"Halt!" Kakashi ordered sharply.

They'd been back in Konoha for a week, and were training again. At Kakashi's word though, all three of them froze in place. This looked awkward, since Naruto had been bringing Zabuza's sword around in a horizontal cut, which Shino had moved to hand-flip over – meaning Shino was doing a one-handed hand-stand on Naruto's sword, adding his weight to it – while Hinata had bent so far backwards beneath it that her head touched the ground to let it go over her. None of them were exactly comfortable, but they were all holding perfectly still.

Kakashi sometimes called halts like this to force their muscles to burn a little more, working them a little harder and in new ways. These were also training them to freeze perfectly so as not to give away their own movement to a sighted enemy or target.

"Break and assemble," Kakashi said after a moment of studying how well they were holding up.

Naruto finished the sweep of his sword and then sealed it away in the tattoo he'd gotten for it. Shino completed his flip, landing between Naruto and Hinata, who was standing straight again. All three of them turned to Kakashi with a salute, snapping their heels together and standing at attention.

"The call just went out for jounin sensei to assemble," Kakashi informed them, pointing to a red hawk that was circling above them.

Naruto, Shino and Hinata looked up, cementing the image of that bird in their minds, then looked back to Kakashi – who nodded in approval.

"You will all conduct yourselves in an orderly fashion, and keep an eye out for teams from other villages. They are here for the chuunin exam, so they should be tougher than regular genin. Only the host village of a chuunin exam sends in more than just their best chances for impressing the competition or passing," Kakashi explained. "I will be nominating you at the meeting I am about to attend, though of course it is your choice to accept my nomination or not."

"Thank you for your faith in us Kakashi-sensei," Hinata said, beaming with pride.

"We will do you proud," Shino added.

"Iruka-sensei will have a fit though," Naruto added thoughtfully, before shaking his head. "It will be our honour and pleasure to represent Konoha in this exam."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "Honour? I thought you weren't a samurai?" he quipped.

"Ah," Naruto sighed as Kakashi and his team mates chuckled at him. "This is an exam, not a mission."

"You'd do well to treat it like a mission though," Kakashi said firmly. "That's all for now. You are dismissed from training, go and review your medical texts."

Since the Wave mission, Kakashi had upped the amount of medical learning his genin received. Hinata was most enthusiastic about this kind of learning – after all, she wanted to be a healer more than a killer – but the boys were just as keen to understand how the body worked. If they were in a situation where there was no medic available or the medic was injured, then they needed to know how to take care of themselves. Knowing all that stuff was useful for taking life as well as saving it though, so not one of them slacked off.

~oOo~

Team seven were relaxing high in one of the many trees scattered throughout Konoha, reading through their texts, when they heard the commotion going on below them.

Two members of team eight, the Sandaime's grandson Konohamaru, and a couple of Suna genin seemed to be wrapped up in some kind of mild altercation. The third member of team eight, the Uchiha, had been sulking below them for the past half-hour – completely unaware of their presence in the higher branches. He appeared to be just as oblivious of the third Suna genin between him and team seven.

"Credit where it's due," Hinata said quietly, "at least he's aware of what's going on below him."

Shino nodded silently, and Naruto shook his head – agreeing, but disgusted with his old classmate. Just because they were all dressed in variants of brown, mottled green, and 'shadow grey' was not an excuse to go completely unnoticed when they weren't actively hiding. Naruto's bright blonde hair was a foot long after the tie he used to keep it out of his face, that at least should have been noticeable.

When the Suna nin pulled back an arm to start hitting the kid, Sasuke threw a pebble at the hand holding up Konohamaru, and then crushed another in his hand once he had everybody's attention. Being all macho and tough.

Team seven were more interested in the way those bandages just floated around the black-clad genin, especially considering the way he'd twitched his hand right before Kiba fell on his arse mid-charge to save the kid. The girl with him saying "you're not going to use Karasu?" was also a hint. Puppet user. They did study extensively after all.

Then the red-head announced himself with an order to stop.

Apart from team eight, and Konohamaru, team seven now knew the names Karasu, Kankurou and Gaara. And the show wasn't over yet. There was the blatant power-play within the team – both of the older two were afraid of Gaara, who was smaller and younger than them – and then Sasuke demanded to know Gaara's name.

Idiot probably hadn't even heard Kankurou saying it, twice.

"Well, I'm interested to know your name," Naruto called, drawing attention to himself, his eyes clearly fixed on the girl.

Now everybody was staring at team seven, and wondering where the hell they'd come from and when.

Shino nodded. "After all, we already heard that he is Kankurou," he said, pointing to the boy with paint on his face, "and that the thing on his back is called Karasu, and of course Gaara. Not knowing your name would be a gap in our knowledge."

"Oi! When did you three get up there?" Kiba demanded.

Hinata chuckled. "We were up here the whole time," she said. "But those three arrived after Sarutobi-chan started yelling," she added, pointing to a tree a little further out where three people wearing headbands with musical notes were watching.

"You were very loud and attracted quite the audience," Naruto pointed out. "So, your name Miss?"

"Temari," she answered. "What about you and your team mates?"

"I'm Naruto, these are Shino and Hinata."

"You three are also interesting," Gaara said. "We will face you in the chuunin exams."

~oOo~

While Kiba entered the room loudly, and Ino squealed as she glomped onto Sasuke, team seven sat quietly at a table further into the room. Hinata had spotted her cousin Neji, a person who she'd had little contact with since becoming genin. She was always out training or performing a mission, he was always out training or performing a mission, they lived in separate parts of the estate and Hinata was more inclined to just fall into bed at the end of the day than socialise with her family.

