A/N: I want to thank everyone who reviewed the last chapter as well as to everyone who added this story to their favourites and follows.

Naru couldn't help but sway as she waited for the exams to start. She wanted to run around, to go ask the people around them when the exams would start but Naru couldn't find a friendly face who she could ask. She shook her head, glanced at Kurapika and Leorio and slumped her shoulders when she saw they were too busy looking everyone in the area with suspicion and whispering to each other about something.

She would ask Gon but he was too busy comforting Tonpa, who looked so lost at what just happened. She felt her heart clenched when she saw him say sorry, looking so sad and lost at what just happened. She wanted to rub the man's shoulder, tell him that everything was fine but there was something about the man that made her skin crawl. There was something about the man which screamed vile but Naru didn't understand what it was.

Rubbing the back of her neck, Naru looked around the room and stopped when she caught sight of a silver-haired boy walking casually with a skateboard in his hands. He stood out to her, not because of his hair colour or the fact he was the only kid besides her and Gonin these exams. No, he stood out to her because he was the only one in the room smiling and walking in the room without a care in the world.

She stared at him for a good couple of seconds before looking back at her friends.

"Naru, what are you looking at?" Gon asked her, tilting his head at her.

She smiled. "I saw another kid doing the exams."

"Really? Where is he?" Gon asked, looking around the hall with wonder. "I can't see him Naru!"

Naru grinned, swung her arms around the boy and said. "You will see him Gon after all he's the only shorty besides you and me….except he's taller than me!"

"But everyone is taller than you, Naru," Gon said, blinking his eyes at her.

She blinked her eyes at his question and clenched her hands into a fist. "I'm not that short Gon! There're people who are shorter than me...it's not my fault that everyone here is all so freakishly tall."

Gon frowned and tilted his head at her while Leorio and Kurapika both had a small smile on their faces as they shook their heads at her. She pouted and crossed her arms at them. Her friends laughed even harder. She slumped her shoulders and wondered for the first time in her life if her parents had been short for their age like her.

She hoped they were because she could blame them for her height.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt a heavy hand on her head. Blinking her eyes, she looked up and was taken back by the wide smile on Leorio's face.

"Y'know Naru, one day you'll be happy you're short," Leorio said, grinning wildly. "If you were taller than most guys, it won't be easy for you to find a boyfriend when you're older and it'll be a waste if a cute little girl like you don't find someone."

Naru blanched. "Why would I want to find a boyfriend? I'm going to be the best kunoichi in the whole world Leorio, boys are the last thing in my mind."

"You're twelve, of course you say that," Leorio said, earning a nod from Kurapika and furrowed eyebrows from Gon. "I'll be worried if you actually like someone. Twelve-years-old is too young to date."

"Really? Sakura kept asking Sasuke for dates and Ino did the same thing too," Naru said, blinking her eyes.

Leorio paled at his words before looking at Kurapika, who just pursed his lips at her words and made a face that told her more than anything what he thought about what she said. Gon just blinked his eyes, shrugged his shoulders before giving her a big smile. At least one of her friends didn't find it weird that there were girls her age who liked guys right now. Maybe, she was the only weird one who didn't look guys in that way.

Really, guys were just like them so why should they squeal at them?

BRIIIIINNNNNGGG!

Naru winced and put her hands into her ears. She looked around the area and blinked her eyes when she caught sight of a tall man with lavender hair standing right in front of the whole crowd. How the hell can he eat without a mouth? That was Naru's first thought as she stared at the tall man, who gazed at everyone in the room with a blank expression.

"Now this concludes the registeration," The man finally said when everyone stopped talking and his alarm stopped ringing. "And we'll now commence the Hunter Exams."

The man twisted his body towards the tunnel, gestured at it and said. "Please come this way."

Naru glanced at her friends and then to everyone, who all nodded their heads and followed the tall man. Weren't they curious to know about what the first exam was before they follow the man? She frowned and shook her head before walking beside Gon and the others in the direction the man wanted them to go. If no one was going to ask then maybe it was nothing to worry about.

Besides, the man was going to tell them what was the first exam right?

"I'll confirm one more time," the man said, swinging his arms as everyone picked up the slight increase of pace. "The Hunter Exams is extremely difficult, so whether it was because of unfortunate luck or a lack of skills, you can get hurt or even die. And there has been numerous instances where examinees have been made incapacitated by other examinees but if this doesn't matter to you then please do follow me."

Naru didn't know about Gon or the others but she wasn't going to stop following the man to their exam because she could die from this exam. If she wanted to become the best then she needed to take the risk. If she wanted her team to go back to the way it was before Orochimaru came then she was going to do this exam. Nothing in the world was going to stop her from doing these exams.

