Naruto: Dreaming of Sunshine

Letting go doesn't mean giving up, but rather accepting that there are things that cannot be. - Anon

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"Well, well, well, look who's here," Kiba greeted as Iruka-sensei let us loose in the tower with the admonishment that the top three levels were out of bounds. "All nine rookies made it through. That has to be a record. Man, you guys look beat." His gaze lingered over me.

"We ran into some trouble," I said lightly.

"So Team 8 is already here," Sasuke commented.

"We were the second team here," Kiba boasted.

This kind of set up was pretty much the perfect mission for Team 8, track and retrieve. The real eyebrow raiser was that someone had beaten them here.

"Yeah?" Shika asked lazily. "When'd you guys get in?"

"Late last night. It's just been us and that creepy Sand team all day." He looked nervous. "Stay away from them. That guy is bad news. You don't want to know what we saw him do in the forest."

"Gaara?" Naruto asked, frowning. "Yeah. We ran into him before the Exams even started." He shivered.

"So what's the deal with this place?" Ino cut in. "Please tell me there's a shower."

"And food!" Chouji chimed in.

Kiba snorted. "Yeah, yeah. What am I, a tour guide? Come on, I'll show you where we're staying." He turned and started walking, expecting us to follow. We didn't really have any better options.

"I get the feeling this place doesn't get used a lot," he continued. "It's pretty empty, y'know? Most of it is barracks and storage rooms and things like that. I'm pretty sure the upper levels are where the Chunin are working since we're not allowed up there. We haven't seen them since we got in either, except the guy that brings the food down."

He knocked on one of the doors before opening it. "Hey guys. You'll never guess what I found."

'Barracks' was the right description for the place. Bunk room, as well. There were bunk beds covering three of the walls, at least sixteen beds total, with a second door to the side that I suspected led to the bathroom. Three of the lower bunks - more easily defendable - looked in use so I suspected that was where Team 8 was sleeping.

"N-Naruto!" Hinata said, surprised. "A-and everyone else, of course!" She bowed politely.

"Hey Hinata. Shino." I waved. "You guys don't mind if we crash in your room, do you?"

Shino adjusted his glasses. "Is that wise? We are still rival competitors for this Examination."

"Second Exam is over," Shika pointed out, still looking like he didn't care one way or the other. "For us, anyway. And the Third Exam doesn't start till later anyway."

"Y-yes!" Hinata shrunk back as her voice came out slightly too loud. "I mean, i-if you want to stay here… there's plenty of space, isn't there? We don't mind."

"Thanks, Hinata!" Naruto exclaimed, hands tucking behind his head. "You're alright, you know that?"

Her cheeks went pink so fast.

Ino gave her a knowing look. "Sounds good to me. It'll give us a chance to catch up. Everyone's been so busy since graduation!"

"Yeah, tell me about it," Kiba grumbled good naturedly. "If it isn't my mum, it's Kurenai-sensei and if it isn't her it's Hana. All 'do some training, Kiba', 'you're a real ninja now, Kiba, you can't just slack off anymore'." He rolled his eyes. "Hopefully this'll show them, right?"

Shikamaru flopped down on one of the bunks. "It's just so troublesome," he complained.

I snickered. "Just think," I teased. "If you don't make Chunin this time… you'll have to do it all over again."

Ino snickered too. "Hey! You'll probably end up like that Kabuto guy. How many was it? Eight times?"

"Don't even joke about that," Shika muttered. "I'll have nightmares about it."

"Same old Shikamaru," Naruto said. "You're as lazy as ever."

Sasuke, on the other hand, said nothing. He was still giving my brother a wary look.

We settled in, joking and laughing, sharing anecdotes about what had happened since graduation. Team 8 hadn't heard about our C turned A-rank, so Naruto got to retell the story, complete with arm gestures, much to Hinata's delight.

It was loud and companionable and nice.

"Man, I'm getting hungry," Chouji said. "You said they had food here, right?"

Kiba rolled his eyes. "Yeah. There's a kitchen upstairs that the Chunin keep stocked with food. Bring some down for us, would you? Since we're playing gracious hosts and all."

Chouji was practically out the door already.

Ino scampered after him. "Oh no you don't. I know you, Chouji, you'll just get fattening food! I'm coming too!"

"Yes! Food! No more ration bars!" Naruto exclaimed. "Oooh, maybe they have ramen!"

"I hope that's not all he brings back," I said to Sasuke.

He winced. "Wait up, idiot!" he barked. Sasuke was still moving stiffly, fist clenching every now and then as spasms of pain radiated from the curse mark. I watched him go in worry.

I waited for my team to be out of earshot before I turned and pinned Shikamaru with a serious look.

"Shikamaru," I asked lightly. "What exactly did you say to Sasuke?"

He rolled his head to look at me out of the corner of his eyes and sighed. "It'd be troublesome… but you are my little sister. So… there are some things that aren't allowed to happen."

I studied him for a while. It took a lot to rouse Shikamaru to action… but you never wanted to be his enemy when it did.

"You threatened him, didn't you?"

He shrugged and wouldn't answer any more questions.

"Shikamaru? He's about as threatening as Hinata!" Kiba scoffed.

"Kiba," Hinata protested quietly, tapping her fingers together. "I-I'm sure Shikamaru…" she trailed off indecisively.

"Haven't you heard the saying?" I grinned. "The three things any Konoha nin fears: An angry Aburame, a focused Inuzuka… and a motivated Nara."

Kiba barked a laugh. "Yeah, I've heard that. But you're a Nara and you seem plenty motivated to me."

…muffled thumps, two heavy, two light as the bodies and heads fell separately to the ground…

If my grin was a tad sharper, wilder, I couldn't help it. "Best be scared, then, ne?"

"As if," Kiba dismissed, but Shino was watching me closely. Shino, I knew, was very observant. What he was observing was up for debate. "Why would he be threatening Sasuke anyway? I mean, I know the guys a bit of a jerk but it's not like that ever bothered you before."

Shikamaru looked up. "He broke her ribs," he said, clearly and carefully.

Akamaru yipped. Kiba looked horrified. Inuzuka were loyal. Attacking a team mate was seriously against their beliefs.