"Hello Neji-nii-san," she greeted politely.

"Hinata-sama," he answered, more coldly.

"These are my team mates, Aburame Shino and Uzumaki Naruto. Who are your team mates?" Hinata asked, still smiling despite Neji's coldness.

"Rock Lee and Tenten," he supplied after a moment.

Hinata smiled brightly and turned to Tenten. "I'm so pleased to meet you! Could you tell me about how it is to train with my cousin?"

"Eh? Don't you know?" Tenten asked, surprised.

Hinata shook her head. "I train with my team mates and my sensei so much that I am rarely at the family estate, and barely have the energy to greet my little sister before falling into bed, and her room is next to mine. Neji-nii-san's room is on the other side of the estate," Hinata explained, a frown on her face. "Perhaps after the exam, you will help me train, Neji-nii-san?" Hinata asked hopefully.

"Perhaps, Hinata-sama," Neji answered, though he clearly wasn't enthusiastic about the idea.

Hinata beamed in answer before turning back to Tenten. "So, do these two boys push you as hard as my own team mates push me?"

Naruto sat down beside Lee. "So, why the green jumpsuit and orange leg warmers?"

Lee smiled in answer. "Gifts from Gai-sensei," he answered. "The leg warmers hide weights that I wear all the time for resistance training."

Naruto nodded. "I had to do some weight training for a while, when I got this really big weapon that I could hardly lift. I don't wear weights all the time though, I'd have to re-adjust myself to not having them in a fight, and I'm not sure I could do that."

Lee nodded. "It does make a difference," he agreed.

"Hinata speaks highly of you, Hyuuga-san," Shino said. "When she speaks of her family at all, it is of you or her younger sister. It seems the two of you are the only Hyuugas that Hinata cares for, and she speaks more of you than of Hanabi-san."

Neji's jaw fell slightly in surprise.

Shino was stretching the truth a little bit. Hinata didn't speak of her family at all beyond the expectations of their style any more, but when team seven had been formed she had spoken more of Neji and Hanabi than any other family member, even her father, and she only spoke of those two as though she truly cared for them. Certainly she wished her father cared for her, but had long resigned herself to the idea that he wouldn't, perhaps even couldn't. She had given up on her father, disliked the elders intensely, and was shy around the rest of the Branch Family ever since her uncle had been given over to die in her father's place because of another village's attempted kidnapping of her.

Team seven were all very well aware that, despite their wealth and their position in Konoha, the Hyuuga compound was no paradise.

Delicately, Shino closed Neji's mouth and sat down beside him, then turned to watch his year-mates making a fuss with an older Konoha genin dressed in purple and the genin from Oto until the proctors for the first part of the exam arrived.

~oOo~

While team seven waited for the proctors to start actually giving them instructions for the second part of the exam (the first part had been easy: cheat, bluff, pass), they had themselves a little conference. Weapons were checked over – they'd all come fully stocked, since they'd had no idea what they were really letting themselves in for – and Shino re-confirmed that he had a kikai on Gaara. They wanted to know where the boy was at all times, so that they could avoid him.

Naruto had told them that Yoko recognised the aura of 'one of her kin' from the boy. That meant a chakra monster in the form of a trapped tailed beast, and while it was possible that Gaara's passenger was as pleasant as Yoko, from the look in his eyes it was a fair bet that this was not the case.

With a heaven scroll in hand, and a signal from the proctors, team seven was in the Forest of Death – and Naruto was on point.

Hinata could see everything that surrounded them, but she was assigned as lookout for other teams, while Shino would keep an eye out for bugs from the rear and Naruto dealt with the rest of the forest. His team mates carefully planted their own footsteps exactly where Naruto had. Naruto was, after all, the authority on forests and surviving in them – also, by doing this it would look to any skilled tracker like just one genin rather than three had passed through, and Shino, having the largest feet of them all, would cover whatever few vague tracks left by Naruto and Hinata.

Naruto finally brought them to a halt, several hours later, on top of a river. They'd circled, doubled back, crossed the tracks of two other teams, gone over rocks, and now they were on top of running water with high rocky banks on either side.

This test wasn't just a matter of getting a scroll from another team and getting to the tower in the middle of the forest after all. The proctor had said they would have to survive in this forest for five days. They were currently just a little over a mile from the central tower, and with a gesture towards a cave that the river flowed past – Hinata checked it for other occupants and found none – they made camp.

Camp meant firewood, grass for bedding, traps enough to stop most jounin from reaching them, and finding dinner. Shino brought in the firewood and grass, Hinata set up traps, and Naruto brought in dinner. Once they'd eaten and had a drink from the river, Shino and Naruto helped Hinata set up even more traps.

They slept in shifts. Naruto took first shift. Foxes were creatures of the dusk and late hours. Hinata took the second shift, her eyes seeing better through the pitch blackness than either of her team mates. Shino took final shift, his kikai rousing him to begin the day before even the grey light that preceded the dawn became a true thing. This was how they did things, how they'd designated shifts on the trip to and from Wave.

Team seven remained at their encampment for three days, collecting scrolls from the unwary teams that fell into their traps by mistake, before another team actually deliberately found them. They had a nice, tidy little pile of both 'heaven' and 'earth' scrolls when team ten, their generation's Ino-Shika-Chou team, finally followed the tracks of other teams to team seven's camp site.

Their eyes bugged and their jaws dropped at the piles of scrolls and the rabbits that were being cooked over the fire.

"Come join us," Naruto offered, shaking his head at their expressions. "You three look like you haven't eaten properly in days."

"Or bathed, at all," Shino added.

