Prologue

A man with silvery gray hair in a tail and an ageless face stood staring off into the night with a blank, dispassionate stare. Tenkai wore this expression on many important occasions as it also served him well countless times on the battle field. But now it seemed befitting of him.

It was a quaint evening on Mt. Heie as he enjoyed the late night breeze. It was rare that he was able to enjoy a pleasantly warm wind high up in the mountains, it was just one of the recently occurring oddities that he just took in stride as one of life's little miracles.

"Tenkai!"

Turning around, he regarded the petite sized priestess rushing towards him. He smiled as she came up to greet him.

"Ah Arin! Have you come out to enjoy this beautiful night too?"

"I-I'm afraid not. You have to come with me now inside, it's urgent."

They both hurried inside the temple to where Arin led him into the storage room. It was a massive room containing various trinkets and magical artifacts protected by a powerful magic that only Arin and himself could bypass. Before he could question the situation, he stopped dead in his tracks as he saw a faint glowing that seem to beacon to him as bright as a lighthouse.

A gauntlet with a jeweled insignia glowed with a faint purple sheen. Tenkai's eyes relaxed as he looked down with a slight smile, sighing. Arin looked up worriedly, though he gave her a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"It took long enough." He looked eastwards toward the beacon of power that he just recognized.

"And on the night that the Kyuubi breaks free..."

He suddenly sensed a presence outside the barriers of the temple. Going over to see who it was, it was who he least expected.

"Enma?"

The monkey king turned around and regarded him with an irritated expression, as if he was waiting for hours. He seemed slightly battered and exhausted.

"Eh Tenkai, long time no see. I would take time to exchange pleasantries, but there are some pressing matters." Turning eastwards towards where he sensed the Kyuubi, he said "Hiruzen sent me, Minato's in trouble."

Tenkai nodded as if he understood, "Take me there at once."

They teleported to a clearing with a scene that startled him. The Kyuubi, noticeably smaller, was chained down inside a massive protective barrier, that seemed invisible to everyone but him. Enma and himself walked towards thr gathering of shinobi that included the Sadaime Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi.

"What is the meaning of this Hiruzen?"

Sarutobi didn't say anything as he just beckoned inside the barrier. Following something he should've noticed earlier he saw two figures huddled around a baby.

"Is that...Minato and Kushina?"

Sarutobi nodded, saying "Long story short, the Kyuubi somehow broke loose causing chaos to the village. Coincidently Kushina was giving birth to another pair of twins, and he intends to seal the Kyuubi in the boy."

"And what about the other one?"

"In the safety of the village. She's a girl, so for some reason he saw it fitting to seal it inside the boy."

Tenkai nodded. Quick thinking on Minato's part, as his newborn son would benefit as the next jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi given his Uzumaki blood.

"But I still-" They were interrupted by the sudden roar of the Kyuubi as it seemed to lunge forward, with one of its claws aimed towards the baby. It seemed like slow motion as Tenkai bypassed the barrier with his mystical magic rushing towards the baby. He watched in horror as he saw Kushina standing in front of the baby when Minato pushed her out of the way being pierced by a single claw. Tenkai rushed in and took the baby as the momentum of the pierced Minato barely missed landing where the baby was. Kushina struggled to get up, but then suddenly passed out, unconscious.

"She finally passed out from exhaustion. Tenkai-sama, thank you," Minato breathed with a small smile. Producing several tags from his sleeve Tenkai threw them at the demon foxes face, glowing upon impact. Its eyes slowly closed as Kyuubi dropped into a motionless heap. Tenkai caught Minato's body and laid him down as he was obviously in critical condition.

"The tag will render him unconscious for only short while," Tenkai said.

Minato nodded, thanking him. "That's all I need," Minato said weakly. Tenkai then noticed the seal pattern on Minato's stomach. Uncovered the baby to get a better look at him, there was the identical design.

"This seal...Minato you didn't-"

"I'm sorry, but it was the best I could do against the Kyuubi. I've already sealed half it's chakra inside of me, and will seal the other half in Naruto-kun here," Minato said, looking down at his newborn with a forlorn expression.

"Minato, you don't have to die here. I can still save you here and-

"I'm sorry Tenkai-sama, but I can't," Minato said weakly. "Your prophecy came true, my son...Naruto my son here is the one that was foretold." Tenkai's eyes relaxed as he looked down closing his eyes. So it was this little boy right here.

