

'Man that had been a mistake,' Naruto thought to himself remember what had happened two days ago. 'Stupid old pervert, making me do all that stuff and then throwing me off a damn cliff! Then that stupid Boss Toad making me ride him for the entire day in order to be his 'minion' and then there was the Fox. The stupid Fox was a big ugly jerk too.'

Naruto had been pushed off a cliff by his teacher just so that he was put into a life or death moment, he had gone into his mind for the second time. When he got up to the cage he had remembered a dream about being in that dark place before. Turns out it hadn't been a dream and that had been a memory of when he had been stabbed. He still remembered a bit of that day, he had always thought it had been just a nightmare when he passed out. But the Fox had remembered him from when he had been a child, well this time he wasn't afraid of the stupid thing and told him so right to his big harry face.

Although Naruto didn't like using the Fox's chakra, he wanted to use his own strength but he would use it if he needed to, but only as a last resort.

Now he was dragging himself home dreaming of his nice soft bed. Too bad his dad was still camping out wherever he was training Sasuke. He was also pumped he couldn't wait to see what Sasuke and Sakura had learned and what they would do in the finals. That thought gave him a bit more energy as he made his way through the dark streets. Although ever since he had found Hayate's body he kept looking around into the shadows. Something was wrong, even he could tell that but he didn't know what. He told Jiraiya about everything but the old man just had this serious and deep thinking face. The man never said anything about it but Naruto got a feeling that the old man was thinking something was going on as well.

It was only because of that heightened sense of alert that he felt it, the killing intent. Naruto although his body was sore and tired he moved quickly. He spun around with the hand on the hilt of the sword on his back. He was surprised to see ten meters away was the Suna ninja, Gaara.

The other boy really made Naruto nervous, the whole boy's demeanour just screamed out danger. It was a long moment before the other boy spoke up in that gravelly whispered voice of his.

"So you're this village's container." Gaara spoke as he looked at the boy. So far he wasn't impressed and he could feel the fear coming off the other boy. It kind of disgusted by it actually, to think that another demon container was like this.

Naruto was shocked by what the other boy said, "How the hell did you know that!" Naruto really did want to know, it was a secret, hell he didn't find out what he was until he graduated. But this boy from another village knew?

Gaara stared at the other boy, he wanted to just call up on his sand and kill the boy now. But he was told to wait, wait until the matches started up again. He didn't want to wait though, this boy was his prey and the sand called for his blood. It took a lot of will power to quell the blood thirst in him.

"How that two people that are the same can be so different. I can't figure out why you're not more like me, aren't you hated and feared for what you are? This village should fear you with good reason, you should be able to destroy this village but you're just weak. But at any rate, I look forward to killing you Naruto Hatake. You'll be the first of our kind that I'll be able to kill." Gaara grinned a maniacal grin as the sand swirled around him and soon Naruto was left alone in the street.

Naruto just stood there transfixed as the boy's words rang in his head.

"So much alike...of our kind...does he mean that..." Naruto paused as the words slowly sank into his mind. And Gaara's words would echo into his mind for the rest of the training that month, and when the day came for the final matches he wasn't sure what he would feel the next time he meet Gaara.

The day had finally come to Naruto and everyone else in the village. The final part of the chunin exams started today, from all over the ninja nations important people came to see the genins. Many would be clients one day as they looked to see which village had the most promising genins for the next six months. For the past few days inns were crowed as more and more people came into the village. For Naruto, he had barely slept that last night, he was too excited. His month of training with the old pervert had done him some good. The boy was itching for his fight, the only downside was that he wasn't first up.

He made sure to eat a healthy breakfast, no matter how much he wanted ramen, his dad always made sure he ate well. Plus this was important he would need all the energy he could take. Plus he thought he could always send a shadow clone to the ramen stand for a quick snack between matches. That is if the clone didn't eat it first. He scowled at that memory the problem with shadow clones was that they thought too much like the person at times. At any rate he spent the morning preparing, going over his weapons, making sure he stretched out for a hard day. Plus anything else he could think of to pass the time and to make it go by faster. When the time finally came, he was out the door and ran straight to the stadium. Any concern for saving his energy didn't even enter his mind, he just wanted to get in there as fast as possible.

He made it there with plenty of time, already the place was packed with people as Naruto looked around for his friends. He saw Team 10 with Asuma by the rail and went over to them waving and calling out to them. Shikamaru raised his head with a lazy wave, Choji was happy to see Naruto and Naruto saw that Ino was looking a lot better. He couldn't see any scarring but then again, Konoha medics were some of the best.

Ino had improved and she didn't have any scarring thankfully, she had been afraid her 'perfect body' as she said, would be ruined with scars. Although it had taken some time for her to heal, it took a few days for her to wake up and then there was the physical therapy. A few of her tendons had been cut, but medical jutsu could repair those types of injuries if treated before they atrophied or if they weren't damaged beyond repair. Hers, had been clean cut through, the best type for medics to heal. But it took her two weeks to gain full functionality again as her body had to relearn how to use them.

It had been the scariest thing in Ino's life, she had never been injured that much before in her life and there had been times she thought her career as a ninja might have been over with. It had been a terrifying experience for her and a bit of a wake up call. Now she knew personally just how dangerous her life had become, it was the point that her father said many would either go on or it would break them. Well she wasn't going to let this stop her, she planned on learning from this and getting stronger from it.

"Hey Naruto," Ino waved to him as she saw the masked genin walk up to them. "So I hope you actually did some training unlike someone I bet I could name." She cast Shikamaru a glance.

He only sighed, truth was that he had trained with his dad, mainly due to his mother didn't want her son to do horrible in the exam and bring shame to their house. Plus he knew that she was actually worried, she only complained and yelled like she had when she was really worried about something.

"Oh yeah I trained a lot and got a few new surprises," Naruto grinned at the prospect of showing off his new skills.

"Great," Shikamaru sighed, "as if exploding clones wasn't enough for you, now what? Knowing you this place might not survive the experience."

"Hey I'm not that bad," Naruto glared at him. He noticed the looks all three were giving him as he slumped his shoulders. "Some friends you all are."