I winced. "I'm pretty sure they were already broken before that," I said weakly. Yeah, it didn't sound like much of a defence to me either.

There was a pause, and I was damn sure the Team 8 was reassessing my injuries.

I sighed. "Okay. Here's what happened." I wasn't sure whether telling them was the right thing to do, but on the other hand, there wasn't really a good reason to not tell them. Particularly if it would help warn them about what was to come. I told them about the Orochimaru fight, but skimmed very quickly over the Sound team except for mentioning that he's sent them. Then I told them about the curse mark though I didn't use those words.

"You're serious?" Kiba asked, breaking the silence when I'd finished. "You're not just …pulling our legs or something?"

I shook my head. "Completely serious. I wouldn't joke about something like this."

Shino adjusted his glasses again, the only sign of discomfort he allowed himself. "That is… disturbing news. One would think that the ANBU would move to prevent such a thing happening, or cease the Chunin Exams while he was here."

"How can they?" I replied. "Doing something like that would just make Konoha seem weak to the other villages that are here… if we can't even defend ourselves from missing nin…" I trailed off leaving the thought open. "I don't exactly agree with it, especially since he seems to be targeting my team mate, but stopping the Chunin Exams would cause more problems than it would solve."

Besides, we're only Genin. They haven't invested that much into us.

"Damn," Kiba whistled. "I know we're enemies for this Exam and all… but if he pops up again just say the word and we have your back."

"I - Thanks, Kiba," I said, caught off guard. Hinata nodded, as firm as I've ever seen her.

"Well, we can't let you hog all the good fights," he said. "Me and Akamaru will show you how it's done, right boy?"

Akamaru barked.

"Tada!" Naruto hollered, door banging open. "We come bearing food!"

A lot of it, by the looks of things. Of course, with nine people including Naruto, Kiba and Chouji we needed a lot of food.

"What's with the atmosphere?" Sasuke asked, picking up on the heavy silence in the room. His dark eyes glanced over us all.

"I just told them about Orochimaru," I said as we set the food up to have a picnic in the middle of the floor.

"Is it true, Naruto?" Hinata asked timidly. "Did you really get attacked by him?"

"Ah, well, I wasn't there for most of it," he admitted. "But that's who they say he was." He waved his chopsticks vaguely in our direction. "But I ain't scared of no weird snake guy, that's for sure! Next time he shows his ugly face, I'll kick his ass!"

She pinked again and looked down. I could practically hear her thinking 'he's so brave'. Hinata really was a cute kid.

"Ne, Hinata," I asked carefully. "Do you think you could look at Sasuke's chakra for me later? I don't really know what Orochimaru did to poison him… but…"

She twisted her fingers in the hem of her jacket. "O-of course, but I don't know how much help I could be," she agreed quietly. "May-maybe Shino could help too?"

The Aburame did work closely with chakra, though most people didn't expect it, since they fed their own to their kikai instead of using it. But the mere fact that kikai ate chakra forced them to know more about it than the average ninja, particularly how things could affect chakra, and how that could affect their bugs.

"If you don't mind, Shino," I agreed.

Shino didn't have any objections, and after dinner had been cleared away we gathered around Sasuke to look at the curse mark.

"This is where he was bitten," I said, tracing my finger over the two puncture wounds in the curve of his neck. "And this mark must have formed shortly afterwards. I think it might be some sort of seal."

Hinata folded her hands into a seal and activated her Byakugan. She stared intently at his neck for a moment before speaking. "I… I can see it," she said softly. "There's a large mass underneath the mark itself and it's spreading further. Like… vines, or tendrils…" She trembled slightly. "The chakra is very … dark. Almost corrupted."

I blew out a sigh. "Okay. Can you tell how far it's gone?"

"Umm… It's definitely in the primary superficial subclavian chakra coil… maybe even the secondary subclavian coil. T-there are bits branching up the cervical coils… and towards the shoulder…"

So it was spreading pretty far, even without using it.

I bit my lip. "Maybe I can try and push it back, with my own chakra? Then we can see if we can block it off, stop it from spreading…"

Sasuke shifted. "Why do I get the feeling I'm about to be used as an experiment?" he asked.

"Hey, don't you trust us?" I asked weakly. "It's your choice, but… I really don't like this stuff… it can't be good for you."

"I know," he admitted quietly. "I don't like it either."

I straightened my shoulders and gathered my chakra, sliding it into his coils like I was doing medical jutsu.

Then jerked back and clamped a hand over my mouth and nose. "Grk!" I swallowed, convulsively, as my stomach tried to escape, an instinctive reaction to something so repulsive.

"Shikako?" Shikamaru asked warily, propping himself up on his shoulder from where he was lying on his bunk.

I waved my hand at him. "'m okay," I mumbled, breathing in deeply. "It just feels… really, really nasty."

"A rather extreme reaction," Shino noted.

"Hey, I'm a sensitive soul," I said, gathering myself to try again. This time, I resisted the instinctive urge to flinch away, battling through the nausea. It was easy, though, to tell which chakra was Sasuke's and which wasn't.

"It's moving back," Hinata confirmed quietly. Her hand reached out to trace a path against Sasuke's chest. "There's a branch of it down this way, towards the heart…"

The heart was pretty important in chakra production, containing the eighth chakra gate. Sasori had, after all, been able to function as a puppet with only his heart remaining.

"Ah, sorry! Sasuke-san!" Hinata jerked her hand back, flushing red and using an overly formal honorific to apologise.

"Don't worry about it," Sasuke said, uncomfortably.

I mostly ignored them as I focused on shunting the corrupted chakra back to one spot. It didn't want to be returned, and it kept trying to escape my grasp. It's purpose was to try and spread through the body, and that was what it kept trying to do. It wasn't alive exactly, but all chakra has a mental component to it.

"Shino?" I asked absently. "Do you think your kikai could target one kind of chakra and not another?"

Shino considered. I could hear his hive buzzing. "If the difference is as great as you implied, then yes, I suspect so," he said at length. "Do you wish for me to attempt to remove the … poisoned chakra?"

"I don't know," I confessed, frowning as I tried to contain it. "In a normal wound you would definitely attempt to draw out the poison before doing anything, so removing the excess chakra might make it weaker… but it might also stimulate it to produce more… I don't know enough to say."