"We haven't," Shikamaru agreed. "We got our scrolls and headed for the tower, only to be told we had to be in the forest the full five days unless we were badly injured, which thankfully we're not, but that means we've been stuck out here longer than we'd like."

"How did you get all those scrolls?" Ino demanded.

"Traps," Hinata said simply. "We were going to check them again after we'd eaten. Since you're all here, we can only guess that all the other traps have been sprung by someone else already."

"That's a lot of traps, and I don't think there are that many genin left in the forest," Naruto pointed out.

Shino shook his head. "Those who have lost scrolls to us may have attempted to re-take them," he pointed out.

Naruto folded his arms and closed his eyes, but eventually nodded in agreement. "Whatever, if animals have tripped the traps instead of other teams, then we'll eat well tonight. For now though, the rabbit is ready. If we'd known to expect you guys, we'd have set a couple more to cooking."

"Thank you," Chouji said, sitting down and gratefully accepting a rabbit to eat. He'd lost a lot of weight over the past few days. He was still tubby, but he definitely wasn't as round as he'd used to be.

Berries, wild salad and the other two rabbits were shared by the remaining five genin.

Team ten stayed with team seven until the last days were over and they finally entered the tower, and Chouji was able to put the weight back on thanks to Naruto's expertise as a hunter. Shikamaru was forced to build a partition for Ino to be girly behind, and the girl became determined to teach Hinata how to be girly as well, but Hinata always just shook her head and excused herself to train or study with Naruto and/or Shino.

~oOo~

Of the seven teams that had made it through the second exam, only three teams were clean, and only two teams completely uninjured. The team from sand looked just as they had when they'd arrived in Konoha. Team seven were as fresh as daisies, and team ten only looked as good as they did because team seven had let them share their camp, resting and recuperating, for the last couple of days of the exam.

Some guy with glasses – who seemed to be known by team eight – decided to quit now rather than participate in the preliminary matches. It was the same guy who had been talking to them before the first exam. Team seven made a note of the guy.

"Yo," Kakashi greeted them once they'd been dismissed to the balcony to watch the first of the preliminary fights – some guy called Akado Yoroi against the self-absorbed 'last' Uchiha. "I see none of you are any worse for your little camping trip."

Team seven smiled or smirked in response.

"Do any of you have a strategy for these preliminary fights?" Kakashi asked quietly as he walked up the stairs with them.

"Go for the balls," Naruto said simply.

"Or the hair," Hinata added, nodding at Ino and the girl from Oto who both had very long hair.

"Or both," Shino finished with a tug on Naruto's long mess.

Kakashi laughed softly as Hayate – the proctor for this part of the exam – reiterated the rules for the two about to begin fighting.

After the fight – Sasuke won – the boy was taken away by his sensei Kurenai and the woman who had been the proctor for the second exam. Something to do with his shoulder from the looks of things.

"Hey, Lee-san, did you fight with or near him at all recently?" Naruto asked. They were standing next to Gai's team.

Lee nodded. "Just before the first exam," he admitted.

"Then he owes you a big, fat, thank-you note, with a whole lot of trimmings. Kakashi-sensei and your Gai-sensei are the only ones in Konoha who can teach that style of fighting at all, and Kakashi-sensei admits that his version is a bit bastardised from Maito-san's," Naruto said.

"I wonder who's stronger," Tenten said, leaning on the rail beside Hinata. "This year's number one rookie, or last year's number one rookie."

"That depends on how you define 'strength'," Hinata answered diplomatically. "If you mean 'bull-headed refusal to give up', then they're probably about tied. If you mean skill, then I would hope that Neji-nii-san is better, since he's been a ninja for a year already."

"Now we will begin the next match," announced Hayate from the floor, drawing everybody's attention to the screen.

Team seven grinned. Zaku Abumi against Aburame Shino.

"Heh, who's the other weakling?" called one of the Oto genin.

Team seven's grins just stretched wider. Shino got to fight first, and his opponent was so confident in himself that he hadn't quit even though it looked like both of his arms had been broken.

"Fighters step up, we will now begin the second match," Hayate said.

"This one still moves somehow," Abumi said, smirking. "One arm will be enough to defeat you." So saying, he charged, swinging his arm up.

Shino blocked it solidly, leant forward a little, and brought up his knee. The whole room heard the crunch and every male (except Naruto, who did this sort of thing himself) winced to hear it and covered themselves in sympathy as the Oto genin fell, trying to cradle his abused balls in his left as he curled up into the foetal position on the floor, his right arm still in its sling against his chest. He was whimpering.

Shino brought a kunai out and held it a little above his opponent's neck, then turned his head slightly to the proctor, waiting for the verdict since Zaku was obviously not going to be fighting back in his current condition.

"It seems that this match is over. Winner, Aburame Shino," Hayated declared, perfectly neutral in voice and face.

Team seven applauded, their best 'snobbishly aloof' expressions on their faces until Shino reached the bottom of the stairs. They also dutifully ignored any comments about it being a below-the-belt hit (of course it was!) or anything like that. When Shino reached them, they'd dropped the façade and were smiling for him.

"Nice one Shino," Naruto congratulated. "Looks like he's never gonna have kids."

"Severe blunt force trauma to the male genitalia," Hinata cooed. "Possibly even a broken pelvis from the crack."

"Very... brutal," Kakashi said delicately. "When you three said you had such a plan, I had hoped you were joking."

"Kakashi-sensei, this is the preliminary round, why should we give away anything that we can do to the people who will be our opponents in the third stage and may later be our enemies in the field?" Shino explained. "This is much easier."

Kakashi nodded in resigned acceptance of this.