"Hey it's the truth," Kiba's voice came behind him as he noticed Team 8 with their sensei walking towards them.

"Hey guys," Naruto said as he smiled to Hinata, then he noticed something as the girl came up to him. "Hey Hinata-chan are you wearing a new coat?"

Hinata was wearing a less baggy coat, this one was a bit more slim at the waist as well. It was also unzipped from the top a bit showing a new mesh top just peeking out from it. She hadn't been sure of what to get when Anko took her and Sakura to get new clothing. She never was comfortable with showing off her figure so this was the best she could do.

"Oh that looks nice," Ino jumped in as she took in the new coat. "That looks really cute on you."

"Yeah it does," Naruto ginned at her. Hinata blushed a bit but was happy someone thought so as she wasn't certain about the new jacket. Plus the fact that Naruto himself thought so only meant more so to her. Plus it was really great to see him again, she had missed him the entire time they had been training separately. She was surprised when he gave her a hug, she felt all warm inside as he did so.

"Missed you Hime," he whispered into her ear at the nickname he gave her.

She relaxed into the hug as she felt herself nuzzle into him, smelling his scene and the feel of him against her. She forgot that they were in public she just wanted to enjoy the feel of her boyfriend against her. After nearly a full month she could just stay like they were for the rest of the day.

"Awww, that's so cute," Ino said nearly gushing at the sight. "I wish I could get a boyfriend to do that with."

"Like Sasuke would ever let you anywhere near him for things like that," Shikamaru sighed.

"What was that?" Ino snarled at him as the boy flinched. He really needed to remember when not to make certain comments around the blonde girl. She could be fearsome when she wanted to be and Shikamaru already had one girl he had to fight today, he didn't need another on top of that.

Although Ino's comment did snap Hinata out of her enjoyment, she noticed everyone looking as she quickly stepped out of the hug all red in the face. Public displays of affection were something a Hyuga was not supposed to do, plus it was embarrassing for her. Naruto only chuckled at the sight of her, she looked so cute like that.

"Oh by the way Naruto, you got that thing you owe me for losing the bet?" Kiba asked Naruto. After all Team 7 had arrived late and his team had beaten Naruto's. He knew that Naruto wouldn't run out on a bet and he was kind of looking forward to it. Plus Kurenai was talking with Asuma so now was the best time to get it out of the way while she wasn't looking.

Naruto sighed as he rolled his eyes, he pulled open his black vest and reached inside and tossed a familiar orange book to Kiba. "There, an Icha Icha novel."

Kiba grinned as he put it in his own coat, ever since Naruto first read it out loud to Sasuke he wanted his own copy. "What did you do, swipe this from your dad's collection?"

"Are you crazy?" Naruto said shocked. "If my dad knew I did that he'd skin me alive, son or not. I just pulled a henge of my dad when I went into the book store. They didn't even blink when I bought the book." If he had known this earlier he might have tried to get his own copies but that was a thought for another day. "Speaking of, I don't see him or Sasuke anywhere, not that I'm surprised."

"Y-you're father wouldn't be late for this would he?" Hinata asked hopefully.

"Well..." Naruto scratched the back of his head, he had been worried about all of this. In fact he had hoped that his dad wouldn't be late for once. This was a major day for him, if he made chunin today than it would be great and all, but he wanted his dad here to see him win.

"Man you'd think my own son would have more faith in me," Kakashi's voice was heard behind them. They quickly turned to see Kakashi walking towards them with his hands in his pockets. Sasuke was next to him wearing a new all black outfit and the sword strapped behind his back instead of the waist. "To think I raised such a son who has no faith in his own father."

"Well maybe if you weren't late all the time," Naruto grumbled but he was delighted to see his dad and Sasuke here. "So Sasuke, I hope my dad didn't work you too hard I know what he can be like when he actually puts effort into the training."

"Hn, we'll just see when the matches start and you better make it to the final round," Sasuke grinned at the masked boy.

"Only if you do the same," Naruto said back to him.

"Ah rivals in actions," Kakashi sighed and then looked around. "Hey I'm missing one of mine, anyone seen Sakura?"

"S-She said she would be arriving about now," Hinata told them. She guessed that Sakura would be here pretty soon although she hadn't seen the girl since their last training day yesterday. Given all the training both girls had went through, Hinata hoped that Sakura did well. Over the past month she had gotten a bit closer to the pink haired girl, here was a girl that tried her hardest to become strong only pushed Hinata even harder herself. She watched the Hatakes joking around as father and son, and for a moment she kind of wished she had that kind of closeness with her own father. But she knew because of their station in life they had to act a certain way.

It was then that she noticed a certain pink haired girl walking up to them. "Oh, Sakura just arrived," Hinata said.

"Oh really?" Naruto said turning to his friend, "Hey there S-S-Sakura-chan?!"

Everyone turned to face Sakura as she walked towards them, gone was the familiar red dress she usually wore. Now she wore a red vest that still held the white circle on the back, a matching low cut skirt also was on her with black shorts under it. The rest of her body was covered in a ninja mesh that looked exactly like the kind Anko wore. Even Sakura's foot wear looked a bit more like Anko's with light amored shin protection. Sakura also wore gloves with metal on the back of the hands just like Kakashi's gloves only these weren't cut off at the fingers like his. She definitely had a different look to her as her forehead protector was pulled down to actually cover her forehead.

She looked a lot more ninja-like now than he had and it was a just a shock to see her like this. Sakura knew people would stare but Anko had given her some coaching on how to deal with it. Sakura looked impassively at everyone. "What? Do I have something on my face?"

"When the hell did you get new clothing and why wasn't I invited?" Was the first words spoken, by Ino no less. Although she was happy to see her best friend she couldn't help but look at Sakura's new impressive look. In comparison to Sakura's older outfit, this looked a lot more functional ninja wear.

Sakura just shrugged it off, "Anko-sensei said I needed a new wardrobe if I wanted to be taken seriously as a ninja. Plus I have to admit, after getting used to it, it's easier for me to move around in without that long dress tripping up my legs."

She was honest about that, she used to have to be careful how she moved because the long front and back could easily catch in her legs. Although she wasn't too comfortable at first showing off so much (her parents had been shocked as well first time they saw her new look), she felt she could move a lot easier now. She looked up at her two teammates, "So what do you guys think?"