Putting her hands into her jacket's sleeves, Naru continued to follow the tall man. She glanced around and noticed that no one had stopped walking and turned back. It seemed like her fellow contestants were just like her; they weren't going to let the fear of death from doing these exams. She curled her lips into a grin. One of her fellow examinees could give her the fight of a lifetime.

Just the thought made her want to smile.

"Understood," Their examiner said, twisting his head around to give them what was supposed to be an impressed look but failed because Naru couldn't tell if he was actually impressed because of his lack of mouth. Honestly, reading this guy was difficult for her because of his lack of mouth. "All 405 applicants will participate in the first Hunter Exam."

Leorio glanced around at their fellow examinnees and made a face. "Like I thought, not a single person is going to chicken out. I was kinda hoping for a few."

"I didn't want anyone to chicken out," Naru admitted, smiling nervously at Leorio, who made a face at her. "I want to fight someone really strong and it woulda be a waste if a strong person chickened out because they're scared."

"Then they won't be strong if they chicken out," Leorio said dryly, making Naru frown at him. "Why would a strong person chicken out from these exams? They would be too arrogant to think they can't do it."

Tilting her head, Naru furrowed her eyebrows and asked, "But they could still be strong even if they chicken out right? I mean if they care for their life then wouldn't it make sense for them to drop out?"

Even though she said this, Naru couldn't see herself dropping out of these exams. Even if she didn't want to save Sasuke or become stronger, Naru would still continue on these exams because she didn't give up when things got hard. Even though she was risking her life for these exams, Naru would still do these exams just because she hated the idea of giving up.

"A more sensible person would do as Naru says," Kurapika said, drawing their attention to him. "If they only came here because they thought it was a game or if they truly care for their life then they would give up the moment they have a chance."

Leorio curled his lips at Kurapika's words while Naru smiled widely at the blond-haired boy, who gave her a small smile. She glanced at Gon, who just stared at the three of them in confusion but Naru just shrugged her shoulders and gave her friend a smile. He returned her smile before looking straight ahead at the examiner, who seemed to be picking up his pace.

Naru blinked her eyes at this realisation.

Shit, she actually needed to up her speed if she wanted to remain in these exams. Now she had to run slightly faster than her civilian speed if she wanted to keep up with this man because there was no way she could run at her full speed when she didn't know where to go. Heck, she didn't know where they were going or how far they were going to run.

Not that it mattered because she could run for days without a break but Naru doubt her friends or fellow examinees were like her.

"I forgot to introduce myself," The examiner declared as everyone started to run to catch up with the man. "My name is Satotsu and I'm the examiner of the first exam. I'll be escorting you to the second exam site so please do not lose sight of me."

She stared at her fellow examinees, who all frowned and furrowed their eyebrows at their tall examiner, before glancing at their examiner, who seemed relatively calm at what he just declared. He didn't tell them what their first exam was but expected them to follow him. Was this a trick? Because if it was then Naru hated the man since she didn't do well with tricks. There was a reason why she didn't do well in genjutsu and it wasn't just because of her bad chakra control.

"The second exam? What about our first exam?" One of the examinees yelled, running after the man.

Still walking, Satotsu twisted his head around and gave them a look that Naru could only describe as being amused. "To follow me to the second exam site is the first exam. I can't disclose the destination or low long it would take for us to reach there, which leaves you no choice but to follow me."

"I see," Kurapika said, making a face.

"What do you mean you see?" Naru asked, tilting her head.

Her fellow blonde pulled a face and answered. "This exam can be considered a psychological burden as we don't know how far we have to go as a result, this test doesn't just test our endurance but also a test of our mental strength."

Yup, she didn't understand a damn thing Kurapika said but Naru had an idea what he was trying to say to her. This portion of the exam wasn't going to be easy was what he was trying to tell her because this is an exam where they have to continue running with no indication of when to stop. She didn't care about her mental strength but she wanted to see if she could struggle running in this exam.

You had nothing in the first place! What the hell do you understand about me? Huh?

Those words haunted her mind and even though Naru tried her hardest to push them in the back of her mind, she could still remember the cold look in Sasuke's eyes. She didn't understand his pain of losing his family but Naru understood loneliness and despite what Sasuke said, despite the people surrounding him, Naru knew Sasuke was just as lonely as her. She knew him better than anyone in their team and that was why she wanted to bring him back.