"If there's a chance," Sasuke said. "You should try it."

Shino nodded. "A few at first, then. Hinata, if you will watch to see how it responds…"

"O-of course." She nodded.

A few kikai buzzed around the curse seal on Sasuke's neck. He flinched a little, but didn't react. Slowly, I felt the corrupted chakra drain, and I hastily tightened the net of my chakra holding it back.

"It seems to be weakening," I said. Hinata nodded in agreement. "It also seems that Sasuke's chakra is pushing it back a bit, too… it's just that after fighting so much…"

"My own chakra is depleted," he finished. "So if I keep using chakra… it will grow stronger." He didn't look happy with the thought. Well, if it was a permanent state, that was akin to being crippled or worse.

"Once the Exam is over we can get the medics to look at it or something," I said. "They'll probably know what to do better than we do…"

"Sorry," Hinata said timidly. "I wish I could do more…"

"It's… not your fault," Sasuke said. "I shouldn't have let myself get bitten in the first place."

I winced. There wasn't really much Sasuke could have done to stop that either.

"Ah, Hinata? Do you think it would be possible to put Jyuuken blocks in? The second I let go my chakra is just going to disperse."

She considered the question seriously. "Yes…. I can put chakra blocks in here and here… the chakra going to your arm will be weaker, but not completely stopped."

The chakra system was highly complex, with a lot of redundancies and double layers. There were about three or four different branches that lead into the arm, so blocking one wasn't going to immediately shut it down.

"Do it," Sasuke ordered firmly.

Hinata fingers stabbed into his shoulder sharply. I memorised the solidity of her chakra as it blocked off the pathways. The only other times I'd felt Jyuuken strikes, there had been too much pain associated with it to care about how it was done.

Sasuke hissed.

I copied the feel of her chakra as much I could, disengaging and drawing back. Most of it dissolved almost immediately. The Hyuuga probably underwent a lot of training to form their chakra like that in order to create plugs that wouldn't dissolve when contact was lost. Of course, even then they would be broken down naturally by the body in a matter of days.

I sighed. "That wont last forever," I said, flopping backwards. "How do you feel?"

Sasuke frowned and rotated his shoulder around. "Weird. Like there's something heavy attached to my neck." He paused. "Cleaner. I didn't realise… until it was gone…"

"It is unusual," Shino offered. "I have never heard of anything like this before." He was really disquieted by all of this. I guess they all were. It was hard to consider that while I had been terrified of it happening, they had all been blindsided by it. While I was just feeling relief that it was over, they were all still trying to come to terms with it happening at all.

"You guys are really kind of amazing," Naruto said. He'd been watching us all crowd around Sasuke with an odd look in his eyes. Naruto hadn't even seen Sasuke under the influence of the mark. Like Team 8, he only had second hand stories to go on.

"Thanks, Naruto," I said lethargically. Hinata practically glowed at the compliment. Even Shino looked pleased, if you looked closely enough. "How are you feeling? I think we should leave yours until we can get someone to look at it. Unless it gets worse," I amended.

He nodded vigorously. "No, I'm fine! Believe it!" He grinned a little too widely. Considering Orochimaru had hit him right over the Kyuubi seal, he probably didn't want anyone looking too closely.

Which coincidentally, was why I wasn't demanding to investigate it.

"Man, what a day," Shikamaru drawled.

I couldn't bring myself to disagree.

.

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The end of the Exam took it's time in arriving. At first we were glad for the chance to rest after the hectic rush of the Forest, but boredom started to creep in. There wasn't much to do around the tower, and we tried to stay out of the way of the Sand team as much as possible.

Team Gai arrived late on the third day, but chose to bunk in one of the many other empty rooms. I was quietly glad about it, because every time he saw me Lee got twitchy and Neji was giving me considering looks that made me vaguely uncomfortable.

Team Kabuto squeaked in just before the test ended and there was a flash of surprise and anger across his face when he caught sight of us already at the tower.

Were you looking for us? I wondered silently.

They called us to assemble on the afternoon of the fifth day. The room we assembled in was very large, with a small stage and a statue to one side of two hands in a seal, and two balconies running along the walls. The Hokage stood front and centre while the Exam proctors were arrayed beside him and our sensei aligned behind him.

Kakashi-sensei was there, with Gai and Kurenai and Asuma. Baki, the Sand Jounin, was there. And another. The Jounin was unfamiliar to me, a tall man with light brown hair, blue spandex drawn up around the sides of his face and square glasses. But his chakra… oh, his chakra…

Seems like someone wanted a front row seat…

Just having him there made me break out into a cold sweat. Not giving away that I knew… Not letting on … it took all my control.

"First of all," Anko said boldly. "Congratulations on finishing the Second Exam. Now pay attention. Hokage-sama is going to explain the Third Exam to you. You better listen carefully, maggots." She added the last bit as almost an afterthought, like she couldn't bear to let us go without insulting us one more time.

"First, before I tell you what the Third Exam entails, I want to explain about the test itself. Why do you suppose our country holds these exams in conjunction with our allies?" The Hokage asked rhetorically, puffing on his pipe.

Because our enemies wouldn't show up? My snarky side wanted to interject. I squashed it. Firmly.

"To raise the ability levels of the shinobi and increase friendship between allied nations to be sure, but it's important that you understand it's true meaning. The exams are, so to speak, a representation of the battle between allied nations. If we look at our history, all the countries that we're currently allied with were once neighbouring nations that continuously fought with each other for power. In order to avoid destroying each others military strength meaninglessly those nations picked champions to do battle on behalf of their countries at a mutually selected location. That was how the Chunin Selection Examinations originally began. There is no doubt that part of these Exams is to select shinobi worthy of becoming Chunin, that's just not the whole story. These Exams also allow for a place where shinobi can carry the pride of their nation on their and fight against other ninja for their very lives."

He made it sound so…elegant. I resisted the urge to curl my lip in disgust. Like we were thinking about national pride when we were trying not to die.