"I expect similar results from both of you," Shino told his team mates.

Naruto and Hinata nodded, a slightly vicious glint in their eyes, before they turned to see who would be fighting next. The names Tsurugi Misumi and Kankurou appeared on the screen.

"Maybe we'll get to see this 'Karasu' that he almost used in the middle of the street," Hinata murmured. "I think I would like that."

Her team mates nodded, though Kakashi raised an eyebrow at the comment, since he hadn't heard of this meeting.

"You know what?" Naruto said absently while the two competitors told each other that they'd make the fight quick and promised not to go easy on the other. "I've decided that I like Kankurou's hat."

Hinata giggled.

Shino snorted softly, though there was a smirk on his face as well.

"I'll get you one for your birthday then," Kakashi said. "You want it in black too?"

Naruto shook his head. "Nah, I mean I like it in an abstract, artistic sort of way. I wouldn't wear a hat with ears myself, though the way it covers so much of his head is a good idea... Hm, maybe in brown or olive, to match the rest of my clothes."

Kakashi chuckled. "I'll see what I can do," he promised.

"He's going to use Karasu it seems," Hinata observed, pointing to the fact that he'd removed it from his back. The bandages weren't floating around like they had the previous time though.

"Let the third fight begin," Hayate intoned.

It didn't last long, just as both participants had promised. Still, it did show off their techniques. The guy who deliberately dislocated his joints so that he could move like rubber was kinda weird, but the puppet it turned out he was trying to strangle was... really ugly and bedraggled looking actually. The technique was cool though, and all of team seven made a mental note to see if they could incorporate this brand of puppetry into their fighting styles. After all, it had a lot of potential uses.

The next fight however...

"They both lose," Hinata declared dispassionately as Sakura and Ino walked down to face each other.

"Eh?" yelped Kiba, Sakura's only present team mate.

"Ino has the advantage," Shikamaru pointed out.

Then Ino slapped Sakura rather than delivering a punch, and the fight changed.

"And Sakura fought for her life all five days," Shino countered. "And is constantly in the presence of her crush, who she strives to be worthy of, therefore, since leaving the Academy, Sakura should have pushed herself to improve, and then in the forest pushed herself even harder."

"Not to mention, Sakura is also slightly psychotic," Naruto added.

"And Ino and Sakura used to be best friends. They have a long history together. Sakura has something to prove to Ino and herself, where Ino is just used to being better than her friend. Or rival I suppose is the better word, since they compete so much," Hinata said, finishing off her own explanation as she watched the bout continue.

When after a ten minute long fist-fight, Ino caught Sakura in a mind-transfer jutsu – only to be kicked out again – Naruto reaffirmed what he'd said before.

"Ino-san said it, Sakura has two minds. I told you she was slightly psychotic."

"Both combatants are unable to continue. Due to a double KO, no one will advance from the fourth preliminary match," Hayate said a moment later.

"You called it Hinata-chan," Kakashi said, a smile in his voice. "They both lose."

Hinata nodded. "I think they might have finally mended their friendship though," she added as team ten and Kiba rushed to where Kurenai and Asuma had propped the girls up against the wall to rest. A little surprising was that Lee was there right beside Kiba, but it was easily explained as a crush the older boy had for the pink-haired girl.

"Who's up next?" Naruto asked.

"Me," Tenten answered, vaulting easily over the rail before walking down the wall and across the floor to her opponent – Temari of Suna.

"This might be an interesting match," Neji commented quietly, while his team mate and sensei screamed their encouragements to the girl of the team.

"It's a panda against a butterfly," Naruto said with a chuckle, amused. "Just looking at their hair that is."

"I have heard it said that when a butterfly flaps its wings in one part of the world, the shift in the air it creates will cause a hurricane somewhere else," Shino said.

Hinata and Naruto nodded.

"Our panda seems to be very well equipped, but the butterfly is just too fast to be hit," Hinata said a few moments later.

"The fan is nice," Naruto commented. "The butterfly can actually fly."

"I am more impressed by her vanishing with it," Shino said. "To make herself and the large weapon simply disappear. Very impressive. You were right to ask for the butterfly's name before Naruto."

Naruto simply nodded.

Temari was declared the winner, and Lee had to catch Tenten's battered body before she landed unconscious and painfully on her own weapons, but then it was Shikamaru against the girl from Oto – Kin Tsuchi.

"Well, that's the last of the people who we could attack their hair," Naruto complained. "Apart from me and Neji," he added with a twisted smile, perfectly aware that he really needed a haircut.

"We could fix your hair right now," Shino offered, hand by his kunai pouch.

Naruto chuckled, but shook his head. "Should give whoever I'm up against as much of a handicap as possible right? They may not even think of it."

Hinata giggled. "How about we just shave it all off after this is over?" she suggested.

Naruto frowned. "You really think I could pull off bald?" he asked, genuinely considering it.

"Maybe just very closely cropped," Kakashi put in. "But it won't matter beneath the hat I'm getting you, will it?"

Naruto chuckled. "Point," he ceded. "Alright, after the preliminaries are done, you can cut my hair so that it's only just long enough for Shino to hide his kikaichu in."

Team seven nodded, and turned back to the fight that was beginning below them. Shikamaru had walked very slowly down the stairs. After that, it was a largely intellectual battle with a lot of talking. Actually, too much talking and giving away of how techniques worked (Kin), or thought processes and how techniques could be manipulated (Shikamaru, though at least he mostly held off until after he'd won the fight). It was more like a demonstration than a fight, and the preliminaries were for elimination purposes, not really for judging if a genin would advance.