"It looks great Sakura-chan," Naruto said giving her a thumbs up after getting over his shock.

Sasuke only nodded, although he had to admit it was a vast improvement. He also wondered how much stronger she and Naruto had gotten. Although he knew that Sakura was technically the weakest member he had seen her grow over time when they were put into this team. Looking at her now, and the look of fire in the other girl's eyes was something new as well. He watched as the pink haired girl went over talking to Ino as the girls caught up. It also came to him that she once didn't call him Sasuke-kun or even cast a glance at him. That was odd as the girl always tried to catch his eye, even after their deal. Was it possible that the girl was finally becoming more mature? He hadn't even realized that he had been noticed by Naruto staring at Sakura. The blonde was grinning under his mask as he thought he saw that same look on Neji's face when he looked at Tenten.

'So is the cold bastard finally warming up?' Naruto thought to himself and to all the fun he could have with this later on. His thoughts were broken off as another adult joined the group, this one by basically jumping onto the back of his father.

"Hey there, miss me?" Anko said as she latched onto her man. It had been a very long month, there had been times she had been tempted to sneak off and see what Kakashi was doing, plus finding a little alone time together. But she was business first type of person, but now she could finally have her fun.

Kakashi chuckled as he felt her against him, wishing he didn't have his thick combat vest on as he was missing feeling her press against his back, as he did his best to look at her. "First off yes, and second, I see you couldn't resist to shape a mini-you out of one of my genins."

"Oh please I didn't go that far," Anko waved it off, "Besides she doesn't like snakes or bleeding people so it's not like I could make her totally into a short version of me."

Kakashi sweat dropped at that, "Uh good then...so are you planning on getting off my back anytime soon?"

"Nope, I feel comfy here," She grinned at him. "Besides I'm not that heavy."

"So you say," Kakashi meant to say it under his breath. Yeah he loved the woman, but having a person on your back too its toll on you after some time. Unfortunately she had heard him and that did make her jump off his back, spun him around to face her.

"What did you say?" Anko demanded, "Are you saying I'm heavy or something?"

Now Kakashi knew he was getting into dangerous territory, weight issues with a woman all men knew to avoid. Sure she had said 'heavy' and not that great taboo word of 'fat', but it was implied. So he did what any male would do, he would lie through his teeth. "Of course not but I nearly pulled my back climbing up a cliff one handed with Sasuke during training. Still a little sore back there."

Anko looked at him for a moment but the damn thing was, it was hard to tell when he was lying or telling the truth, with the exceptions for his excuses for being late. That damn relaxed voice and body expression coupled with so little of his face showing helped with that. But at any rate she had missed seeing him too much to really care and decided to let it slid. "Well at any rate I think you'll be surprised with the girl, I think I did some of my best work there."

Kakashi smiled at her, "I'll be looking forward to it."

"Ah Kakashi my eternal rival!" Gai's booming voice was heard.

Kakashi sighed, "Of course now he shows up." He turned to face Gai and his three students as they walked to the large group of genins and Jonins. Gai and Lee looked as fired up as usual, Neji looked the same as ever although Tenten was wearing her usual ninja clothing with full gear. Tenten originally wanted to put on this nice dress she had for today but Gai said that a true ninja should be ready for action at all time, and she should looked professional for the entire village with so many visitors around. Tenten didn't really get it but Gai had been unusually insistent for some reason. Looking around Tenten found it odd that Ino, Choji and Kiba as well as Hinata also seemed to be fully geared up. It was a bit odd but she just shrugged it off, maybe it was something that had been passed on to the Jonins.

Little did she know that on the request of their senseis that the others were wearing their normal ninja gear instead of civilian clothing. It wasn't too odd a request but it had come out of the blue which was a bit odd for them.

"So Kakashi, even though three of your students have made it this far in comparison to my two," Gai said not noticing the slight wince from Tenten. "My students will still out perform to make up for it, and show them which team has the most flames of youth."

"Uh-huh, sure, whatever you say," Kakashi sighed.

Gai pointed his finger at the masked man, "There you go with that too cool and hip attitude!"

Naruto of course just had to mess with his 'Uncle' when the man came onto the scene. This was a first that had happened and he just had to comment on it, knowing Gai's reaction this was just too good an opportunity to pass up. "Hey I just realized, my dad actually beat you to a place on time and you're the one running late, Uncle Gai."

At that all conversations going on stopped dead as everyone suddenly came into the same realization. Kakashi hadn't even realized it as he had gotten here on time for his son so he hadn't thought about it. Kakashi looked around to see the shocked expressions on everyone's faces. He wasn't always that late was he? He could arrive on time, well sometimes, occasionally, well when it was really important and couldn't be put off he could get there on time. He just didn't see the point most of the other time. Although he did admit, the look of sheer horror on Gai's face that he had 'lost' again to him was amusing.

Gai actually fell to his hands and knees as a wave of despair could almost be seen about his person.

"Gai-sensei, are you alright?" Lee shouted at his fallen hero.

"Oh what cruel day it is when I can not even beat my eternal rival to a meeting point," Gai said in a depressed tone. It didn't last long as he jumped up and pointed to the heavens. "Then I shall always arrive a full hour earlier from now on!"

"Yes so will I Gai-sensei!" Lee shouted out to him.

"Yes, and this will give us more time to train as well," Gai proclaimed as both Tenten and Neji gave matching dark looks to Naruto. The fact that sometimes Gai called for training in the early hours of the morning and might now be even an hour earlier was not pleasant for two of his genins.

"Remind me to thank you for this later, Hatake," Neji said to Naruto with narrowed eyes.

"Yes I think I would like that as well," Tenten said with a glint in her eye that Naruto had seen before. Usually right before she unleashed some unholy number of very sharp and deadly weapons at a target. Naruto gulped, sometimes he wished having his fun didn't blow up in his face like this at times.