She couldn't let him suffer anymore and going to Orochimaru would make him suffer.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she caught sight of the same silver-haired boy she saw earlier skating pass them. She blinked and tilted her head before shrugging her shoulders at him. Were skateboards even allowed in the exams? Did it even matter? She could care less about what the boy did though she wanted to try his skateboard. For as long as she could remember, Naru wanted to use one but never had the money to afford it since it cost more money then all of her savings put together.

Maybe once the exam was over, she would ask him if she could try it.

"Hey kid! That's not fair!" Leorio yelled, pointing his finger at the silver-haired boy. "You're cheating! Hey! Did anyone taught you to respect your elders! You shouldn't skate away when I'm talking to you!"

"How come?" The boy asked, twisting his body to look at them.

"Whaddya mean how come?" Leorio snarled. "This is a test of endurance?"

Kurapika said one thing and Leorio say another thing, which made Naru wonder what the hell she was going to believe in.

Gon frowned and pointed out. "But you're wrong Leorio. The examiner said just to follow him."

"Gon! Who's side are you on?" Leorio yelled, swinging his arm in the air.

"He's on no one's side," Naru answered, furrowing her eyebrows. "Gon just repeated what the examiner just said. The examiner never said anything about not using transportation. It isn't cheating if he never told us don't use a skateboard."

"Naru is right Leorio," Kurapika agreed, shaking his head at Leorio. "As long as you don't cheat, this test allows you to use anything you want. Also don't waste your stamina like that so to perserve it please shut up."

That's a polite way of telling somone to shut up, Naru thought, smiling as Leorio gritted his teeth at Kurapika's words. Maybe, she should try Kurapika's way of telling people off. If she acted polite then no one would actually realize she was being rude or if they did then they couldn't exactly tell her off because it didn't exactly sounded rude. Why the hell didn't she think of that? It would have saved her the trouble of hearing Sakura yell at her for being rude to Sasuke even though he was acting like a jerk to her.

Right when she got back home, she was going to try Kurapika's way.

"Hey how old are you?" Naru blinked her eyes and twisted her head around to see the silver-haired boy staring at her.

Naru tilted her head and glanced at Gon, who gave her a smile, and then to the silver-haired boy before answering, "I'm twelve years old."

He nodded, stared at her up and down with his eyes lingering at her bright orange jacket and her whisker cheeks before shrugging his shoulders at her. Strange, Naru thought, flickering her eyes at Leorio and Kurapika. Why did he ask her such a strange question? She didn't mind people asking her about her age but it came out of the blue. Maybe he didn't know what her age was, that did happen to her before. She knew her body was slightly more mature than all the girls her age.

It was a fact Sakura hated but Naru envied her teammate for not having a mature body just yet.

"What's your name Whiskers?" The boy asked, snapping her from her train of thought. "I'm Killua."

"Naru...Naru Uzumaki," Naru answered, giving him a smile. "Nice to meet ya, Killua."

He blinked his eyes at her, looking almost taken back by her smile and Naru wondered why the boy looked so surprise at the fact she smiled. What kind of life did he have for him to look so surprise? Hadn't he seen people smile before? Heck, Gon smiled a lot so he should be used to it since Naru knew damn well the boy had been talking to Gon before talking to her.

"Ossan, what's your name?" Killua asked, glancing at Leorio.

Leorio's eyebrows twitched at Killua's comment. "Ossan? I might not look like my age but I'm still a teenager!"

Naru stopped running and stared at the older male with wide eyes. A teenager? Leorio? But he looked so old, Naru thought, glancing at Gon and Killua, who blinked their eyes at him. Kakashi-sensei looked even younger than him and her sensei was old compared to her. Heck, she could count a handful of people who looked like they were in their teens and Leorio wasn't one of them.

She hoped when she got older that no one would think she was an old lady when she was a teenager.

"You're kidding right?" Killua and Gon asked, blinking their eyes at him.

"I can understand Killua but Gon! That's just so cruel," Leorio yelled, swinging his suitcase at them. "At least Naru here believes me when I said I'm a teenager…" Naru looked away and whistled, causing the older teen to slump his shoulders at her. "Not you too, Naru! I'm not friends with either you two anymore!"

Naru frowned. "That's not fair! You can't blame us for thinking you're an old man when you dress like that!"

Gon and Killua nodded their heads in agreement. Leorio pulled a face and shook his head at them, giving them a hurt look before picking up the pace. She frowned and shrugged her shoulders before glancing at Gon, who just furrowed his eyebrows and gave her a smile before picking up the pace. She grinned and started to speed up. There was no way she was going to let Gon beat her in picking up the pace.

She wasn't going to let him beat her.