"Aw man," Naruto groaned when he saw that he was up next – against Inuzuka Kiba. "He's the heir to the Inuzuka clan. If I neuter him I'd be in big trouble."

"Then you'll just have to go for the hair," Hinata said consolingly, patting him on the arm.

"And beware the dog," Shino added.

Naruto sighed, but waved as he headed down to face his very much over-confident year-mate. The fight was ordered to start, and Kiba backed up to do a transformation technique – not just a henge, but something more genuinely physical – while telling his dog, Akamaru, that he wouldn't be needed for the fight. Naruto didn't bother correcting his opponent, after all, who gives up a handicap like that?

Kiba charged, planting his elbow in Naruto's gut rather than his freshly clawed hands. Naruto latched his own arms around the elbow and brought his left foot up to Kiba's stomach, letting go of the arm as he rolled onto his back. Kiba was sent flying. Foolishly, Kiba landed on his back and shoulders rather than his hands and feet. The wind was knocked out of him. Naruto took a pair of kunai and, placing a knee on Kiba's chest to further restrict his breathing, held one to Kiba's throat. The other he held much lower.

Akamaru was shifting on his feet, keeping back at the very obvious threat to his master. If he moved to attack Naruto, he wouldn't reach the boy before Kiba was killed or maimed.

"Call it," Naruto ordered. "I don't want to hurt a fellow Konoha ninja more than I could right now."

"Winner, Uzumaki Naruto," Hayate allowed.

Naruto nodded and put away his kunai, then offered Kiba a hand up. "There, no lasting damage, just remember not to underestimate your opponents, or overestimate yourself," he advised.

Kiba nodded, still wheezing slightly, and allowed himself to be helped up. "Akamaru?" he called, turning to look for his dog as he stood.

The puppy in question barked and launched himself into Kiba's arms.

With one last nod, Naruto headed back up to his team.

"Nicely done," Shino complemented. "Very tidy."

"And thank you for not neutering him," Kakashi added with a slight shiver. He had dog summons after all, the concept was uncomfortable for him.

"Thanks Shino, Kakashi-sensei. So Hinata, who do you want to fight?" Naruto asked.

Hinata silently pointed to the last of the Oto nin. "Other options are Lee-san, Chouji, Neji-nii-san, and Gaara," she explained. "While Lee-san might not be so bad for me, I of hope he gets the chance to prove himself in the finals, which leaves the Akimichi clan heir, my cousin, and..." she didn't have to tell her team why she didn't want to fight Gaara. Naruto had been the one to explain to both her and Shino what was going on with the red-head after all.

Shino and Naruto nodded in understanding.

"Lady Luck is fickle however," Kakashi said with a sigh, drawing attention to the board that was flashing Hinata's name, and the name of her cousin.

"I warn you Hinata-sama," Neji said as they walked down to the floor. "Give up. People cannot change; you were a failure before, you will still be a failure."

Hinata just laughed. "People change every day Neji-nii-san, if they just try," she countered, then skipped off to the centre of the arena floor where they would fight.

Neji frowned, but followed.

"Please begin," Hayate said once both Hyuugas were before him.

Hinata didn't hesitate, though Neji looked like he wanted to speak more, to psych her out of competing, to make her quit all on her own. She used the opening to strike her fist into his lower abdomen – only just above his crotch – and her other hand struck, open palmed, against Neji's face, breaking his nose and forcing chakra into the points around his face, disrupting his ability to see at all. A sweeping kick had her shocked older cousin down, and she pinned his hands with one of hers behind his back, the other hand holding a kunai to his throat. The same ending as for her team mates.

"Winner, Hyuuga Hinata," Hayate declared, seeing that Neji was not resisting the hold.

Gently, Hinata straightened out Neji's nose and unblocked the all chakra pathways she had hit – those in his face, in his gut, and in his legs that she had disabled with her kick. "See, Neji-nii-san? I'm obviously not the same girl I used to be," she said as she pulled him up. "And please don't call me '-sama' when Father and the elders aren't around to disapprove," she added.

Neji didn't answer, he was too busy staring in shock at his younger cousin. Was it really possible for people to change?

"Come on Neji-nii-san," Hinata said, tugging his arm in the direction of the stairs. "We have to get out of the way for the next fight."

The next fight was between Lee and Gaara. It was really quite impressive.

"Lee is handsome when he fights," Hinata observed cheekily, in hearing of both Neji and Sakura.

"He's already professed his undying love for me!" Sakura yelled passionately, frowning at the other girl.

Neji was still speechless with horror at the idea of Hinata possibly having a romantic interest in his foolish team mate.

Hinata smirked at Sakura, even though the pink-haired girl was holding Hinata's collar in one fist. "But you like Uchiha-san," she answered. "I can't see why though. Lee-san is older, kinder, more passionate, so dedicated to Konoha and the people here -"

"While Uchiha-baka is an arse to everybody, has an ego-complex, and is really only loyal to the idea of killing his brother," Naruto put in. "The difference to Lee-san's speed without his weights is very impressive. He must be very strong to carry those weights all the time."

"Any girl who Lee-san shows an interest in would be lucky to have his attention," Shino agreed blandly. "That is, if he survives this fight."

"What?" Neji demanded, finally finding his voice. "What do you mean by that?" he asked, focused on Shino.

Shino shrugged. "We passed over where the Suna team were on the first day. Gaara crushed an enemy nin to death in a coffin of sand," he explained. "If Lee-san gets caught, it will likely be the end of his ninja career at best, end of his life at worst."

"Who cares if he's a little loud sometimes?" Hinata said, still smirking at Sakura, who was still holding onto her collar. "Or that his eyebrows are thick? He can be quiet and controlled, and it's not a big deal to wax eyebrows after all."