Anko chuckled at the sight and noticed how Hinata and Naruto hadn't been more then a foot apart the entire time she had seen them. It was kind of cute in a way, she bet the young girl had been missing Naruto almost as much as Anko had missed seeing Kakashi. Almost, meaning that there were a few things an adult missed that a girl her age shouldn't know what she was missing. Maybe in a few years things would change. Although she had hoped that Hinata would be a bit more open, at least Sakura was willing to be less uptight.

She walked over to the short haired Hyuga girl and placed a hand on her shoulder and leaned down a bit. "You know, you could pull the zipper down some more on that jacket if you ever wanted to get more of Naruto's attention."

Hinata blushed at what Anko suggesting, she couldn't allow herself to do something so brazen in public, let alone with Naruto right next to her. Sure she was wearing a shirt under her jacket but it just showed too much for her. She just wasn't comfortable with her body, hence the jackets she wore.

Anko got a glint in her eye, teasing the girl was always so much fun. She suddenly reached to the zipper, "Here maybe just a few more centimetres."

"A-Anko-sensei!" Hinata panicked not sure what to do.

"Hey don't touch Hinata-chan like that," Naruto said to Anko although a part of him was interesting in seeing a bit more.

"Oh relax, I'm just making her more-Ow! Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow!" Anko wailed as Kurenai grabbed one of her ears and pulling her away from her student.

"What have I told you about teasing Hinata?" Kurenai said in an even tone. She had moved over to intervene when she saw what was going on. Throughout the joint training, Anko had seen how easy it was to have what Anko thought of was 'fun' with Hinata. So Kurenai had to jump into the middle of things and settle Anko down. This was one of the few ways she could get the slightly younger woman to stop.

"Okay, okay I'll stop, now let go before you pull my ear off!" Anko yelled as Kurenai let go. Anko pouted as she rubbed her ear. She glared at Kurenai for spoiling her fun and then at Kakashi. "Hey I thought as the boyfriend it was your duty to prevent things like this?"

"Sorry, caught me by surprise and Asuma was ready to jump in if I did and I didn't want to start a brawl." Kakashi said with a shrug as he wrapped her up in his arms. He had to admit she kind of looked cute when she acted all childish and pouted like that. "Want me to kiss it and make it better?" He whispered into her ear.

She had a small grin on her face, "Maybe later."

"Yeah like I need to see this," Naruto muttered to himself, sure he liked the fact his dad and his 'aunt' were happier these days. Didn't mean he liked to see it when they got like this.

"Well looks like they're starting," Ino said seeing a different chunin walk into the arena.

Genma Shiranui walked out onto the field, he was a special jonin that always wore this bandana and had a senbon needle between this teeth. Many make jokes that one day he would stab his tongue or something. He was now the replacement Proctor for the final rounds of the chunin exam. As he took walked to the center of the stadium a hush fell over the crowd.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the final rounds of the chunin exams." He said in a loud voice that carried over to the crowd above him. "This is the final round will be a tournament elimination round. The fights will end with either one or both withdrawing, signalling that they give up. If I feel the opponent can't continue to fight I can stop the fight and if the fight continues after I declare a winner, I can and will disqualify someone. In the case someone dies, well it's obvious the winner will be the person that's still alive."

"In this anything goes as long as you don't attack the stands, if anyone is found too reckless and are endangering the crowd I will kick you out of this exam." He looked around to the genins in the stands and nodded. "Alright now that you know the rules everyone get to the waiting positions. The rounds will go as they are shown on the board up there."

There was a large board above the stands that had many names on them. The fights in order it would seem would be Sakura vs Ami for round one, Naruto vs Gendo next, Temari vs Shikamaru, Neji vs Shino, Lee vs Dosu and finally Sasuke vs Gaara.

"Hey was that the same order as when we were told?" Sakura asked looking at the board, she was sure that the order had been changed slightly. They were fighting all the same people but the matches looked to have been switched.

"She's right," Shino said looking at the names.

"I guess they wanted to change things up a little," Kakashi shrugged his shoulders. "Now you all better get to your places and Sakura since you're up first get ready."

Sakura nodded her head as everyone walked to the place where only the genins would be. It was a special section on the lowest level of the stadium stands that was reserved only for those waiting for their fight. Along the way Sakura was mentally preparing herself, she had spent all month waiting for this and she wouldn't lose. Although it also meant that when she won she would most likely be facing Naruto next. She wasn't sure how she felt about facing her friend, but Anko had prepared her for this, that she might have to fight her friends.

At any rate she was pretty sure she wouldn't make it all the way to the end, but you didn't need to in order to make chunin. Besides, her real goal was just to beat that Mist girl that had hurt Ino. That was her primary goal, anything after that, well she would deal as it came to her.

Naruto watched Sakura and she was really focused, he walked next to Sasuke. "Man she's really serious."

Sasuke nodded but didn't comment, he knew this was personal for the girl. Her friend had been hurt by her opponent and it was payback for that. That was something that he could relate to, although his was on a whole other level, but still he knew what she was feeling. The fact she had so much focus, it got him interested in seeing just how much stronger she had become.

Up in a special section of the stands two of the world's mightiest leaders in the ninja world sat in their formal white robes. The first was the older Third Hokage sitting on a white chair as he watched on. Sitting next to him was the Kazekage of Suna, someone the Third had many dealings with over the years. Although he didn't know the younger man personally, they had spoken together many times since their villages held a formal alliance since the last Great Ninja War. The Kazekage had taken to wearing a mask at times so you could only see the eyes and part of the face. It wasn't uncommon as the Third could name a few of his own ninja that wore masks, two of those having the name of Hatake.

The Kazekage looked at the names being put up on the board, "I was told that my son Gaara would be fighting sooner than this."

"Oh yes sorry about that old friend," The Hokage said to him. "But the new chunin in charge wanted to mix up the fights, plus given that Kakashi Hatake was training Sasuke Uchiha, well we were all a little worried the man might be running late. So it was moved to the end, I hope that doesn't bother you."

"No it's just a surprise from what my children told me. At any rate it only enhances the climate of the first round eliminations. I'm eager like many to see how the last of your Uchiha clan stands up against my son." The Kazekage told the Hokage.