"I have one last thing to ask of you Tenkai," Minato said softly.

"Anything," Tenkai replied as he shifted over the baby arms who seemed to be writhing in discomfort.

"Please take Naruto away from the village and raise him as your own, for now. And bring him back to the village when he's ready to be a shinobi." Tenkai smiled, still looking down at baby Naruto.

"It's the least I can do. But why?" Tenkai felt concern not only for Naruto, but for his family.

"There are unknown powers out there that would do whatever they could to get their hands on Naruto. I feel he would be better of with you for the time being."

"I see," Tenkai said. "I'm sorry it had to end up like this Minato."

"It was a short life, but I feel like I've done all I could. It's up to the next generation now." He stopped, coughing violently spurting out blood. "It seems my time is up...goodbye." With a last look at his unconscious wife, he completed the final stages of the reaper death seal. In a blinding flash of light the Kyuubi was gone as Minato's lifeless form crumpled to the ground.

Sarutobi appeared at his side with Enma. "I've rendered all the other shinobi's unconscious so they didn't witness your appearance."

"So you know that I have to leave with little Naruto here."

"Minato discussed this scenario, though it was a last-minute solution we didn't think possible."

"So what will happen to the village now?"

Sarutobi looked towards Minato's body with a sad expression, showing his age. "A lot will happen, but first I will take up the mantle and resume my position as hokage. And figure out how the mysterious assailant caused all this to happen."

"I must return to Mt. Heie then. I wish you good luck here," Tenkai said as he disappeared with Naruto.

"What a shame, this young one was a truly a genius of his generation," Enma said as he delicately gathered Minato into his arms.

"He truly was," Sarutobi agreed. "It was probably the best thing I had done in appointing him as my successor." He stood over Kushina's unconscious form with a sad expression as he sighed.

"I'm sorry Kushina..."

Five years later

"N-Naruto wait up!"

A little blonde kid was laughing in delight as he was running away from his captor. Arin internally chastised herself for letting her guard down for a split second around the energetic blonde.

"Naruto you can't keep running away from calligraphy practice!"

"No! I'm tired of writing stupid little lines! I'm finally free and can do whatever I wan-

Naruto bumped into something and looked up rubbing his head. He was suddenly face to face with the last person he wanted to see at that moment.

"Oi Naruto, you're not giving Arin-chan any trouble now are you?" Tenkai said sternly.

"But I hate calligraphy practice," Naruto pouted as he folded his arms. "I want to go run around and maybe explore the forest."

"But you know you're not supposed to go without one of us watching you, right?" Naruto didn't reply as still maintained his haughty expression. "Do you know why you have to learn to read and write?"

"So you can keep me busy with Obaasan and do your own things." Naruto replied flatly.

Crouching down on his haunches he met Naruto's azure eyes evenly. "It's the first step to developing your strength, Naruto," Tenkai sad. "Remember how I always tell you that you will one day be a special person?"

Naruto nodded slowly, his slightly opening in awe.

"This is just the beginning of the teachings that I am going to pass on to you. You are destined to travel the world and make your presence known, and it will be. I will be training you to not only strengthen your physical body, but your state of mind as well."

"My mind can be that strong?" Naruto asked.

Tenkai smirked ruffling his golden locks. "You don't even know. Now c'mon let's get on with it. Do you know why learning to write is important?"

"To look smart," Naruto replied as if stating the obvious.

"Do you know I use my techniques?" Naruto shook his head to which he replied "It starts with foundation, or basic step. Learning to write is required to learn these cool techniques."

"So if I perfect my calligraphy I can use those strong techniques you use?" Naruto asked excitedly.

"Of course, now run along with Obaasan so you can get started." Not having to be told twice, Naruto ran to a smiling Arin taking her hand as she took him inside.

Tenkai rolled up his sleeve to check a jeweled bracelet decked with a orb that was glowing a faint light blue. He's already coming along, the aura continues to grow stronger. Fate has funny way of making things work...

Chapter 1: A Lost Identity

The village of Konoha was bustling with it's usual activity. The vibrant atmosphere combined with the warm sunny weather provided a calm and mellow mood for the masses, except for three certain genin who had just taken on a familiar foe.