Line up all your little soldiers, just to knock them down…

"Many leaders and people of prominence are invited from various countries to attend this exam as guests and also possibly to seek shinobi to work for them. This exam could determine the course of your ninja work from here on out. And more importantly, those rulers will watch your battles and take note of the skills that each ninja and each nation is developing. If there is a gap in power between countries, the strong nations are inundated with job requests for their ninja and conversely, requests to those deemed weak decline. Therefore, the stronger our nation is, the better our position when negotiating with neighbouring countries. So it's important to show how much military strength our village has."

That at least, I understood. We were advertising. We were promoting our nation as better than our competitors. It was a cruel heartless way of doing it, and I wondered if the benefit was worth the loss of life that resulted from it. I knew at least one Konoha team had died in the forest, probably more.

"This Exam is a chance for each nation to display the strength of its shinobi and thus the strength of the nation itself and it's because its an Exam where your life is on the line that it has meaning. And it's for this very reason and for the strength of the nation that your forerunners fought in this Exam. It's truly a dream worth striving for."

Ah, the 'it's traditional' excuse. It was better than outright war, yes, but 'better' didn't mean 'the best option'. And I didn't consider that a 'dream worth striving for'.

"Why did you say it was about 'international friendship' before, then?" Tenten demanded.

"This is a custom where balance is preserved by fighting and dying," the Hokage replied. "In the world of the shinobi, that is friendship."

Sometimes it was easy to forget that the Third Hokage was a war leader. This wasn't one of them. For all the complaints about Konoha being soft and the Third Hokage being peace-loving, this was still a brutal, militaristic, war torn place.

"The Third Exam is a fight for life, with the pride of your village and your own dreams at stake."

"The test is fine. Just tell me what the details of the Exam are, already. I can handle anything you throw at me," Gaara said, voice barely louder than a whisper. He was clearly getting impatient with all the speeches. I was and I had a fairly high tolerance for bullshit.

A ninja landed, kneeling, in front of the Hokage with a burst of Body Flicker speed. "Hokage-sama, before you do please allow me, Hayate Gekko, proctor of the Third Exam to speak first."

"So be it," the Hokage granted.

"It's nice to meet you all." Hayate coughed. "There's something I would like all of you to do before the Third Exam."

He looked tired, with dark bags etched deeply beneath his eyes.I wondered if his cough was a temporary condition or a pre-existing one. It was short and light, not the deep, phlegmmy cough of pneumonia or bronchitis. I couldn't see anyone being on active duty if they had that kind of illness, anyway.

"We have to have a preliminary exam before we can move on to the real one. This is the first time in five years that there have been enough candidates finishing the Second Exam to require one." He coughed again. That was going to get annoying.

"Preliminaries?" Shikamaru asked, sounding annoyed. "Just what do you mean by that?"

"The First and Second Exams might have been too easy," the proctor explained. "The fact is, we never expected so many of you to still be here. According to the rules of the Chunin Exams, a preliminary exam can be held at any stage in order to reduce the number of candidates remaining. It's just that, as Hokage-sama said, a lot of important guests will be watching; we can't afford to waste their time. They've come to see only the best. So if there are any of you that feel you are not in top physical condition, now's your chance to bow out. The preliminaries will be determined by one-on-one combat and they will be starting immediately."

Sasuke twitched. I could feel the sudden pulse of chakra radiating from his curse mark, trying to break down the blocks Hinata and I had installed. His hand clenched shut against the pain.

Against my will, my eyes darted towards the row of Jounin.

Orochimaru.

I reached forward, wrapping my fingers around Sasuke's wrist and channelling chakra up his arm, helping him fight the curse seal back down. Screw conserving energy for the Exam. This was more important. There would be no luck in convincing Sasuke to quit, so all I could do was help him on forwards.

"Okay, you got me. I'm out," Kabuto said, raising his hand, sheepishly. I didn't buy it for a second.

"Kabuto?" Naruto exclaimed. "What are you doing? You can't quit now!"

"I'm sorry, but my body is just too beat up," Kabuto said apologetically. "I just can't hack it."

Yeah, I didn't buy that either.

The proctor waited to see if anyone else was going to quit, then shrugged.

"Alright then. We will now begin the preliminary round. There are 17 of you remaining, so we will need eight matches and one of you will gain a pass. The surviving candidates from these matches will move on to the Third Exam. As for the rules, there are none. You will fight until one of you dies or concedes defeat or is rendered physically incapable of continuing. Naturally, those who are losing are encouraged to concede defeat to avoid a fatal outcome. Furthermore, as proctor, I'm given a certain amount of leeway in judging the matches. I might occasionally intervene if a match seems hopeless to save as many lives as possible."

Everyone was starting to look eager now that the Exam had been explained. Whether they liked it or not, we were about to fight, so everyone was slowly switching over into fight mode.

"The names of each pair of opponents are chosen completely at random," Hayate continued his spiel. "Before each match, these names will appear on the display behind me. In a moment, the names of the first two opponents will appear."

I didn't buy the 'random matchups' explanation. If I was in charge, I'd want only the strongest competitors to get through. That would mean making a list of presumed strength and pairing people off strongest to weakest. That way, the strongest half would win and the weakest half would be removed from the Exam.

It wasn't exactly fair, but what was?

The strongest - apparent - Genin in the room would be Gaara, based on basic information. He was the son of the 4th Kazekage and holder of the Ichibi. And, crucially, able to use it's power.

The weakest, again at first glance, would be Lee. A non-clan shinobi. Malformed chakra coils and unable to use ninjutsu or genjutsu? On paper he made the weakest shinobi in the group.

That he wasn't was a tribute to his hard work.

And since that was one of the matchups that I remembered clearly…

The board flashed and blinked before settling onto two names.

Sasuke Uchiha vs. Yoroi Akado

"They didn't waste any time," Sasuke muttered.

I drew in a deep breath and leaned closer. "Be careful. Stick to Taijutsu and weaponry. And, watch out… his chakra feels… hungry." I gave him a troubled look.

"I got it," he assured me, jaw clenching. "This is my fight now."

"Everyone other than the two opposing candidates will now clear the area and move to the upper level," the proctor ordered.

I pulsed my chakra one last time, helping Sasuke fight off the curse mark, before disengaging. Almost immediately, he clenched his fist shut in pain. He nodded at me, and I stepped away, heading for the stairs.

There was no more that I could do.