Sakura broke at last, releasing Hinata's collar and turning desperately towards the fight. "Lee!" she yelled as the sand shell that looked like Gaara began to crumble in the crater. "Please! Don't get yourself killed for this! Just a promotion isn't worth you getting- getting -" she couldn't even bring herself to say it.

"He is fighting to prove his nindo," Gai said. "That he can be a great ninja without the use of ninjutsu or genjutsu."

"How can he prove his nindo if he's dead?" Sakura demanded. "A great ninja doesn't throw their lives away like that! To prove his point this way would be counter-productive!" she screamed, and then she started to cry.

"Sakura-chan," Lee said quietly, looking up at her. He sighed, and smiled. "I cannot continue to fight," he said. "I forfeit."

Hayate nodded. "Winner, Gaara."

Lee nodded and hurried back to his place beside his sensei.

Sakura threw her arms around him, still crying, but now muttering over and over 'thank goodness' as she held onto him.

Lee smiled gently and wrapped his hurting arms around her.

Gaara returned to his own place on the opposite viewing platform, visibly pissed. He'd just been getting into the swing of things. He hadn't gotten to pay back the fuzzy-brows for actually landing a hit on him, for landing more than just one; there hadn't been any blood from his opponent to decorate the floor. No, Gaara was not satisfied.

Regardless of his satisfaction though, Hayate announced the beginning of the tenth – and final – match, and called the fighters to step up. Dosu Kinuta against Akimichi Chouji. The fight didn't last long, even with Chouji being furious about Dosu having called him fat. The Akimichi boy was laid out while the last of the Oto genin went through to the third stage of the exam proper.

Everybody who had won their match was given their assigned opponent for the third stage, and dismissed for a month of preparatory training. Some of them would need it more than others.

"This is not good," Naruto decided as he and the rest of team seven left the building where the preliminaries had taken place, each of them contemplating the tournament match ups for the final stage of the chuunin exam.

"It gets worse I'm afraid," Kakashi put in. "Kurenai just asked me to help train the Uchiha in the proper use of his sharingan."

"That makes no sense," Shino said. "She may not be able to train him in the use of his sharingan, but he is the only one of her students that will be competing in the third stage of the exam, but all three of us will be as well."

"What did you tell her, Kakashi-sensei?" Hinata asked.

"I said that I would give him some instruction, but not until after the exams, as I would be quite busy with my own cute students," Kakashi said, then sighed. "But the Hokage got in on it and made it an order, so now I have to train Sasuke for the next month. Because he's ordering me to neglect my own students when they need me, however, I was able to convince the Hokage to supervise your training in my absence."

"Wow," Naruto breathed, awed, then shook his head. "That still leaves us with the problem of me and Hinata having to fight each other straight up, and then one of us will fight Gaara after that!"

"You don't believe I'll be able to get the Uchiha up to a standard where he could defeat Gaara?" Kakashi asked. "I am hurt."

The genin all shook their heads. "It's not that Kakashi-sensei," Hinata said, patting his arm.

"It's that Gaara is like Naruto," Shino added.

"Only the raccoon is crazy and bloodthirsty and driving Gaara to insanity. Problems I don't have," Naruto finished. "Not to mention, Gaara saw the Uchiha's fight, but the Uchiha didn't see Gaara's," he added.

"A serious handicap," Kakashi agreed with a sigh. "For now though, we have a head to shave!" he said, pulling the tie from and messing up Naruto's long blonde hair. He felt it was a bit of a shame to cut it all off, since it made him look distinguished, even if in a completely different way to his father. "Before that though, we should have a team picture taken."

"And another one after," Hinata added with a giggle. "So Naruto can see how different it looks."

Shino nodded in agreement.

Naruto pulled his hair back into the high ponytail and agreed with a smile.

~oOo~

They'd rigged the fight. As soon as Naruto's hair was cut back, he and Hinata had done a test – regarding the reality of sealing all the tenketsu of a jinchuriki – the result meant that it would be Naruto and not Hinata who would face Gaara. After that, with help from Shino, they'd spent all the time they weren't being supervised by the Sandaime to choreograph their fight. It had to show off Hinata's skills appropriately for her family and for the judges to approve her promotion, even though Naruto was going to be the one to win the fight.

It helped that, with the Sandaime supervising their training, they could ask questions about what sort of criteria was used to judge fitness for promotion.

The fight ended with Hinata's back to the wall, trapped there by the half-circle removed from the edge of Zabuza's sword, and Naruto above her with a kunai to her throat in one hand while the other still held the giant sword perfectly level, even at the odd angle. If Naruto had been on the ground she could have hit him and escaped, but her arms weren't quite long enough to reach around the blade and up to him, and though she was flexible enough to have used her legs, the angle was very much to Naruto's advantage.

"Winner, Uzumaki Naruto," Hayate's replacement, Shiranui Genma, announced. Everybody present who knew Naruto and Hinata, excepting Shino, was surprised by the fight and the end result. If Kakashi had been present, then he wouldn't have been surprised either, but he was taking advantage of his reputation for being late (he was only perfectly punctual with his team) to make the Uchiha late for his fight. Still, with so many people there just to see him, his fight was postponed rather than the boy being disqualified like any other genin would have been.

The Uchiha wasn't the only one missing in action though. The Oto genin, Dosu, had been completely removed from the line-up. Shikamaru should be glad he wouldn't have the extra fight to go through, though he clearly wasn't thrilled about fighting another girl. There was Shino's fight against Kankurou to come first though.

Kankurou, who was frowning.

