The next day, Tukiko and Sasuke got up at the same time and got ready to head to the Academy. Today was the day that they would sign in for the Chunin Exams. Both twins decided that they would enter the exam. At first, Sasuke told Tukiko not to enter because it was too dangerous. But then Tukiko argued that she spent six years by herself, living on danger. If she could survive out there, she could survive this exam. After many arguments, Sasuke gave in.
Sasuke and Tukiko met up with Sakura near a food shop so that they could wait for Naruto. But after a while, Tukiko began to notice that Sakura wasn't her usual bubbly self. She was shaking and perspiring; the usual signs that she was really nervous. Tukiko glanced over at Sasuke who could see the same thing and noticed she was acting weird. Tukiko guessed that Sakura was still not sure if she should take the exam.
Finally Naruto had arrived. He greeted good morning to both Sakura and Tukiko and Sakura gave a half hearted good morning back. Then the four started to head to the Academy while on the way, Naruto was asking Sakura for help about the application. Once they got there, the four could see a lot of ninja there. All of them had different hitai-ates from many of the different villages. Tukiko looked sadly at the Academy and Naruto noticed.
"Hey, Tukiko-chan, what's the matter?" he asked.
"Huh?" She broke out of her gazing and blinked. She gave a soft smile. "It's nothing. I'm just...sad that I couldn't enter the Academy like you guys did."
"Why couldn't you enter?"
Tukiko froze at the question and sighed. She shook her head and stared at the ground. Sasuke stared at his sister sadly.
"I don't want to talk about it."
Naruto frowned but let go of the subject.
They entered through the Academy doors and walked to the second floor. When getting there, they noticed that there was a crowd. The four walked through the crowd just in time to see a boy get hit and fall to the ground. The boy was strange by what Tukiko though. He had a bowl hair cut and huge eyebrows. He also wore a tight green suit with orange arm and leg warmers and his hitai-ate was tied around his waist.
"You plan to take the exam with that?" One of the boys who hit the strange one spat. "You should quit now."
"You're just a little kid," another boy with spiky black hair and two giant kunais strapped to his back said.
A girl with brown hair tied up in two buns and wore a pink Chinese style shirt and ninja pants stepped forward.
"Please let us through."
The boy with the kunai slapped her on the cheek. She fell to the ground.
"Hey, we're just being nice. The chunin exam isn't exactly easy. Even we have failed it three times straight. Those that take this exam and end up quitting as shinobis, those that die during the exam, we've seen it all. We're just thinning out the losers. What's wrong with that?"
Sasuke walked over and smirked.
"That's nice and all but let me pass through. And while you're at it, drop the genjutsu that you placed at the door sign."
One of the boys smirked.
"So you noticed..."
"Sakura must have noticed it before I did," Sasuke said turning to Sakura. "After all, she is the best in Genjutsu know how and she's the most improved."
Sakura blinked in surprise before she smiled and nodded.
"Of course I noticed. We're obviously on the third floor."
The genjutsu on the door sign change from 301 to 201.
The boy with the kunai smirked.
"Not bad. But all you did was see through it!"
The boy kicked at Sasuke and he was about to retaliate. They were both stopped however when the boy with the bowl shaped hair caught both their legs. Tukiko was surprised. This guy was so different from the one that was getting beat up earlier.
He must have been acting, she thought.
"Hey," said a boy with brown hair and lavender eyes said. "What happened to the plan? Weren't you the one to say that we shouldn't draw attention to ourselves?"
Tukiko didn't pay attention to what the boy with the bowl shaped hair said. Her heart practically stopped when seeing the boy with lavender eyes and she started to panic. She quickly hid behind Naruto and she had to cover her face. Naruto was surprised and confused when she did this.
"What are you doing?"
"Naruto, if you're my friend, then you'll hide me," she quickly replied, hiding her face from the lavender eyed boy. She couldn't let him see her. "And please don't ask questions."
The boy with the bowl shaped hair walked over to Sakura, Naruto, and Tukiko. He was staring at Sakura.
"Hi. My name is Rock Lee," he said. "So yours is Sakura..." Then he smiled and gave a thumbs up. "Let's go out together! I'll protect you until I die!"
Sakura's eye twitched.
"No way. You're lame..."
Naruto laughed as Lee hung his head in rejection.
The boy with lavender eyes stared at Sasuke.
"Hey, you. What's your name?"
Naruto glared at Sasuke and Tukiko could only guess what he was thinking.
"Damnit! Not Sasuke again!" was what she thought he was thinking.