Kakashi-sensei meandered over to us, stopping briefly behind Sasuke. I enhanced my hearing so I could listen in on what he was saying.

"Sasuke," he greeted. "Don't use your Sharingan."

"So you know about it?" Sasuke said, not sounding at all surprised. Whether because he thought they had to have noticed Orochimaru, or because of the slightly irrational belief that Sensei would always know, I couldn't tell.

"If that mark on your neck gets out of control, your life could be in danger," Sensei warned.

"I'm aware of that."

"Just to let you know, if it gets to that point, I'll have to step in and stop the fight. Good luck." Kakashi-sensei's parting comment was slightly sardonic.

It was interesting how the groups had divided. Neither of the two platforms were any better than the other, running an equal distance along the walls on opposite sides of the room. And yet, one side held the Rookie Nine as well as Team Gai and the other held the Sand Team and the other member of Kabuto's team. It was like the battle lines were already drawn.

"Kakashi-sensei," I greeted as he leant on the railings beside me.

"You wont believe what the Forest was like," Naruto said, folding his arms.

Sensei chuckled. "I've heard a few stories," he said. "And it looks like you've had it rough."

I grimaced. "Yeah. We got a little banged up." I couldn't help but touch fingertips to the still roughed up surface of my cheek.

"It looks like it's healing fine," Kakashi-sensei assured me.

"That's good," I agreed, leaning forward and resting my forehead against his bicep. My hand curled around his wrist, fingers touching the inside pulse point, out of sight. "Otherwise I'd have to wear a mask like you, and then everyone will laugh at me."

Jounin. 30 degrees, 20 meters. Chakra is O-R-O-C-H-I-M-A-R-U. I tapped out, my fingers moving the barest minimum distance to convey the message.

Kakashi-sensei gave a huffing laugh, even as his arm muscles tightened beneath my grip like steel cable. "Hey! I'm cool." He disengaged from me, hand going to my back to guide me away. "Asuma, tell her I'm cool."

Asuma-sensei was almost choking on his cigarette with laughter, and just casually glanced at Kakashi. I caught the fractional widening of his eyes when they fell on us. Whatever sign Sensei's hand was making on my back meant something.

"Well, I don't know," he stalled. "What do you think Kurenai?"

Kurenai chuckled. "I think Gai is the expert there, don't you?"

It was very neat, how they were managing to pass the signal along, hidden behind mockery, bringing everyone's attention to Kakashi-sensei without alerting the others. Very neat indeed.

"My Eternal Rival is indeed most hip and cool!" Gai enthused, even as he appeared behind us without a sound. "Though perhaps it would not be quite so appropriate for you to emulate him in such a fashion."

Naruto snickered. "Yeah that would just be too weird."

I hummed in agreement, turning my attention back to the floor as Hayate called for the fight to begin. It opened with a few traditional volleys of kunai and shuriken with Sasuke definitely acting more wary than he normally would.

I could feel the pulsing of cursed chakra and knew that he was fighting a battle on two fronts. My hands clenched, white knuckled around the railing. Orochimaru was just toying with him.

But it wasn't until Yoroi started his chakra draining that I realised, with cold clarity, just how badly this fight could go.

He's draining your chakra… weakening your resistance against the curse seal… forcing you to draw on its power…

"Err…maybe you should let that go," Naruto said nervously, eyeing my hands as the torturous groan of metal filled the air.

I blinked and looked down. Then, finger by finger, forced my hands to let go of the railing. It was a little warped.

"Oops," I said sheepishly, calming my agitated chakra. It had snuck into my hands without me realising it, working off an unconscious desire to pummel someone.

"Sasuke will be fine," Naruto said. "He's too strong to let a guy like that beat him."

I think Kakashi-sensei was more surprised than I was. Naruto, admitting Sasuke was strong?

"Of course he will be," I agreed, just as, down below, Sasuke imitated the move that had led to Lee handing him his ass.

After that, it was game over.

"Winner; Sasuke Uchiha," Hayate announced.

"I'll be right back, kids. Asuma, could you…?" Sensei murmured.

"Yeah, I'll watch out for them," Asuma-sensei agreed. "You best get down there."

Kakashi-sensei hummed before Body Flickering down to stand behind Sasuke. They had a short conversation, as the medics came to take Yoroi away.

Sasuke glanced up at us. I smiled.

"Man, I hope Sensei knows how to get rid of that thing," Naruto said, as the two of them left. Yoroi's Jounin Sensei, the one I knew was Orochimaru in disguise, followed them out, presumably to check on his student but…

"Me too," I agreed.

"Let's move on to the second match," the proctor said quietly. The board flickered and eventually chose two more names.

Kankurou vs. Misumi Tsurugi

That was the other member of Kabuto's team. There was no Tsurugi clan in Konoha, nor an Akado one. They were both either orphans or from civilian families. That put their strength definitely at the bottom of the list.

Kankurou was definitely at the top. It was easy to see who would win this match. My brow furrowed as I tried to construct a list of who would be fighting who. It wasn't quite as straightforward as it seemed. There had been exceptions to the strongest vs. weakest rule, hadn't there?

The kunoichi had been mostly paired off against each other. Sakura vs. Ino and… Temari vs. Tenten? Yes. Because she had lost terribly.

Who had Hinata fought then?

My eyes cast around the room.

Neji.

That was right. Because she had lost terribly too.

After that it was easy to see who would be fighting who. Naruto was the trickiest. I didn't know where he should fall on the list. By rights, he should be at the top with Gaara, for much the same reasons, but those reasons were secret, and Naruto didn't have nearly the 'control' over his prisoner that Gaara did. If 'control' was the right word.

"Naruto," I said, voice low, so as not to let everyone overhear, "you'll probably be up against either Chouji or Kiba. Start planning."

He looked at me, wide eyed. He didn't question how I knew which was both good and bad. Good because it meant he trusted me, bad because it meant he wasn't trying to work it out himself.

"What should I do?" He asked voice hushed.

"How's your chakra?"

"It's a little weird," he confessed.

I bit my lip. "In normal circumstances I'd say 'turn it into a battle of attrition. A match of stamina. Just have them fighting clones until you exhaust them'. But if your chakra isn't working right… you might not be able to do that. Their fighting styles both rely on being able to move - momentum and spinning. Bog them down, tie them up… how's your supply of ninja wire?" Naruto didn't use ninja wire as much as Sasuke or I did, but being on our team meant he got a crash course in how great it could be.