"Does Naru stand for something?" Killua asked, snapping her from her train of thought. "And why are you doing the Hunter Exams? Shouldn't you be playing with your dolls or whatever girls do?"

Did he just tell her she should play dolls? She wondered, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes at the silver-haired boy. Did she look like the kind of girl who liked playing with those things? Even when she was in the orphanage, she didn't even try to play with the dolls that the Hokage brought for her to play. Kami, she hated the dolls especially with how fake they look.

She didn't understand how her female classmates could play with them.

"No, my name is Naru Uzumaki and that's it," Naru answered, glaring at the boy. "And as for why I'm doing these exams well it definitely isn't because I want to play with some stupid ass doll. Kami, do you think all girls play with dolls? Ya never heard of a girl who hates those things?"

"I thought all girls play with dolls," Killua said, scowling.

She rolled her eyes and scowled. "Well, not all girls plays with dolls. I like training, getting into fights and playing ninjas more than playing with some stupid dolls."

"Playing ninja?" Gon asked, tilting his head. "What's that? I never heard of that game."

Naru grinned widely as she remembered the days when she would play the game with Shikamaru, Choji and Kiba. "It's a game that we used to play a lot in our village," she explained to the two boys as they ran pass Kurapika and Leorio. "It's like a game of tag except not. In the game, you have two teams...one of them is ninja and the other is the enemy ninjas. You try to capture them and put them in prison."

"So it's like a game of cops and robbers?" Killua asked, tilting his head at her.

Naru furrowed her eyebrows and nodded her head. She had never heard of that game before but if that was what the boy could connect it to then Naru wasn't going to try to correct him. Maybe when she was done with the exams and if she had time, she would ask Gon to play the game with her. It would be nice if she could have one game before leaving this place especially since she wouldn't have Sakura giving her a look that said she was acting like a child.

Though they were still children but Naru didn't understand why her teammate thought it was stupid of her to play ninja.

It made more sense for her to play ninja then bothering Sasuke with dates and it wasn't like Naru didn't train.

However the training she did leading to the exams and even after the exams wasn't enough for her to bring Sasuke back. No, she needed to go through more vicious training if she wanted to bring Sasuke back home. Yes, she needed to get stronger so she could bring their teammate home and have their life go back to the way it was like it was before.

Sasuke may hate her for bringing him back home but Naru wasn't going to give up on him.

Six hours passed and Naru still didn't feel one bit exhausted from their run. It might be because she was a ninja or it might be because she had too much chakra but Naru still felt as energetic as she had been when they all left the exam site. She could still feel her sweat clinging her skin but Naru could still run, unlike the other participants, who all showed various signs of being exhausted.

Nodding her head, Naru skipped a couple of the steps and sprinted right pass a couple of her fellow participants, who all were starting to slow down from sheer tiredness of the journey they made. She glanced behind her back and pulled a face when she caught sight of Leorio running up the staires without a shirt on. Why the hell did he took off his shirt? She might be sweating but it wasn't hot enough for her to want to take off her favourite jacket.

"Naru!"

Naru blinked her eyes and smiled widely as Gon and Killua run beside her. Unlike everyone else in the exams, both Gon and Killua looked to be in better shape but Naru could see from the sweat forming on their faces that they could feel the effects from their journey. The black-haired boy gave her a big smile, glancing at her up and down before giving her an even bigger smile.

"When did you become the head of the pack?" Gon asked, smiling. "You must run really fast, Naru."

Naru smiled, rubbed the back of her neck and boasted. "Of course I'm really fast Gon! I'm one of the fastest kids in my village, didn't I tell ya? Not many people can catch up to my speed. I'm just awesome that way Gon."

"Fastest?" Killua asked, tilting his head at her. "I doubt you're that fast."

"Wanna make a bet Cat?"

The silver-haired boy blinked his eyes and crossed his arms. "Cat? Why the hell are you calling me Cat? My name is Killua, not Cat!"

"Really? I forgot who you are," Naru lied, smiling widely at the dumbfounded boy. "You remind me of a cat so I'm going to call you Cat but if you really hate it then I'll call you Kill! So take your pick."

The silver-haired boy's lips twitched at her words while Gon smiled widely at them. She smiled even wider at him before glancing at Killua, who looked torn between throttling her for the nicknames choice she gave him or simply yelling at her for the unfairness. He deserved to get those two for a nickname if you asked her because no one should ever mistake her for a girly girl. Seriously, the only thing girly about her was the fact she had a long hair.

She liked keeping her hair long especially since the Third Hokage told her she looked like her mother when she had her hair long. To honour the mother she never knew, Naru kept her hair long.