Although under the skin there was a more sinister face, that of Orochimaru as he watched on. For months he had been posing at the Kazekage for Suna. When he had came to the Fourth Kazekage for this little plan the man had been for it. After all the daimyo had been slowly cutting funding to Suna for years after the last war, plus the fact that Konoha was taking over ninja missions that they should have had originally stung their pride. It had been easy to convince him of a joint mission to at first weaken the village. But when the Kazekage had learned that Orochimaru planned to utterly destroy the village and during the chunin exams the man's convictions had waivered slightly. Mainly due to how many might see a village that broke not only a truce, but used the chunin exams for this plot.

Killing all the civilians also was frowned upon, but Orochimaru wanted to ensure the village would never recover and without the civilian population for infrastructure it would never recover. So when Orochimaru felt that his 'partner' might be a problem the solution was easy enough. Kill the man, take his face and dump the body in the dessert. It had been all too easy, the man had let his guard down and Orochimaru struck him dead before he knew what had happened. So for months he had been setting this up.

He had noticed the slight build up of military force but nothing in the areas where the combined forces were stationed. Obviously when that one man had been killed trying to deliver what he knew, the old man had known something was wrong. Orochimaru grinned under the mask, his old teacher was such a fool. He had no way of knowing that his own apprentice was here next to him or that the village had been infiltrated by two ninja forces.

Then there were his own people waiting in the forest, the summoning scrolls he gave them would allow them to summon some of the larger and more dangerous snakes. So while the great walls of this village fall on the outside, the village will burn on the inside and he would finally finish off his old teacher. There was a bit of symmetry to it all, he who was once up for Hokage, the one that would lead and if necessary sacrifice themselves for the village. Of course since he had been passed over it had been an eye opening experience for him.

So the man that could have been the one to protect this village, now was the instrument of its destruction.

And to make matters even better was that he could also put a large wrench into the plans of his other enemies. Mainly the Akatsuki, they wanted the Tailed-Beasts, for what even Orochimaru didn't know. But now that two of the human hosts were in this village it would mean that he could get rid of both of them. With luck the Kyuubi boy might even get killed in his match, the Mist boy was obviously trained in the old school way of thinking for that village. But at any rate the boy would die here and when he was done with the Suna he would ensure that the One-Tail was taken care off too when the boy's usefulness was over with.

Not too far away from the arena, the form of Jiraiya was standing on a one of the taller buildings in the village as he looked out over the forests before him, with his trusted telescope. It had more uses then just spying on the pretty women in the open air baths after all. Currently he was looking at the targets he was assigned to, after all the plan seemed to be going well so far. He looked over his shoulder at the stadium and a part of him wished he was there. After all he really wanted to se how well the kid did in the fights, the boy had some hidden talents. Oh well, things were about to get very interesting today anyway he mused.

Sakura felt a wide range of emotions as she walked into the small artificial field where the battles would take place. She could hear the crowd cheer as the first fight would start and already she was feeling her stomach tie into knots. She had never had so many people looking on her at this moment, and she was thankful her parents wouldn't be here. She didn't want them here just in case something happened to her and they were fine with it. Sakura knew her parents didn't want to see her fight because they didn't want to see her hurt. It was hard enough on them to have their only child as a ninja. But still, even with that with all the people here it was kind of imposing.

She walked onto the field and towards the center as she spotted the Mist girl, Ami. The other girl was still covered in those bandages that Sakura knew were razor shard with metal lining. She bet that those bandages could also act as armour if needed. She had spent the month thinking up all kinds of strategies with this opponent. Looking at the smug look on the other girl's face turned the knot in Sakura's stomach into a fire. This was the girl that had nearly killed or ended the ninja career of her best friend. Ino was the closest thing to a sister she had in this life, she could still see Ino's pale face as she slept in that bed after the match. Sakura felt her fists clench and had to force herself to relax a bit, Anko kept telling her during the training that emotions could be a fuel for a fighter's resolve, but too much emotion driving your actions would lead to your downfall.

Sakura needed to keep her mind sharp and pushed down the fire a bit, it was still there but she was going to use her emotions, not let them use her. This girl was dangerous and Sakura would take no chances.

The proctor went over the rules, they were the same as before and when he asked if they understood they both nodded. He moved back and he began the match, Sakura wasn't surprised when the other girl launched an attack right off the bat. Throwing several shurikens as Sakura, it was a standard type of opening move also with the insane training that Anko but her through it was easy to deflect them all with her metal tonfas. She stood her ground defiantly at the other girl.

"What are you still using basics, I thought Mist ninja were supposed to be bad asses, or is that only the boys?" Sakura was also taught to never underestimate attacking a ninja's pride by Anko.

Ami's eye got a small tick at that. "Fine, I was planning on playing with you like the other weak Konoha girl but if you want me too I'll be all too happy to cut up that face of yours."

Quickly the girl's hands went into several seals, "Water Style: Water Bullets."

Ami opened her mouth as small bullet like objects of water flew out at amazing speeds. Sakura tried to use her tonfas to deflect them like last time but the force of them was much greater. It was like feeling softballs hitting her weapons, that made her slow down as her weapons were knocked off course from the impact. Gaps opened up in her defence as she felt the bullets starting to hit her body. She was thankful for the new armour mesh she was wearing. If she had been wearing her older clothes she would really had been hurt but she knew there would be some nasty bruises from where she was hit. One hit her in the face she, the blow made her stagger back as she tried clear her head.

She saw the other girl raise her arms and the bandages coming at her, Sakura knew that there was no defence she had for that, so like Anko said to her, when you can't defend go on the offensive they usually don't plan on it. Sakura ran forward trying to avoid the bandages and it was working, Ami hadn't expected someone to run straight at her knowing that her bandages were razor sharp. A few of the bandages got close enough to cut her, but instead of cutting into flesh, sparks flew off Sakura's body.

The ninja mesh was a very sturdy kind that Konoha made for their ninja, it couldn't stop stabbings and blunt force would still be felt and could still injure, but against slashing it held up pretty good. That was the reason Anko had changed her look for the mesh, this would help Sakura get around the slashing effect of the bandages. Ami realized this too late as Sakura got in close and started to throw blow after blow with the tonfas. Ami's bandages did absorb some of the damage but blunt force was still something you felt. Eventually the Mist girl managed to get some distance between her and Sakura as she tried to plan her next move.