Naruto was still fuming about everyone asking who Sasuke was while Tukiko continued to hide from the lavender eyed boy. When Sasuke walked over, she quickly switched and hid in front of him. He raised an eyebrow at his sister's actions but said nothing.
"I'll explain later," she whispered feverishly.
"Let's go you guys!" Sakura happily said. She grabbed Naruto and Sasuke's hands while Tukiko walked beside her. She was smiling at how Sakura was her old self again.
The group walked into aroom when they suddenly heard a voice.
"Hey you with the dark eyes."
They turned and looked up to see Lee. Lee was surprised though when he saw Tukiko and Sasuke who were next to each other.
"Which one?" Tukiko asked.
Lee was looking back and forth between the two twins. Tukiko sighed.
"Sasuke, I think he means you."
"What is it?" Sasuke asked.
Lee shook off the surprise and stared down at Sasuke.
"Will you fight me here?"
The four were surprised.
"A fight now?"
"Yes." Lee jumped down and stood to his feet. "My name is Rock Lee. When you want to learn a person's name, you introduce yourself first, right?"
Sasuke smirked.
"Sasuke Uchiha."
Lee slipped into a fighting stance.
"I want to fight you. I want to test my techniques against the offspring of the genius ninja clan. Plus..."
Lee winked at Sakura. She was completely disgusted by what Tukiko could tell. Then Lee gave a kiss at Sakura and she was able to dodge it. Tukiko couldn't help but laugh out loud.
"Challenging me knowing the Uchiha name," Sasuke said. "Frankly you're a fool. You're about to learn what this name really means, bushy brows."
Lee smirked and slipped back into his fighting position.
"Please..."
"Wait."
Tukiko turned around to see that it was Naruto who spoke.
"Let me take on bushy brows. Just give me five minutes."
"Who I wish to fight is the Uchiha, not you."
"Damn it! I'm sick and tired of hearing about Sasuke!"
Naruto charged at Lee and Tukiko could only cringe. He was starting to get his butt kicked and it wasn't really pretty. The humiliation that was Naruto's performance finally ended when Lee kicked Naruto towards the wall. He slipped down to the floor, unconscious.
"I'll say this: You guys cannot defeat me because right now," Lee said, "I'm the strongest of the Leaf genin."
Sasuke smirked.
"Sounds fun. I'll do it."
"Sasu-chan, no! Don't do it!" Tukiko said. "We don't have time to deal with this!"
"She's right, Sasuke-kun! We only have thirty minutes to get to turn in our applications," Sakura mentioned.
"I'll be done in five minutes."
Before Tukiko and Sakura could protest, Sasuke charged at Lee. The two started fighting and Tukiko could only watch, worried. Sasuke looked like he was going to win but then the fight took a bad turn. Sasuke was unable to dodge any of the attacks that Lee was putting out on him. Lee was just too fast. Then Tukiko saw that Sasuke's eyes turned red into their Kekke genkai that their family was known for: The Sharingan. She gasped.
"No way! Sasuke gained the Sharingan!?" She exclaimed. "Aw man! It's even got the second tomoe in it! Damn it!"
Sasuke charged at Lee again, thinking that with the Sharingan, he could see what techniques he was using. But Lee was still able to kick Sasuke around. Tukiko finally realized that he was using neither ninjutsu or genjutsu, but taijutsu.
"Oh Kami..." She gasped. "Lee, you better not hurt Sasuke too badly with those taijutsu techniques or you'll have to answer to me!"
Lee appeared behind Sasuke in the air and was about to do something with his bandages unraveling when a pinwheel came out of nowhere and pinned the bandages to the wall.
"That's enough, Lee!"
Tukiko looked around the room to see that a giant turtle was there and it was the one who spoke. Lee let go of Sasuke and landed on the floor safely. Sasuke, however, was falling to the floor and before Sakura could react, Tukiko jumped into the air to catch her brother. She landed on the floor gently and placed Sasuke down. Sakura ran over and kneeled next to him while Tukiko was staring at the turtle and Lee.
"Lee, that technique is forbidden!" the turtle was saying.
"I'm sorry, I just... But I wasn't planning on using the other one!"
"Are you crazy!? You could have killed my brother with that technique!" Tukiko yelled, angry at Lee. "If you used some taijutsu technique, you would have seriously hurt him!"
"That boy is right, Lee! An excuse like that won't get you out of trouble! You already know what it means for a shinobi to reveal their special techniques!"
Tukiko wasn't even mad that the turtle called him a boy. She was just pissed that someone had the decency to hurt her family.
"Are you prepared to pay the price?" The turtle asked.
Lee hung his hand. "Yes..."
"Then here comes Gai-sensei."
There was a puff of smoke on top of the turtle.