"You will fight me in that arena, right now, or I swear to Kami that my team and I will vivisect you alive in the back room," Shino growled.

Hinata and Naruto nodded solemnly, their eyes cold.

Kankurou swallowed nervously but nodded also, then headed for the stairs.

Once Kankurou was out of sight, Shino dissolved into a swarm of kikai, solidifying into himself once more down on the ground before Kankurou came out the door at the bottom. Rather like Gaara's trick with sand, but bugs instead.

Kankurou froze for a moment when he saw that Shino was waiting for him, then walked out for the match.

"I don't know what extra tricks your puppet has," Shino said, "but I'm only going to give you until the count of ten to use it."

Kankurou gritted his teeth, angry now, and unwrapped Karasu, ready for battle.

"Begin," Genma ordered.

The puppet flew at Shino, who simply jumped over it. "One," he said.

Karasu followed him up.

"Two," Shino counted, as he threw a brace of small stars at Kankurou. "Three."

Kankurou dodged.

"Four." Shino landed on the side of the wall. "Five."

Kankurou shifted his chakra strings.

"Six."

Karasu turned in the air and headed for Shino again.

"Seven."

Shino dropped from the wall and ran towards Kankurou. "Eight." He was ignoring Karasu completely, even though it was gaining on him.

"Nine." He threw a punch at Kankurou, who only just managed to dodge.

"Ten," Shino said with a slight smirk. Behind him, Karasu froze when it had been about to wrap its arms around Shino's body.

"What did you do?" Kankurou demanded, even as he started shaking from chakra exhaustion – which made no sense to him at all.

Shino held out his arms, and his kikai swarmed from Karasu's joints back to him. More left the exhausted Kankurou as well. "I said until the count of ten," Shino reminded his opponent, then applied a powerful kick to Kankurou's stomach before levelling a kunai to his neck.

"Winner, Aburame Shino."

In the next fight, Shikamaru's against Temari, Shikamaru used the holes that Hinata had left behind (she'd drilled them with an earth technique so that she could break Naruto's nose from beneath him, rather like she'd broken Neji's nose) and caught Temari with his shadow technique before quitting, citing that he was running low on chakra and of the two-hundred actions available to him, giving up was in his best interest.

Temari was rather annoyed, understandably, and the crowd in the stands were shocked in general, but the match was over, and she was the winner.

"So your next match will be against the butterfly, eh Shino?" Naruto said.

Shino smirked, just a little, behind his high collar.

"And yours is against the raccoon," Hinata reminded Naruto firmly.

Sasuke hadn't shown up yet, and was cutting it very close, but even if he wasn't disqualified for being late to his own fight, team seven were all quite, quite certain that he wouldn't win against Gaara.

"You don't seem to have much confidence in the Uchiha," Kankurou commented with a sneer, "and what's this about butterflies?"

"In her fight against Tenten-san, Temari-san reminded us of a butterfly," Hinata said. "Because of her hairstyle, and using wind techniques," she explained.

Kakashi chose that moment to appear in the middle of the arena with his temporary student.

"Are we too late?" he asked.

Genma sighed. "Only your student for a month, and already he's picked up your habit of being tardy," he said. "No, but only just. The match against Uchiha Sasuke and Gaara of Suna will now begin!"

The crowd roared its approval. Kakashi disappeared to the viewing platform where he team stood, and Gaara appeared in the arena.

"How did your fights go?" Kakashi asked.

"Naruto and Shino will move onto the next round," Hinata answered. "But I put in a good showing."

"How was training with the bastard, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked, jerking his thumb at where Sasuke was rushing to attack Gaara.

Kakashi sighed. "Not very good," he admitted. "You three have spoiled me. I'm so used to genin who will work hard and push themselves that when I am faced with Sasuke-chan I see a whining child who wants everything to be handed to him, as though strength and power can be bought. Or more to the point with his bloodline, stolen. Convincing him that he has limits, and that he has to exert himself to stretch them, is a trying experience. Brat may just kill himself trying to win."

"Not chuunin quality material then," Shino observed flatly.

"No," Kakashi agreed. "But tell me how your month went."

"We trained a lot," Hinata said.

"But not as hard as if you'd been there Kakashi-sensei," Naruto added. "The replacement you gave us just supervised, rather than worked with us."

"We did get to find out all the criteria that we would be judged by for us to become chuunin though," Shino finished.

"How did you conduct the first fight?" Kakashi asked, looking from Naruto to Hinata, concern showing in his single visible eye. "You hadn't come to a decision before I had to leave you."

"Choreographed to perfection," Shino supplied.

Kakashi sighed gratefully. "I'm glad to hear it," he said proudly. "So, after today I won't have a team of cute genin any more. I'll be in charge of a squad of cute chuunin." He sniffed and brushed away an imaginary tear. "You've all grown up so fast!"

Team seven laughed quietly at their sensei, not wanting to disturb the fight going on below with their levity. The fighters, on the other hand, were quite happy to interrupt the laughter with screams of pain. Sasuke's to be specific. The boy had gained speed under Kakashi's training, but not sense, and Gaara had caught and was crushing the last Uchiha.

"He may have to resign himself to his other goal," Naruto said, full of false sympathy. "Rebuilding the Uchiha clan."

"What's with the feathers?" Hinata asked, pointing to the stands.

"Genjutsu," Kakashi answered, his voice tight.

"You haven't taught us much about those yet Kakashi-sensei," Naruto pointed out.