Sakura however could see she had hurt her opponent but she was feeling it too, the blows from before were starting to be felt so they were even at the moment. But Sakura wasn't going to let the other girl have the offensive, she had a battle plan and it was now time to use it. She placed her tonfa behind her lower back where the holders were located and went to start her own hand seals.

"Water Style: Aqua Tower," Sakura called out as she slammed her hand into the ground. The great thing with this stadium was that you could use the natural elements to your advantage. It wasn't advertised but Anko had given her a hint the other day. The hint was that there was water running under the stadium and not just in the pipes for plumbing, but small hidden pockets of water under the ground. This was to test a genin's ability to sense the elements around them. Well since she knew there was water she had been trying to find it since the fight started, it took time as she was still getting used to using her water element but now she knew where it was.

She wasn't strong enough yet to make enough water out of the moisture in the air like the Mist ninja seemed to be but this was enough to get her started. The tower of water rushed towards the surprised girl as the Mist ninja jumped to the side to avoid the crushing water.

Ami looked around the area, now very wet from all the water the pink haired girl was nowhere in sight. "You know I was thinking this wasn't going to be a challenge but I guess I was wrong. But if you think that using water against me is going to work, then you're wrong."

"Well if you fight fire with fire," Sakura's voice was heard behind the girl as Ami threw up her arm to block a kunai with the amour of her bandages. "Then you should fight water with water I figure."

Ami grunted as the bandages barely held, they were more for attack then protection. And the kunai was already cutting through the material that the thin metal was woven into. So Ami kicked out, her leg swinging outward and hit Sakura in the ribs. But instead of a solid hit, Sakura turned into a pile of water.

"A water clone!?" Ami yelled out as she looked around to see puddles of water slowly rising up and forming more Sakuras.

Up in the stands everyone was watching Sakura's fight with interest. Especially Sakura's team and friends.

"When did she learn to do that?" Ino yelled out feeling a little jealous, it seemed that Sakura had grown a lot in the past month, she was kind of jealous of that.

Anko smirked, "Why my training of course."

"And who gave you the scrolls to teach her those moves?" Kakashi asked his girlfriend who at least had the common sense to look a little sheepish at taking all the credit.

"Okay you got me there, but I did all the grunt work," Anko told him and then back to the match. "Well most of it, Kurenai gave her a few tips as well given that Sakura is a natural with chakra control. She's got a few new genjutsus in her deck now."

"Wow really?" Naruto said excited as she looked at the fight, "When is she going to do that?"

"She already has," Sasuke said with a smirk. Naruto looked over to see his eyes had turned into a sharingan but now they turned back to normal. If Naruto didn't know any better he swore that Sasuke almost looked...proud of Sakura.

And he was, Sasuke had missed when it had happened but when Sakura had disappeared he had an idea. So he activated his eyes and looked through the genjutsu that Sakura had cast. He had to admit that it was a very good one. But Sakura was running low on chakra, she was pulling everything out to crush this Mist girl. If she didn't end this soon, she was going to run out of chakra and then Ami would take full advantage of that. He had to admit that Sakura had changed a lot since the academy days, especially when he saw her today. She looked more mature and her fighting skills were impressive for a genin. She wasn't on his or Naruto's level still but this battle was showing that she had talent.

Who knew what kind of ninja she would be in the future, but looking at her know he got the feeling she could be a very powerful one if she kept this kind of training up. Sasuke was surprised by his line of thinking, this was the girl that usually had been mostly brains in the academy and who used to bother him all the time for dates. But now, she was had not only kept her word to his request but she was surprising him. Sakura had trained and was fighting to the honour of her friend, a motivation that he could get behind. He saw a fire in the girl that he hadn't seen before and that sheer determination reminded him a bit of himself. How he trained all those years at first to be noticed by his father, to catch up to his old rival and hero, his brother. Then it was to catch up to Itachi to make him pay for what he had done.

Sasuke knew that determination to become stronger, he had seen it in Naruto and now in Sakura. At the moment he wasn't sure what he was feeling towards his female team mate but this day, Sakura Haruno had gotten the attention of Sasuke Uchiha.

Back in the fight Ami was getting frustrated with the water clones, she didn't know this skill herself unfortunately. Sure the water clones were solid and used a lot less chakra then say a shadow clone, but these clones were pissing her off. Where was the original, that was what she wanted to know as she used the bandages to cut down all the water clones as they came.

What she didn't know was that Sakura was making the other girl used up as much chakra and physical strength as possible wearing the other girl down. Using chakra for the bandages and fighting the water clones was the perfect way to help with that but she was running out of time. The illusion she had cast wouldn't last forever. When the pillar of water had hid her from view she cast an illusion that Kurenai had taught her. It was mainly a veil type illusion, as long as the person stood still they could remain basically invisible. It was a genjutsu used for scouting when you had to hid for long periods of time watching over an area.

But maintaining it was slowly draining her chakra, it wasn't much as it was simple and her chakra control meant that she put in the perfect amount into it, so no wasted charka but it was still draining her and the water clones weren't helping. She was trying to get her clones to maneuver the other girl closer. So far it had been working.

"Where the hell are you!?" Ami thrashed around wildly trying to get the real girl, wherever she was.

"Here!" Sakura yelled out from behind as Ami felt an explosion of pain. Sakura moved and used her weapons but this time it wasn't in a swinging arc. This time she held the weapons straight with the smaller end extended just beyond her fists with the long ends resting against her arms. She punched out with straight jabs to Ami's back. She hit the spin, the kidneys, shoulder blades, nerve clusters that Anko showed her. The bandages might have acted like a light armour but against blunt blows, but theses blows were smaller and more focused. Plus Sakura could hit really hard even without the training.

Ami cried out from the pain and tried to fight back but Sakura kept herself behind the girl. The Mist girl stumbled around as Sakura started to take the girl down piece by piece until finally one final blow to the back of Ami's skull was the final moment. The girl crumpled to the ground like a rag doll, Sakura panting over her as she was declared the winner. Sakura smiled a bit before her legs gave out and she fell to her knees. She felt completely wiped at the moment, she wasn't sure how much more of this she could take but this was as far as she wanted to go. She completed her goal.