The scene that surrounded team seven chaotic as various pieces of laundry and clotheslines littered the backyard that they were in. "And to think you guys still have trouble trying to catch a cat," Sasuke taunted, who was a carrying a subdued Tora. One of his teammates, a girl with long red hair and blue eyes glared at him. Kohatsu Namikaze liked to say she was an even tempered person most of the time, but the smugness of her Uchiha teammate never failed to get under her skin.

"You had to resort to using your stupid sharingan again, Sasuke-baka," she retorted.

"I wasn't the one who was wasted their energy trying to chase after a stupid cat, I did what a shinobi was supposed to do in this situation," Sasuke replied indifferently.

Before she could answer him they were interrupted by their other teammate. "We should probably just report to Kakashi-sensei already," Sai said blankly. Kohatsu sighed as she reluctantly agreed, with the rest of them leaving. One of my teammates is a stuck-up prick and the other is...I don't even know. Why did this have to happen to me.

Later after completing their mission they gathered at training field three which had become their customary meeting point. Knowing their sensei's penchant for showing up late, team seven showed up half an hour late, only to wait another hour until Kakashi showed up. Sasuke and Sai didn't bother reacting as they were busy keeping to themselves, while Kohatsu didn't hold back.

"Oi Kakashi baka-sensei! You're late again!" Kohatsu yelled.

Kakashi had on usual sheepish expression, starting with, "Well you see, when one is on the righteous path of life, there tends to be obstacles to overcome. And seeing as how I seen this poor little kitty in the tree, I thought to myself-"

"Please spare us the anecdotes and just get on with it sensei," Sasuke said with a sigh. Kakashi nodded looking off, seemingly lost in thought.

"As you know, you guys have been working diligently since becoming a team, learning the necessary basics to becoming a competent shinobi team."

"Hmm, but how do basic chores and pet-sitting count as training, sensei?" Sai asked curiously.

"Ah, a great qustion Sai, let's see where do I start..."

"Hehe Sai was just kidding, anyways you were gonna say," Kohatsu interrupted, bopping Sai on the head. Ignoring his lack of reaction, Kakashi continued.

"Well I've entered you guys in for the chunnin exams, It's in three months time and I think you guys should be ready," Kakashi said. The reaction was as expected, the two males showed indifference while the redhead reacted vehemently.

"Chunnin exams? Already? But we've barely done much to show for it!" Kohatsu protested

"I agree sensei. I hardly think a multitude of D-ranked missions with a couple of C-ranked missions is enough to warrant us being chunnins," Sai stated.

"You and the other genin teams have barely done that much to tell you the truth. I was going to wait another year like Gai did with his team, but I feel like this experience will benefit you guys."

"Experience? So you don't expect us to pass," Sasuke said.

"That's my expectation, yes. The percentage of gennins who are promoted to chunin are small. And for first timers it much smaller. But that's why we are here aren't we, to defy expectations," Kakashi said smiling. Kohatsu and Sai sighed wearily, while Sasuke wore a smug expression.

And to think I thought it was going to be worse than this. Kakashi looked towards the Hokage monument, especially towards the last face in order. I hope I'm doing enough.

"Ok we're going to forgo our usual training regiment and work on our formation tactics. It's going to be pretty hard your individual styles and differences but I think we can work something out...

Three months later

Sarutobi was in his office sorting through the paperwork to house the guest shinobi for the upcoming Chunnin exams. Leaning back with a weary sigh, he took out his pipe and lit it, smoking in blissful silence. That was gone with a knock on the door.

"Come in," Sarutobi called out. An anbu with a fox mask came in standing at attention.

"At ease, Arashi. There's no need for formalities when it's just us," Sarutobi said.

"Thank you, hokage-sama." The fox anbu removed his mask to reveal a face that had a stark resemblance to the late fourth hokage. Save for his the lighter shade of blonde spiky hair, Arashi usually got mistaken for his father, with some enemies fleeing from his presence because of that. Wearing a kitana sporting an Uzumaki swirl on its scabbard, he had a formidable presence.

"There seemed to be no unusual activities with incoming genin teams. I've also noticed a few teams from villages I've never seen before." Arashi handed him a scroll of the information he gathered.

"Sound village, hidden stream village and...village hidden in the mountains. Interesting," Sarutobi mused.