Naruto started grinning madly. Life was about to get very unpleasant for somebody. "I know exactly what to do," he said.

"Because his opponent is unable to continue, the winner is Kankurou," Hayate said, calling the second match over.

I nodded thoughtfully. It hadn't taken long at all. A simple replacement technique to switch with his puppet, and Misumi had been trapped before he'd even noticed. It was impressive that Kankurou could control his puppet without being able to see what was going on. That was something to watch out for.

"The third match: Temari vs. Tenten!"

Tenten walked down the balcony behind us. I paused a second, considering. She hadn't been at the impromptu information gathering session before the first exam. And well… Konoha ninja should stick together.

"Be careful," I muttered loud enough for her to hear. "She's a wind type."

It was a bad, bad match up for her. But if she knew ahead of time… well, she might not lose so badly.

Her footsteps faltered briefly, and I knew she had heard me. I could only hope it helped.

The match started badly. Tenten opened with a frankly uninspired barrage of shuriken and was shaken when they missed. That was her first mistake, letting her opponent get to her. It was easy to see that Tenten didn't have the ability to analyse an opponents skills and then change her tactics on the fly. There was probably a reason she stuck to long range and let her team mates dictate strategy. But with prior warning, she did notice that her thrown weapons weren't getting through the shifting wind currents that Temari controlled and switched to Taijutsu, proving that Maito Gai trained no slackers.

Her Taijutsu skills were actually pretty good but Temari wasn't lacking there, either. She could use her fan as a bludgeon and easily use a wind blast to push her opponent back and escape. Temari wasn't exactly pushed but it wasn't the complete walkover it might have been.

"Winner; Temari!" Hayate called out, then coughed. Temari was smirking, leaning on her fan.

Chakra surged behind us, but a familiar pattern. He was back quickly.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Where's Sasuke?" I asked, tilting my head back to look at him. It was hard to tell, but Sensei looked a little disturbed.

"Oh, he's fine. Sleeping soundly in the infirmary. But he's been put under guard by the ANBU." That was actually a good thing, in my books. As long as the ANBU were there to keep Orochimaru away and not to make him a prisoner or anything. "Although…" Sensei hesitated. "When you were in the Forest… did Sasuke… did he… you were attacked by a team of Sound ninja, weren't you?"

How did he know about that? Sasuke could have told him, but if Sensei wanted to ask something about him, it was unlikely. The only other person would have been the one who sent them…

Orochimaru…

… who had left the examination room shortly after Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke.

"Yeah, we were," I confirmed.

Sensei looked at me directly. "Did Sasuke kill them?"

"No," I said honestly, flatly. Some of the tension drained out of his frame and I turned away. "I did."

Orochimaru, who had sent them. Who had apparently discovered that they had been killed. Had he made the assumption that Sasuke had done it? That the curse mark was doing its job? Was that a good thing or a bad thing?

There was a careful silence on the balcony. I didn't kid myself into thinking that the other Jounin hadn't heard our conversation.

"Man, this test is such a drag," Shikamaru droned. Whether he'd done it on purpose or not, I was grateful all the same.

"Next match," Hayate called. "Inuzuka Kiba verses Naruto Uzumaki!"

"Finally! A chance to show what I've got!" Naruto shouted excitedly.

"Yeah! Hey Akamaru, I think you and I won the lottery! This is going to be cake." Kiba grinned, making his way towards the stairs.

Akamaru barked in agreement.

"Heh. He's going to be surprised," Naruto boasted, before holding up a familiar canteen. "Mind if I borrow this?" he asked.

I blinked, and glanced towards my backpack where it was leaning against the wall. "Sure," I agreed readily enough, not quite sure what he wanted with it. He already had his own attached to belt. "Help yourself."

"Sorry Kiba," Naruto said as they squared off on the floor. "Don't take it personally if I blow you away."

"That's just what I was going to say! Only not so politely," Kiba growled back. "Right Akamaru?"

"When you're ready," Hayate said, moving back out of the way. "Begin!"

"Beast Mimicry: Four Legs Jutsu." Kiba's chakra spiked and he crouched down onto hands and feet. It was hard to see from such a distance, but he looked far more feral than before. "Here I come!"

His speed was now comparable to Sasuke's or maybe mine when enhanced, I suspected, though it was hard to measure for sure. This was the Inuzuka Taijutsu. Feral and wild and very different from how humans normally fought. It was difficult to predict simply for that reason.

It also used chakra to a large degree, meaning that it was pretty draining and I suspected Kiba would only be able to use it for short bursts. Though, if he got some good hits in, that might be all he needed.

"Who do you think will be victorious?" Shino asked, glancing side on at me. Hinata clutched the railings and peered down anxiously at the two fighters.

I hmmed. "How likely is Kiba to take Naruto seriously?" It looked like he wasn't really messing around that much, going straight into his family techniques.

"More so than before the Forest, that's for sure," Shika said, leaning on the railings. "Man, I wouldn't even want to face him now."

"The more seriously Kiba takes him, the better chance he has," I said. "But…" I shrugged. "I'd be a poor team mate if I didn't back Naruto, ne?"

"As would I," Shino acknowledged quietly. "Kiba is not a push over."

"Neither is Naruto. Not anymore." I shivered, just a little. "But neither of them will be using life or death techniques. It isn't that sort of fight."

Naruto wouldn't be pushed to using Kyuubi chakra. If he could even use it now… Of course, he could still do plenty of damage without it.

I watched idly as Kiba threw down some smoke bombs and attacked while sight was screened. I followed the fight with my chakra sense as Naruto started moving to try avoid Kiba's attacks. It wasn't completely successful, but it was a good effort, and he nearly cleared the smoke before Akamaru tackled him back into it.

There was silence, then Kiba leapt clear of the smoke, eyeing it warily. It started to clear, slowly, revealing an orange body huddled on the ground.

'Akamaru' sprinted out of the smoke cloud, back towards his partner.

"Yeah! Way to go Akamaru," Kiba cheered, crouching down to pick him up. "This fight is over!"