Up in the stands her friends were cheering for her.

-Naruto vs Gendo-

Naruto couldn't wait for his chance when his time came. He gave Sakura a quick congratulations before he left for his own battle. He was the first to arrive at the field and ready to kick ass. He was so full of energy that he near nearly bouncing with the effort. Gendo looked slightly pissed and he looked like he wanted to take the defeat of his teammate against Naruto.

"Once I'm done with you, if I meet that pink haired girl I'm going to crush her. Ami got over confident and lost because of it but I won't make that mistake." Gendo said to him.

Naruto only grinned under his mask at the other boy, "Good, I don't want to have to finish this too quickly anyway."

"Alright you two know the rules," the Proctor said to them. "Begin!"

Gendo didn't waste any time as he came at Naruto, he pulled the thick sword from the holder on his back freeing the weapon. Naruto did the same as his smaller blade took on a white glow as he blocked the attack. Naruto grinned under his mask, it took time but he felt that he finally managed to get the sword to glow when he wanted it to for once. Up in the stands Kakashi grinned as he saw it as well, he was glad that he had the blade reforged. It felt right for Naruto to use the White Fang's chakra blade in this battle and the fact that Naruto seemed to have gotten the hang of putting his chakra into it was a bonus.

"An interesting blade but something that small will shatter," Gendo said looking coldly at Naruto as their swords were locked against each other.

"This blade has been through war and carried by legends, it will never break to someone like you," Naruto told him confidently. Although on the inside he was thinking that the other guy was right, the sword had been broken once and he feel the blade starting to give. It was a great sword but it wasn't meant to take this kind of force. Unlike the other guy's sword, it was larger and although a slower weapon could taken and deal out a lot more punishment.

Naruto pushed off as he took a few steps back but was surprised the other genin didn't slow down. Apparently the other boy trained himself to move fast even with the large weapon. Naruto went on the defensive as he parried the blows instead of stopping them, it would save the damage to his own blade. The sword fight was a fast and furious thing, Naruto with speed and agility on his side and the other genin with a powerful defensive that Naruto couldn't get past. It was an impressive skills to see for those that young.

In one moment Naruto ducked under the large blade as Naruto's white blade tried to go up in a vertical cut, the other boy dodged this by leaning back. Naruto didn't stop though, he used his momentum to spin him himself around and try for a low horizontal cut to the legs. But the spin took too much time and Gendo was able to see what was going to happen, so the boy jumped over the blade as both boys went into a guard position.

Naruto had hoped for a win that time if only he had been just a little faster than the boy's legs might have been taken out.

Gendo had spared with many that used swords in his training but this style was totally unique. It was wild and flowed, there was some structure to it but it could change at will. Most styles you have set moves and many learned only those moves but this boy looked to be making them up on the spot. At least that's how it felt to him, there was no way the boy's style could account for those types of moves ahead of time. Even sword fighters that had a free flow style and improvised didn't seem to have this boy's natural ability to make things up as he went along.

"Tell me, what style is that?" Gendo asked out of curiosity.

Naruto had been thinking long and hard about this for a long time, but during his training month he had finally got the perfect name. He thrust his sword out pointing at the other boy, "This is my own unique fighting style. I use everything that I've been taught over the years and my own abilities, I haven't gotten around to naming it but you're the first to hear the name. This is the Hatake White Fang Style!"

Kakashi's head made a small jerk up as his visible eye widened for a split second. He had been caught by surprise by the name that Naruto had shouted out. Then as the shock wore off he smiled broadly under his mask at his son. He kind of wished his father was here to hear that, even though that Naruto wasn't the grandson of Sakumo Hatake by blood, he was in spirit. He had never felt more pride for Naruto than ever in that moment.

Anko who was at his side noticed the look, normally people wouldn't be able to see what Kakashi was thinking or feeling. But those few that were close to the man knew him enough to guess, and Anko was very close to him. She grinned as she slightly bumped him with her shoulder. "The brat sure has a way of surprising people huh?"

Kakashi only chuckled as he nodded, not really trusting his voice to give away the emotion he was hiding.

Eventually Gendo was getting tired of them playing around, it was time to end this whole affair. He jumped back giving them some space as he buried his sword into ground and started hand seals. Naruto saw this and got put away his blade, he would need his own hands free as he started his own. Naruto finished first as several clones came into view but before they could do anything the other boy finished his own hand seals. With all the extra water on the ground thanks to Sakura and Ami's match there was plenty of water for the Mist ninja to create a thick fog.

"Oh man not this crap again," Naruto muttered remembering this same thing with a certain ex-Mist ninja in Wave. He heard his clones being attack in the fog, most likely because the other boy couldn't tell which was the real one and which was the fake. He listened but the other boy was very silent, Naruto only had a small amount of time before the attacks would reach him. Thankfully coming up with plans in the last moment was something he excelled at.

Up in the stands those that knew Naruto were getting a bit worried when the mist set in. In one particular stands sat the Hyuga family, minus Neji as he was with the others given he had a match coming up. They were all watching interested in what would happen with this match, especially Hinata who was watching worried about Naruto.

"If Naruto does well in the chunin exams, will that go towards proving himself to the elders?" Hanabi asked watching the fog.

Hiashi was surprised by the question but thought about it, "I suppose so, it's rare to be made a chunin at the first attempt plus there are elders here watching."

"Oh," Hanabi paused for a moment, "so if Naruto gets accepted will I be able to call him Nii-chan when he marries Hinata?"

Both Hiashi and Hinata were surprised by that, and Hinata's face got all red at the thought. Hiashi looked at his eldest child as Hinata looked down at her fingers. She felt her face all hot at the thought of her actually marrying Naruto. It was a nice image for her to think about but it was also embarrassing how Hanabi brought it up like that.

Suddenly there was a shout from Naruto from the center of the fog and Hinata looked up worried that he had been hit. When suddenly something large shot out from the fog, it wasn't clear what it was at first as some of the fog clung to whatever it was. When it cleared everyone was shocked to see Naruto riding on the back of a giant toad with battle armour on. They were very high in the air as Naruto laughed out as they continue to rise up above the fog.