"Is it something we should be worried about?" Arashi asked.

Sarutobi put out his pipe down, contemplating. "No, I don't think so. The hidden stream has been a small village responsible for the majority of fishing exports, and is allied with all the major elemental villages. Same with the village hidden in the mountains which exports large quantities of cash crops. Villages like these two usually send a decent amount of gennins out every year. This sound village was recently formed, I don't think there's reason for concern there."

"I see..."

Picking his pipe back he resumed his paperwork. "Are you worried about Kohatsu-chan being in the upcoming exams?" Sarutobi said softly.

"Well, sort of. I mean I didn't expect Kakashi to be pushing his team so far after only months with them," Arashi said scratching his head. Truth was, he hardly surprised that Kakashi made such a move. Having known him his whole life and working with him briefly when he was anbu, he learned to embrace the unexpected when it came to the silver haired jonin.

"Well I can't say it's something to farfetched to believe. If I'm correct didn't you become a chunnin at the age of five, with Alanna following suit at seven years old?"

"I guess," Arashi said, with a sigh of resignation. He felt it was unfair to compare Kohatsu to himself and Alanna given that they were able to display their geniuses at an early age. his younger sister tended to be a bit erratic at times, a trait she inherited from their mother. But he ultimately believed that she was a late bloomer and held the potential to match Alanna and himself.

Walking over to the balcony, Sarutobi surveyed the village. "Having the exams here will be refreshing change for the village. I hold no doubt that all the gennin from the leaf village will do their best to fufill their potential. Don't you agree, Arashi?'

Without hesitation, Arashi answered "Of course, Hokage-sama. The will of fire continues to burn as brightly as ever."

"Then continue to have faith in your sister. She will do just fine." Arashi nodded, bowing his head as Sarutobi dismissed him. Looking towards the hokage monument he glanced at Minato's face for a moment, slightly smiling. He saw no difference between his predecessor and his son.

Day one of the chunnin exams had finally come. Kohatsu felt the utmost confidence in the time that she had trained. Team seven had made some progress in the two months training, though she felt that Kakashi had spent some time with Sasuke than he did with Sai and herself. Not that it mattered since she did receive a lot of training with Arashi on his free time.

I can't wait to show what neesan taught me. She looked towards her teammates, seeing that Sai had on his ususal blank and curious expression, while Sasuke looked bored, though she could've swore there was a hint of determination in his expression.

Entering the academy building they came to find all the teams already there. It was pretty quiet with some of the teams talking amongst themselves. The tension was so thick that she could cut it with a knife.

"Ah Kohatsu!" Ino and team 8 came to greet them, the usual scene with Choji munching on a bag and chips and Shikamaru looking crankier than usual.

"Hello Ino, Choji Shikamaru," Kohatsu greeted.

"Well looks like they finally showed up," Kiba called, with a meek Hinata and indifferent Shino in tow.

Kohatsu smiled, as the genin of her age group were gathered. While the others were talking, she took the time to survey the room and the other chunnin hopefuls. She recognized most of the other headbands representing various villages. They ranged from the major villages to the smaller known ones such as the hidden grass and waterfall village.

There were three other groups of gennins that she didn't recognize instantly. One was a group of shinobi's wearing protectors with a music note, which she remembered was the recently formed sound village. Another was a group with shinobi wearing loose fitting clothing with a protector sporting the simple design of a river. The last were more of an odd ensemble: a short girl with a pixie cut, a boy with long black hair wearing loose-fitting cloths in the image of a monk, and the last member wearing light armor and a quarterstaff on his back with a mask covering the lower half of his face and a hood shading the top half. They all sported protectors with the symbol of three mountain peaks. Its surprising to know that there are so many smaller shinobi villages.

"So what do you think we're going to be doing now?" Choji said, his mouth muffled in between handfuls of chips.

"Well-"

They were interrupted when an entourage of shinobi showed up, with Ibiki Moreno in the front. "Alright you maggots pipe down! Now is the first portion of your test, which is a written exam..."

Standing outside the family compound, Kushina Namikaze looked over her list of groceries. Looking almost the same she did fifteen years ago, her Uzumaki heritage attributed to her timeless beauty. While she was going over the grocery list, her mind was preoccupied with another issue. She couldn't help but feel a bit worried for her youngest daughter who was currently undergoing the Chunnin exams. She eventually calmed herself with the notion that her daughter would do just fine, placing the same faith in her as she did with Arashi and Alanna.