Then 'Akamaru' bit him.

It was hard to say who was more shocked, the crowd, or Kiba.

"Idiot," I mumbled. "If you were going to bite him, you should have bitten him somewhere it would matter." It was only on the arm, and his thick jacket pretty much negated the whole effect of it.

"Surprise!" Naruto said, releasing the Transformation Jutsu with a cloud of smoke. Kiba shook him off and he backed up spitting.

"What? Where's Akamaru?" Kiba asked. There was real worry in his voice.

The Naruto that had been lying on the ground, stood, holding Akamaru by his front paws. Akamaru whined in shame.

"Wow," Ino said. "Is that really Naruto? Who would have thought that Naruto would be a match for Kiba?"

"To balance a Transformation Jutsu and a Clone Jutsu at the same time?" Shika commented. "That's kinda impressive. There's no way he should be able to do that."

I blinked. Actually, it was. Now that I thought about it… I was still working on being able to do two jutsu at the same time. But Naruto played Shadow Clone Shogi with me… huh. I'd never even recognised that …

"Whaddaya know?" Kiba said, grinning in feral relief. "Got a little stronger, I see. But not nearly strong enough because now I'm going to get serious."

"Good, I was hoping you would because I want to seriously knock you out," Naruto shot back.

I really wanted to tell him to stop playing around.

"Naruto, if I were you, I'd let Akamaru go." Kiba reached into his kunai pouch and pulled out something tiny. He flicked it towards Akamaru who swallowed it.

Akamaru's chakra blossomed and he began to grow. Larger and heavier, fur turning a dark red as he started to growl. He broke free of Naruto's grasp easily, dispersing the clone.

"What the heck happened? What was that thing you just fed him? Why did all his fur just turn red?" Naruto asked, puzzled.

"Are you sure you want to stick around to find out?" Kiba taunted, swallowing something himself. His chakra almost doubled. Soldier pills. No doubt about it.

"Beast Mimicry: Beast Human Clone!"

The two of them changed, Kiba becoming even more feral than before. Akamaru was his matching double.

"We'll take you down in one hit!" Kiba said. The two of them leapt forward and then began to spin. "Fang Over Fang!"

The two of them rotated until it was like they were inside a drill - or a tornado.

Interesting. They really are taking Naruto seriously to be using that already.

Naruto seemed to recognise that he didn't want to hit by that. I felt the surge in chakra of a Replacement Technique just before Kiba hit, leaving behind a chakra construct shaped like a scarecrow (complete with X's for eyes and a sticking out tongue) behind.

"Okay, so is it my turn now?" Naruto asked, mockingly, from the other side of the room. Kiba and Akamaru spun around in shock to face him.

Naruto was weighing the two water canteens in his hands, and with a casual flick he popped off the lids and threw them halfway across the room.

"Hidden in the Mist Jutsu!" He called, hands flying through the seals. His chakra spiked and poured out. That was much, much more chakra than he normally used for that jutsu, but the mist came out thick. It covered almost the whole room, with only the barest amount of clear space around the walls. I remembered that he had had problems in the Forest…

"Kakashi-sensei," I muttered. "Orochimaru did something to Naruto's chakra system." I described the jutsu that he had used, as much as I had seen of it, and exactly where he had been hit. "It's been causing problems with his chakra control since…"

Sensei's eye was slightly wider than normal. "I'll get someone to look at it, after the preliminaries."

"Urg!" Naruto's voice came echoing from inside the mist. "Smells like wet dog."

"Why you-!" There was an incoherent sound of pure rage. "You think this is going to stop me? I can still smell you, you know!"

A Naruto landed on the wall, then another, and another. There were dozens of them, up the walls, over the ceiling, crouched on the balcony and rails. And all of them appeared to be holding … wire.

Inside the mist it must have been like a cats cradle.

"Fang Over Fang!" Kiba shouted again.

Several of the Naruto's were yanked forwards, then a few more, then others grunted and pulled backwards. Rather like they were fishermen reeling in a large one.

"Hey! What the-!"

One Naruto jumped backwards out of the mist, standing in the tiny space clear of the mist. His face was very focused as he worked though a set of hand seals. "Alright! Eat this, Kiba! Lightning Release: Radiating Shockwave!"

It blasted out of him, scorching his hands from jutsu overload, but dancing through the mist. There were points where it sparked up impossibly bright - probably from the metal of ninja wire - and the clones all began to explode as the lightning was channelled down the wire into them.

Radiating Shockwave wasn't a huge jutsu, or a particularly long range one. As the name suggested, it produced a wide wave of lightning that arced around the user. Using the mist and ninja wire to increase it's range into an area of effect jutsu was a pretty clever combination.

"Kiba is down," I said, feeling his chakra stutter. Lightning jutsu often had the 'side effect' of paralysing the victim, and Kiba and Akamaru had basically taken that one full force.

Naruto was panting, but didn't look particularly wounded or tired. The mist started to fade, creating puddles of water on the floor. That would be something to watch out for in later fights. Wet floors were often slippery.

Kiba was tangled in lengths of ninja wire, twitching sporadically. Akamaru had dropped out of the clone jutsu and was back to being a small white puppy. But he was out of it too.

"Kiba Inuzuka is unable to continue. Winner is Naruto Uzumaki."

I cheered.

"That was surprising," Chouji said. "It's hard to think that that's the same Naruto…"

"Not that surprising," I said. "It's been a hard couple of months."

I bumped shoulders with Naruto as he rejoined us. "Did you see that?" he exclaimed. "Was I awesome or what?"

"Way to go," I congratulated. "Kiba was a tough opponent, you know."

"We're all really surprised," Ino said. "You're not the same kid from the Academy, anymore."

"No way! And you better believe it!" He grinned at her.

"Next match," Hayate called, catching our attention again. "Shino Aburame vs. Chouji Akimichi."

"Good luck, Chouji, Shino," I said as they both made their way downstairs. They both nodded at each other, perfectly polite.

Without name calling to enrage him, Chouji wasn't an aggressive soul - even though Asuma-sensei had bribed him with barbeque. And while Shino was perfectly willing to indulge in battle based trash talk, commenting on someone's appearance was beneath him. He much preferred to state why his opponents skill set was below his and why that meant they were going to lose.