"I prefer being called Cat," Killua finally said, crossing his arms. "But if you call me Cat then I'll call you Whiskers!"

Naru shrugged her shoulders. "Alright, I don't care what ya call me since it's just a name."

"What about me, Naru? Are ya going to give me a nickname?" Gon asked, staring wide-eyed at her.

A nickname for Gon? She usually made nicknames for her friends, no matter how rude they could be. Her nickname for Hinata was Hina-chan since Naru used to struggle to pronouce her best-friend's name but Naru stopped calling Hinata that nickname since they graduated. Sakura had always been bubblegum since her hair always reminded her of bubblegums. Ino had always been known to her as bossy since she always tried to boss her around. Shikamaru had been known to her as lazy ass while Choji had always been Choji to her since she could never find a good nickname for him.

Looking at Gon, Naru couldn't find a good nickname for him.

"You're just Gon," Naru finally answered, rubbing the back of her neck. "I can't think of a good nickname for ya Gon...I'm sorry."

Gon slumped his shoulders before giving her a smile. He looked at her up and down, tilted his head before finally saying, "Well I know a good name for ya Naru."

"What?"

"Fox."

Naru blinked her eyes and raised her eyebrows at her friend. "Why a fox?"

"Your whisker marks reminds me of a fox," Gon explained. "And you smell like one too. Do ya have a pet fox?"

He could smell the Kyuubi? If Gon could smell her then didn't that mean Kiba could also smell the fox on her? How on earth could they smell the demon inside her? Did she now need to take a shower every single day to erase his scent? Kami, don't tell her she needed to put on some of those smelly perfumes so that no one could guess she had the Kyuubi inside of her? She hated this.

"He asked you a question," Killua said, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Yeah, you could say I have one," Naru said, giving him a smile. "But he's a real piece of work Gon."

"Did you just imply I'm a pet? Brat, when I get out of here I'm going to make you wish you hadn't said that!" The Kyuubi snarled at her. "I'm the strongest being in this entire universe and you dare compare me to some household pet."

"That isn't true if you were a pet then I would want you but I'm stuck with you," Naru snarled at the demon. "Besides I can't tell people I've a demon inside of my belly? What do you think I am? A complete idiot. Heck, even an idiot has more common sense then to tell the whole world they have a demon inside of them."

"I'm not a pet."

"Whatever you say oh great Kyuubi."

"If you weren't being sarcastic, I'll tell you that you're smart for a human."

"If you weren't a pain in the ass, I would call you decent but we can't get what we want."

"Why aren't you tired? You've been ahead of us for while now but you don't look one bit tired," Killua said, drawing her attention towards him. For once since they started talking, the boy hadn't given her a rude look or said anything that made her want to throttle him. If anything, he looked very curious to know why she wasn't tired. She glanced at Gon, who stared wide-eyed at her, before shrugging her shoulders.

"I got a lot of energy," Naru explained as they skipped another step. "And it takes a really long time for me to get really tired from exercise, which was something my ex-Matron hated since she could never get me to bed on time like the others," that and she was the Kyuubi's brat but Naru hadn't known that until a couple months ago, "And even if I was tired I wouldn't let it bother me because this exam might be the only way I can get stronger."

"Why do ya want to get stronger?" Killua asked, furrowing his eyebrows. "Aren't ya here to become a Hunter?"

Naru shrugged her shoulder. "I could care less about becoming a Hunter but I want to become stronger so I could drag back my best friend home. The only way I can do that is for me to challenge myself and take risks that I never taken before...this exam might be the only way I can get stronger."

"Why do you want to drag him back home?" Killua questioned, tilting his head at her. "Why did he leave your home in the first place?"

Naru stopped smiling and gazed seriously at the boy's blue eyes. "He left home because he's an idiot. He wants to get revenge on the person who killed his family and for him to do that, he thought he needed to go to a bad guy to become stronger. He's my best friend and I don't like the idea of my best friend being hurt...if he stays with the bad guy then he's going to get hurt."

"Revenge?" The boy said, looking faintly amused at her words. "Interesting."

Why did he find it interesting? Naru wondered as the three of them reached the final step on the staircase. Why did he find it funny that her best friend left her for revenge? It wasn't funny at all. It was irritating if you asked her because just when Naru thought she could get along with Sasuke, thought of him as the big brother she never had, the bastard had to do something as stupid as this. Really, what the hell was her teammate thinking of leaving them like this? Knowing the bastard like she did, Sasuke might have believed she would give up on bringing him back home after what he did to her.

Fat chance she would ever give up on him.

A/N: Please tell me what you think about this chapter and the interactions between Naru and Killua. Do you think they were in character or out of character?