It could've been little Naruto with Kohatsu at her side, protecting and looking out for her as Arashi did with Alanna. Kushina swallowed the lump in her throat and tried to suppress the old emotional scars that threatened to overwhelm her. As she arrived at the market a, familiar voice broke her out of her reverie.

"Kushina-san!"

She looked to see her longtime best friend, Mikoto Uchiha waving to greet her. She smiled in reception, glad for the company. From there they proceeded to do their shopping together.

"Don't tell me you're worrying about Kohatsu-chan?" Mikoto teased.

"Wh-What are you talking about, I'm not worried at all, dattebane," Kushina, weighing a bag of habaneras.

"That's probably the twentieth bag you've weighed, Kushina," Mikoto replied lightly.

Kushina sighed and placed the bag of habaneras down, giving in.

"He may not show it, but I'm sure Sasuke-kun cares very much for Kohatsu more than just a teammate, and will look out for her," Mikoto said soothingly.

"I know that, I'm not worried about Kohatsu, I was just thinking about...bleh I'm just an old lady blabbing," Kushina said with a smile.

Later arriving home, she was surprised to see her eldest daughter there. Just as Arashi was a carbon copy of his late father, it was almost the same case with Alanna with them being identical twins. Considered a beauty by many, she possessed both her mothers strong will as well as her father's smarts, adding to her attractiveness.

"Alanna, you're home early," Kushina said surprised, as she gave her daughter a peck on the cheek.

"Yeah, there was really nothing to do at the hospital as we had already made out preparations for the Chunnin exams," Alanna replied yawning. "I'm going to take a nap, call me if you need anything mom."

"Okay," Kushina replied smiling, putting away the groceries. Anticipating that Arashi might be coming home early as well she started cooking lunch, trying keep her mind off of a feeling of uneasiness she couldn't quite place her finger one.

"Hmm I see that there is still a lot of you squirts remaining!" In truth Anko Mitarashi was mildly impressed at the large crowd before. However that was replaced with excitement at the prospect of seeing them all go through the next phase.

"It eases my heart to see that some of you had some common sense to pass that sham of a written test, not bad! But here your true will shall be tested, the weak shall be weeded, here at the forest of death!" Putting more emphasis on word "death", she let the stunned silence sink in as she brought up a stack of papers and cheerily shoved them on to a hapless rain village genin.

"Going around are release forms that each of you are required to fill out, you know so we aren't held responsible in case of permanent injuries, traumatic stress, dying, yada yada yada. Go ahead and pass them back gaki." The startled rain village passed back the stack as it began circulating.

"Jeez, couldn't have been more dramatic could she," Kohatsu muttered,

"Just trying to put on a show, that's all," Sasuke said, disinterested.

"So we are about to enter a real life or death situation, how interesting," Sai said neutrally, filling out his form.

Afterwards the rest of the rules were explained and team seven received a scroll of heaven. Sai volunteered to hold on to it, sealing it one of his painting scrolls. As soon as Anko gave the go ahead, the gates to the forest of death opened, with all the gennins flooding in to explore and attempt to gain advantage of the situation. After a couple hours, team seven planned to take a leisurely pace, hiding in the tree trunk of one of the massive trees.

"It seems everybody is trying to play it safe and wait it out like we are," Sasuke said, folding his arms and leaning back.

Sai was on the lookout with Kohatsu constantly peering out. Besides the occasional echoing throughout the forests of the indigenous animal population, there didn't seem to be any human related activities going on. "So what now, are we just going to wait here, do nothing and test our luck?" Kohatsu asked

"Not quite. Sai, can you conjure up some of your painted mice and set them on the perimeter?" Sasuke asked. He nodded, already at work as his hand danced across a scroll painting dozens of miniature mice. "These mice will alert me if anybody or thing is approaching."

"Perfect, and now we wait." Sasuke said as he sat down and closed his eyes, seeming to take a nap. Kohatsu sighed, and watched as the reanimated mice that Sai created sprung out of the scroll and scurried out their encampment. Despite being used to her teammates odd justsu, she still felt a little cheeped out at their life-like qualities. Resigning to sitting herself, she had to remind herself that patience was one of the key traits required to being a shinobi. She ignored her mild irritability at not being able to do anything.