It was actually an interesting match up. Akimichi naturally had large chakra reserves, quite apart from their stored 'excess', in order to use their Expansion Techniques. That meant that Shino's kikai had a long way to go in order to drain Chouji's chakra. Added to that, the spin of the Human Bullet Tank prevented them from gaining much of a foothold. But Shino wasn't ruffled at all and was easily able to dodge the not-very-accurate rolling sphere. Without someone to slow his target for him, Chouji simply couldn't hit it.

In the end, Shino's slow and persistent method of increasing the number of kikai on Chouji depleted his chakra until he could no longer use jutsu.

It was an almost anticlimactic fight, even though both of them gave it their best efforts.

"Winner; Shino Aburame," the proctor announced.

"Well, it was a good effort, Chouji," Asuma-sensei said, laying a hand on his shoulder. "Maybe next time."

"The next match will be," Hayate announced. "Shikamaru Nara vs. Shikako Nara."

I'd almost expected that, but it was still a punch in the gut.

If the Finals were to promote the village, they would want to show variety. Having two members from the same family would just be boring, particularly when Nara weren't known for our exciting combat styles.

I glanced at Shikamaru.

His grip was white knuckled on the railing.

Are you… afraid of me, Shikamaru?

The thought made me unbearably sad. It sat in the pit of my stomach like a heavy stone, closed my throat off, ached behind my eyes.

"Troublesome," he muttered.

My thoughts raced. We could fight. Given how unmotivated Shikamaru was, I might even win. Of course, given how good Shika was at out manoeuvring people, the match might go in his favour. It was tough to say.

"I forfeit," I said, voice barely loud enough to be heard by the proctor.

Shikamaru looked over at me and sighed. "You really want to do that?" he asked.

I nodded. "I forfeit," I repeated louder, voice surer.

"What's the point in that?" Temari scoffed from across the room, leaning on the rail, all casual arrogance. "Hanging in here to forfeit now?"

I shrugged. "There are two people in this room that I would forfeit rather than fight. My brother just happens to be one of them."

Your brother is the other, went unsaid.

Naruto looked scandalised. "You cant do that!" he protested. "Why are you just giving up? You used to kick his ass all the time at the academy!"

"Think about it," I said lowly to him, as the Proctor announced Shikamaru as the winner. It wasn't quiet enough to prevent those around me from hearing, but since it was only my team and team ten, I didn't think that was an issue. "Everyone here is watching. When it comes to the finals, they're going to have no idea how Shikamaru fights. That'll give him the advantage."

"You still could have won," Naruto argued stubbornly.

"Maybe," I said. "Maybe not. But he's my brother. A promotion… that's not a good enough reason to fight him." There might have been something approving about the glint in Kakashi's eye, but I could have been imagining it.

That made him pause. Naruto didn't have family, but he regarded his friends highly. Of course, to him, not fighting them would have been more insulting, but he did understand in a way. "I guess."

"Besides," I continued. "If I forfeited, that just means the Shika has to become Chunin."

"Troublesome," my brother muttered. "You had a better chance of getting through the Finals than me."

"If you're really torn up about it, you can do my chores for me," I suggested.

"Not a chance," Shikamaru snorted.

The next fight was where things started to get miserable. I wasn't pleased with having to forfeit, but it wasn't the end of the world. Not for me.

Hinata Hyuuga vs. Neji Hyuuga

Watching Hinata and Neji fight was painful. Not just with the explosive discharges of chakra as their Jyuuken strikes clashed, but emotionally as well. I wanted to tell Hinata to forfeit, but at the same time I wanted to encourage her to stand up for herself. I wanted to tell her she was strong and didn't have to listen to him discourage her.

I wanted to stop him hurting her.

But…

But Hinata kept standing up.

"You're wrong, Neji-nii-san," she said, her voice carrying quiet conviction. "Because these eyes… can see that the one suffering here is you."

Because Hinata thought it was worth it.

It wasn't about the match. It wasn't about the Exam anymore. It was about standing up to prove she could.

I swallowed, my throat thick and bitter.

"Hinata," Naruto said, when she had to be carried off the floor on a stretcher, a growl in his voice. "I promise, I will prove that people can change. I will beat Neji in your name."

"Hmph." Neji snorted, unimpressed. "A failure will always be a failure."

But if watching Neji and Hinata was hard then watching Lee and Gaara was worse. Because, like Sasuke, Lee would never quit. And Gaara would never be pacified.

I didn't want to watch. But I had to. If Gaara gave away anything that could help beat him… I had to see it.

Lee was impressive once the weights came off. But it wasn't enough. Then he started opening the gates.

The explosion of chakra as the limiters released made my breath catch in my throat. There was so much chakra it was visible. And yet, watching what it was doing to him made me glad that I had never pushed myself that far.

And it still wasn't enough. He gave too much, too fast and his body couldn't handle the strain.

Like Hinata, Lee had to be carried out on a stretcher too. But Gaara walked off the floor under his own power.

"And with that match, the Third Exam preliminaries are now finished." The proctor coughed once more before calling all the winners - and Ino, who hadn't fought - down to the floor.

The Hokage stepped forward. "In the Third Exam you will all put your battle skills on display. You will demonstrate the power and control you have achieved in your respective disciplines. Accordingly, the Third Exam will be held one month from now in order to provide a suitable period of preparation. So now, all that remains to be done is to find out who your opponents will be."

"Everyone," Anko said, holding up a box and moving down the line. "Take one piece of paper and tell us the number written on it. Ibiki will draw up a sheet of matches."

Naruto vs. Neji

Sasuke vs. Gaara

Ino vs. Temari

Shino vs. Shikamaru

Kankurou

I stared at the matchups. That was … familiar.

Well. If they rigged the prelims, why wouldn't they rig the actual matches? There were bound to be ways to ensure Genin picked the right numbers. Naruto had already declared a grudge match against Neji - which was bound to provide interesting motivation - and everyone wanted to see Sasuke fight Gaara. Ino and Temari fought it off as the two Kunoichi to make it through. Shino, Shikamaru and Kankurou were all the more long distance, strategic fighters. Pitting them all against each other made sense.

[A/N: Really long chapter ugh!]