"Jeez, you guys are the epitome of adolescence!"
The smoke cleared to reveal a man who looked almost like Lee except he had a vest on over his suit. He was in a very gay stance that Tukiko blushed in disgust and looked away.
"Oh dear god..."
Tukiko only looked away and walked over to her team. She was so disgusted with the sight of Lee and who she guessed was Gai-sensei.
"You fool!"
She turned back around to only be surprised to see Gai punch Lee.
"You are..."
Tears came to Lee's eyes.
"Sensei..."
Gai kneeled in front of Lee.
"That's enough, Lee, you don't need to say it."
"Sensei!"
Then the two hugged. Tukiko was so weirded out that she and her brother only had these thoughts in their minds.
"Sasuke (I) lost to him!?"
Naruto laughed. "Hey! That's good stuff!"
"No!" Both Tukiko and Sakura shouted.
Tukiko shivered and looked away from the scene. She turned to Sasuke who was as weirded out as she was.
"We never speak of this," she said to him.
He only nodded.
"Hey you guys, how's Kakashi-sensei doing?" Gai asked Team 7.
"You know Kakashi?" Sasuke asked.
Gai moved and suddenly appeared behind the team.
"People refer us as Eternal Rivals..."
The team turned around shocked. How did he move so fast?
"Fifty wins and forty-nine losses," he said, flashing a blinding smile and giving a thumbs up. "I'm stronger than Kakashi."
"See! Gai-sensei is incredible!" Lee shouted.
"I swear to this face this will never happen again. You guys and Lee should head over to the classroom now."
Gai took out a kunai and threw it at the pinwheel that held Lee's bandages to the wall. The bandages fell to the floor and Tukiko's eyes wandered over to Lee's hands. Her eyes widened when seeing all of the cuts and bruises that were there. One of the cuts even had stitches! She was thinking about how he must have had intense training.
"Good luck Lee!" Gai said as he disappeared.
"Sasuke-kun, I'll say one more thing," Lee said. "The truth is, I came here to test my abilities. I lied that I was the strongest genin. It is actually someone in my team that is that. I've entered this to defeat him and my next target is you. Be prepared during the exam!"
Lee jumped back up to the balcony and left.
Tukiko turned to her brother who was shaking in anger. She frowned and slipped her hand into his hand. He looked up and saw her smile.
Naruto put his hands behind his head. "Oh well. The Uchiha clan isn't worth much these days."
Tukiko and Sasuke glared at Naruto.
"Shut up," they both said.
"Next time, I'll beat him," Sasuke said.
"Sure, you just got your ass kicked."
"Naruto, shut the hell up!" Tukiko shouted.
Naruto stopped grinning.
"You both saw his hands. That thick brow must have trained really hard, every day. More than you. That's all it is."
Sasuke said nothing and glared at the floor. His grip around Tukiko's hand tightened and Tukiko bit her lip. She hated seeing her brother like this. It just hurt her. Finally, Sasuke's grip on Tukiko's hand slackened as he smirked.
"This chunin exam just got a whole lot funner."
Tukiko pumped her fist in the air.
"Hell yeah it is! Team 7 is going to kick some serious ass, right Naruto?"
Naruto grinned. "Hell yes!"
"Ready to go, Sakura, Naruto, Tukiko?"
"Yeah!"
The four then headed to Room 301. There, they were stopped when they saw Kakashi standing in front of the door.
"Oh, so Sakura came too. Now we can properly take the exam."
"What do you mean?" Sakura asked.
"The truth is that this exam can only be taken by teams of three."
"Wait...You mean you lied to us?"
"If I told you then Naruto or Sasuke would have pressured you to take the exam. Even if you didn't want to, if Sasuke asked you, you would do it, even though it wasn't in your heart. For the sake of Sasuke, Naruto, and Tukiko."
"So if only Sasuke, Naruto, and Tukiko had shown up?"
"Well, they would be able to take it but I'm figuring that Tukiko wouldn't have done the exam for taking your place."
Sakura looked at Tukiko who only nodded.
"Yeah, Sakura. It wouldn't feel right knowing that I'm new and I just took your place. The guilt would eat me alive."
Sakura smiled.
"Thanks, Tukiko-chan."
Tukiko smiled back.
"No problem, Sakura. After all, us girls have to stick together with these guys badgering us. I mean, earlier, Sasu-chan was practically begging me not to take this exam just because it was 'too dangerous'."
Sasuke glared at his sister and punched her shoulder. Naruto laughed at this and Kakashi only chuckled.
"I'm proud of you four. Now go!"
The four smiled and entered through the classroom doors, ready to take on anything.