Sai suddenly motioned for them with both of them springing to his side. "It seems a team took our bait," Sai observed. It was a team of Ame-genin, surrounding the fake scroll of heaven.

"Either they're stupid enough to press their luck, or are pretending to take the bait to draw us out," Sasuke mused. One of the rain genin bent down to pick it up, activating the seal that detonated the disguised explosive tag. Seconds later they saw the other team still together, alertly looking around.

"Well, it wouldn't have been fun. Let's get this over with," Sasuke said. Not to be undone Kohatsu followed with Sai in tow. The sounds of their battle reverberated through their now deathly quiet surroundings.

Orochimaru, disguised as a grass village genin moved with his two other teammates, or rather disguised agents, towards their destination for the next stage in the Chunnin exams. But he had other plans. He was annoyed at not being able to find Sasuke and didn't plan on advancing in his current disguise. He was just thinking of the best way to dispose of his two agents to make it look his team was killed.

"Ninpou: Shadow Entrapment."

Tendrils of shadow shot out towards them. Orochimaru was alert enough to dodge them, the other two were impaled being instantly killed.

"W-Who's there?" Orochimaru yelled out in his fake accent, feigning terror. A figure emerged before, seemingly out of nowhere. The person was dressed entirely in black, except for a white demon mask with a red vertical line down the middle. Narrowing his eyes, Orochimaru instantly felt that this was no ordinary person.

"Oh, this is interesting. You may drop the facade, Orochimaru of the Sannin."

Chuckling, Orochimaru went along with it, shedding his disguise. "So to whom do I owe the pleasure?"

The person said nothing just regarding Orochimaru behind his mask. "Assassinating you is out of the question, you would detect my best techniques. A battle here would draw too much attention. So I guess you could say that I simply came here on a whim.

Orochimaru narrowed his eyes, having to suppress his killing intent. "Who are you?"

The person seemed to ignore him, seeming to study the snake Sannin in detail. "Just know that the dawn of a new age is drawing near. Tread carefully and ensure that you do not get lost." Before Orochimaru could craft a response the mysterious person seemed to fade before him and in a matter of a seconds disappeared as if he was never there. Pondering the cryptic message for a moment he continued on his way, with a sinister smile.

"Oh, you guys made it," Kakashi said acting mildly surprised.

"No thanks to you," Kohatsu replied, annoyed.

"There seem to be a lot of gennin left sensei," Sai observed. He was right as they looked around the room. There were a lot of teams still remaining, much smaller than before, but a good number regardless.

Kakashi was even more surprised to see that all the first year teams from Konoha seemed to be there. Gai seemed to sense his gaze, giving him a wide grin to which Kakashi replied with sheepish wave. With numbers this big, it would make more sense to have preliminaries to cut down numbers.

Up front Hayate Gekko cleared his throat which silenced the room, followed by a hacking cough. "Seeing as how there is still a substantial number of you left, regular guidelines dictate that we have preliminaries, however there have just been adjustment made. Seeing as how the quota for promoted Chunnin increased, we will instead move on to the final stage of the exams set in one month. Before that we will take this moment to ask if there are any Gennin who wish to withdraw-"

"I and my team wish to withdraw," Called out a silver haired person. "Truth is, I don't have it in me to continue with this level of competition."

"I see," Hayate said sighing. "Kabuto Yakushi and his team forfeit leaving us with just enough for the final stage in a months time, which is more than ample time to prepare yourself. In a moment the projection screen will list the pairs that will be fighting." When the results were displayed she eagerly searched for her name, adrenaline coursing through her body as she pinpointed her name and her opponents:

Kohatsu Namikaze of Konoha vs. Heie Yasui of Yamagakure

Seeing the face on the screen she looked over to the other person she was matched up. So it's the short one with the mask from that Hidden Mountain village.

"Well take a good look at who you are studying, because for the next month that is who were are going to training for. It's going to be the most important stage of your young shinobi careers so prepare extensively for the part," Kakashi told team seven. Checking to see who her teammates were paired with, she saw a familiar face in Kiba with Sai. Sasuke's opponent was a red head named Gaara from Sunagakure, whom she had heard had mercilessly killed a group of gennins in order to obtain their scroll of Earth.