"What the hell is that, a giant frog!?" Ino screamed out in both surprise and disgust.

"Actually I believe that's a toad," Shino said in his usual calm voice.

"That's a summon animal isn't it?" Anko asked looking at it. "When the hell did he learn that?"

"I have an idea," Kakashi said watching.

"Alright it actually worked out this time!" Naruto shouted out happily. He wasn't sure what type of toad he was going to summon as it could have been anyone. At least it hadn't been someone small like Gamakichi or worse that Mr. Gamariki guy. That guy really made him uncomfortable, there was just something wrong about a giant green cross-dressing frog with huge lipstick lips and eye liner. The first time he met that guy when Jiraiya had summoned him, Naruto just didn't get along with them. They would butt heads on everything.

He looked down at the toad and he didn't know this one, well whatever he looked pretty strong and he could really jump. "Hey thanks for the lift."

"Not a problem, so you're the new contract holder huh?" the toad said in a gruff voice. "Sorry to cut it short but we're starting to fall, I hope you got a plan."

"You bet," Naruto grinned as he went into the hand seals. Thanks to Jiraiya he had finally gotten the hang of his wind chakra now it was time to try the new move the old pervert had promised to teach him. "Wind Style Hurricane!" Naruto yelled out as he thrust his palm out while holding his wrist. Suddenly a large blast of wind shot out over the area blowing away all the fog.

Gendo had to stick to the ground with chakra to keep his place in the earth without getting blown away. When the wind stopped he looked up in time to see Naruto fall back down on top of a large toad creature. Gendo hadn't known about this ability, then again the boy hadn't done much in that previous fight he had in the elimination rounds. No matter, he would cut the boy down to size but first. He started his own jutsu as all the water started to move around the area.

"Time to stop playing around," Gendo said as he finished his seal with Naruto just standing there waiting full in confidence. Gendo thought that the boy would pay for his arrogance for that. "Water Style: Water Hydra!"

Several large heads came out of all the puddles, it was like a water dragon only there were at least five different heads.

"Crap!" Naruto hadn't planned for something like that, he had never even heard of such a thing. "Hurry up and dodge!"

"You don't have to tell me twice!" the battletoad said as he jumped out of the way of the deadly focused water. It crashed into the ground with devastating force but there were too many and they were too fast. The toad was hit hard first, he disappeared back to where the toads became from before he got too seriously injured. It was too bad too, he had been enjoying himself until that moment. Without something to stand on Naruto ended up falling, without anything to stop it, well until one of the water hydra heads slammed into his chest and thus sending him into the ground.

When he hit the ground he was sure a rib or two had been bruised pretty badly, thankfully the Fox should be able to heal that easily enough before the next round. Although at the moment it was hard to get back up as the wind had been knocked out of him.

Gendo grinned at he saw his fallen prey, "You should lay there like a good failure and let your entire village see just how weak the Hidden Leaf has become."

Naruto only laughed as he tried to get up.

"What's so funny?" Gendo said as he started the hand seals against to finish him off.

"That you never bothered to count the puddles," Naruto grinned at him.

Gendo's eyes widened, he looked around in time to see several shadow clones jumping on top of him holding him in place as he struggled to get free. He cursed himself mentally as he had overlooked the battlefield. With his water manipulation he should have felt all the sources of water but the boy had put these clones in a henge. Obviously back when the fog blocked his view, sure you could sense you enemy by feeling them through the fog that you create but if no one moved it was a lot harder. He saw one clone walk around to face him but this didn't hold on to him.

"Oh man this is going to hurt," one clone said to Gendo's left.

"Yeah, sucks to be you," another said.

This clone that was facing him wasn't a shadow clone but an exploding shadow clone. It blew up destroying the shadow clones and sending the Mist genin flying, he skipped a few times on the ground before he slid to a halt. Naruto managed to get up and look at his opponent, the boy didn't seem to be getting up anytime soon.

The Proctor decided to step up and look the boy over, the kid didn't seem to be in any need of dying despite the explosion but he wouldn't be getting up anytime soon. He looked to Naruto and saw the boy was standing up holding his ribs. Genma had to admit the kid had a nasty streak with surprises, setting up your shadow clones like that was a good set up. The exploding one had been the icing on the cake for that one.

"The winner is Naruto Hatake," Genma proclaimed.

There were cheers all through the stadium and Naruto couldn't help but wave to them, he looked through it all trying to spot certain people. He saw his dad and his team but it was close to them that he spotted the person he wanted to see most. Hinata was by the rails looking at him and he couldn't help but wave to her.

-Meanwhile-

ON the streets of Konoha a trio of travelers walked, they were members of a trading guild looking to set up a trade route with the village. At least that was their cover story, they were actually members of Suna that had infiltrated the village on orders. The three of them were just one of many teams that had infiltrated the village. They were to meet up with two other teams and start the invasion from the inside, their goal was to attack one of the gates and see if they could be opened or make an opening for the outside forces.

That was all the information they were given as it was all they needed. But that was okay with then, as a ninja they knew that knowing too much could be dangerous if they were caught and forced to admit what they knew. Currently they were in a small street with people going about their daily business. One of the men stopped to look at the fruits on sale.

"What are you doing?" the tall one said to the one looking at the fruit.

"I'm hungry okay, who knows when we'll eat," he said annoyed as he looked at an apple for sale.

"You should have thought of that sooner," the last one said.

He just ignored his companions as he replaced the apple and was about to ask how much when suddenly his combat senses went off. He didn't know what set it off but when he looked up he noticed that the store owner was gone. "Hey where did that guy go?"

"We got bigger problems," the tall one said to him sounding worried.

The hungry one looked around and now he knew why he felt his warning senses kick in. It had suddenly gotten too quiet for a street, mainly due to the fact that suddenly everyone had disappeared.

In the shadows a masked ANBU watched the three of them, little did those three know that all the 'civilians' had been ninja and ANBU pretending to be civilians. The ANBU looked at two of his team members and nodded his head.

"Begin the operation," The ANBU said silently.

The three man Suna team didn't know what hit them before it was too late...