"Seems we have our work cut out for us," Kakashi said with a sigh.

Stationed in his area, Arashi looked on proudly behind his fox mask as his younger sister made her way onto the arena floor. It was a fairly eventful day in the Chunnin exams as he was able to watch most of the exams while doing his patrolling duties. His sister was obviously excited, as she told him that morning that she was couldn't wait to show him the results of their training. Looking towards her opponent he studied him, who was of similar size. He couldn't really discern anything him except his piercing blue eyes that looked on calmly towards Kohatsu.

As the proctor, Genma, started the battle Kohatsu jumped back to give herself distance as her opponent hadn't moved, studying her.

She isn't already going to do what I think she is...

"Fuuton: Cutlass Wind!" She blew a massive gust of wind, with wind razors shaped as cutlasses towards the masked ninja. He braced for it, shielding his face from the strong wind currents. Seeing that as her opportunity she sped towards him, racing along the wind currents as she trained herself and delivered a powerful kick, aiming to knock him out. Surprisingly, he caught he blocked it and sent his own kick sending Kohatsu away.

He saw through her attack and pretended to be affected by it baiting her in. Angered at being made a fool of Kohatsu rushed towards him with a kunai drawn. Her opponent seemed to remain defensively passive countering her blows, which was no small feat given that she pretty proficient in taijutsu.

"She's still too emotionally prone when she fights, baka.," Arashi said shaking his head. Even during their training sessions she would get frustrated, though he supposed it was just the famous Uzumaki temper his mother told him about.

"But her potential is still there you can't deny," Aoba said joining him. Arashi regarded the shaded shinobi with a sigh as he watched the match. "Yes it's there, but it's insignificant with no discipline. Alanna wasn't as string as she was at her age, though her self-control and attention to detail was always crisp."

"You maybe right there, had she chosen to become focus on being a shinobi she would have been up there," Aoba said in agreement.

"Suiton: Colliding Wave!" Kohatsu summoned two high waves of water the intertwined and rushed towards her opponent. Her opponent took the stave from his back and planted it in the ground. The orb on its head glowed blue, and like the parting seas the water swirled around. The orb then turned a bright green and a strong gust propelled the waves crashing towards Kohatsu, with the water covering that half of the arena.

"I guess that's that," Aoba said.

"Not quite..." Arashi replied with a smirk.

"Exploding Wind Dome!" The water erupted in cascades, spraying most of the arena. Kohatsu exploded in a blur, propelled by the jutsu and head butted her opponent in the midsection, his blue eyes wide in surprise and shock as he was sent crashing towards the wall, the stave sent flying away from him.

"Hey isn't that your-"

"Well, it's sort of a variation of it," Arashi said with a smile. "Her aptitude for wind style jutsu's might surpass mines someday, so it's no surprise she was able to learn the exploding wind dome." He heard the surrounding audience gasp in amazement, most likely surprised at her counterattack thinking that she was finished. On the arena floor Kohatsu stood over her opponent pointing a kunai towards his throat. Dropping his head he raised his hand, a sign of surrendering. Cheering resonated throughout the arena as everybody seemed pleased by the fight the two genins put up.

"Not quite the challenge I was expecting, but Kohatsu did her part so I guess I'll take it Arashi said softly. Regardless, he was as proud as can be.

Her heart threatened to jump out of her chest as the adrenaline that was coursing throughout the fight disappeared, as fatigue and relief seemed to come crashing down upon her, but she didn't care because she had won. Just as fast as the fight had started, it seemed to her that it just as quickly.

"That was exhilarating. Even though I though you were holding back you were still quite strong," Kohatsu said offering her opponent a hand. "What was your name again?"

Taking it reluctantly, he was about to reply. "Um...it's-"

There was a sudden explosion and chaos suddenly erupted everywhere. But not in the typical sense as it was unusually quiet, but rather the feeling that something went wrong. Sand and sound village shinobi's invaded the stadium and they suddenly found themselves in a hostile situation.

A/N

So I opted to start over and rewrite the whole story, as the previous story to me had to many inconsistencies and I found it hard to continue off of it. This version is basically the same, but I altered it a little so I could have a better storyline and have a better idea as what to write in each chapter. Again sorry the wait and I'll try to update as much as I can.