"Then there's the basics in how to dispel one," Kakashi said hurriedly. "There are two ways, interrupt the flow of your own chakra, disrupting the hold of the genjutsu over you, or send out a pulse of your chakra to disrupt the genjutsu itself. The former is generally more reliable, as the latter will have more or less success depending on the strength of the genjutsu and the amount of chakra you have. Pain is also a good way to free yourself of a genjutsu."

"Chakra pulse?" Naruto asked.

"Gather a tight ball of chakra within yourself, then release it outwards," Kakashi explained, then demonstrated for the boy.

Naruto nodded and, while Hinata and Shino just interrupted their chakra flow, Naruto gathered his chakra before releasing it. Kakashi's chakra pulse had radiated around him one metre. Naruto's extended just past the outside of the stands full of people, incidentally dispelling the genjutsu for everybody present, even the civilians who had come to watch despite knowing nothing about chakra.

Shino frowned. "Please do not do that too often Naruto," he said sternly from where Naruto's chakra pulse had knocked him to the ground – along with everybody else in the balcony. "And if you truly feel the need, please give warning first."

Naruto nodded sheepishly and turned to look down into the arena.

"So is it my turn to fight Gaara now?" he called, noting that Sasuke seemed to be rather bloodied where he lay.

"Er..." Genma looked across to where Gaara had been, still all wrapped up in his sand cocoon. "Winner, Gaara of Suna," he announced. "The next match will now begin?"

"You'll win," Hinata ordered, fixing her gaze with Naruto's.

"Of course he will," Shino agreed. "Nine tails beats one."

"Especially since I'm not psychotic," Naruto said with a smile.

"Just a little odd," Kakashi quipped. "Go on. There's fights going on in the stands, even with everybody awake, so I'm off as well. There's no telling what's going on out in Konoha itself."

Team seven nodded in agreement, and Naruto vaulted down to the ground.

"Seriously though Naruto-san," Genma said quietly. "There's no way the exam is still being properly monitored. You don't have to fight this guy."

Naruto snorted indelicately. "You know what I hold, Shiranui-san?" he asked rhetorically.

Genma swallowed, but nodded slightly.

"He's got one to my nine, and even I can smell snake on the air." Naruto saw Genma pale at his words. "Now tell me honestly that you would send someone else to fight Gaara. Apart from a kage or sannin," he said quickly, but firmly. "Or another one of the biju between me and him," Naruto added darkly.

Genma nodded. "If you survive this Naruto-san, I'll recommend you for promotion, that is some very logical thinking. What about your team mates?"

"Taking care of his by now I expect, if Shikamaru didn't just trap them in his jutsu," Naruto answered. "My team mates both know what he is too, and they know better than to jump into this fight for me." Naruto smirked. "You're going to what to stand back, Shiranui-san," he said. "Or you're likely to get stepped on by mistake. All three of us would hate for you to get squished," he added, tapping his stomach to let Genma know who the third party was.

Genma's eyes went wide, and he nodded before jumping back. "Begin!" he called.

~oOo~

She opened her eyes wide behind her boy's. She flexed her aura and her chakra through his system. She stretched her tails leisurely, languidly – warningly. She was the most playful of her kin, the only one who really tried to be gentle, but she was also the oldest, the wisest, and the most powerful of them.

She alone had survived so long without captured in any way. She was not bloodthirsty like the raccoon before her, but she was not rash like him either. He had barely been truly free for more than a few moments every century or so.

She was the greatest of them all. She would make him submit to her.

Her boy was so wonderfully helpful and open to her as well, letting her manifest her chakra outside of his body. She stood proudly before her opponent, even as he stood defiantly before her.

She lashed her chakra, her aura, her presence against him, the least of her kindred. It didn't take her long to subdue him. It was still something of a mess though, even with both of them less than half the size they had been when they were free.

Now you can go, she whispered to her boy, even as she drew herself back in, letting him know that the fight would now be between him, and the other boy. The raccoon would not interfere, and neither would she.

Hers was such a good boy. He let her poke at things she was curious about, and run, and play, and he listened to her when she told him things. Why, the boy's playfulness would have inspired her to say he must have had some fox in him, except of course that she knew how literally true that was.

~oOo~

Naruto walked calmly up to Gaara, who was staring at him with terror in his milky-green eyes.

"What are you going to do with me?" Gaara asked, his voice shaking slightly.

Naruto shook his head. Around them, the arena floor was a mess from the clashing of the raccoon's sand against the fox's chakra. It really was a very good thing for Genma that he'd chosen to wait on the wall. The two boys were unharmed though, and now that the fight between their prisoners was over, it would be safe for Genma to come down again.

"I'm not going to do anything that I don't have to," Naruto said. "I've already won after all, haven't I?" he pointed out.

Gaara nodded frantically. "You win, you win!" he cried. "Just please don't hurt me!" Lee had been the first to ever land a hit on him. The Uchiha had not done as well, but now Gaara was faced with someone who had defeated the monster inside of him from fifteen feet away, but would have no problem with causing Gaara pain if he thought it expedient.

"Kneel, with your hands behind your head," Naruto instructed quietly. "That's the position captured people are forced into. It proves that you are vulnerable and at my mercy."

Once Gaara had done that, Naruto was announced the winner of the match. This earned him distracted cheering from the people fighting in the stands. For himself though, Naruto tied Gaara's hands together behind his head so that the Suna nin wouldn't be able to use any active jutsu. His passive sand shield was probably sensible, but no harm would come from him until he was released.

Naruto picked up the older boy – and his gourd – and took him back to the viewing balcony that the other competitors were standing in. Kakurou and Temari had been tied up as well, so Naruto set down his prisoner with them.

"So, do we join the general fight or see if we can help out the Hokage?" Hinata asked, pointing to the large barrier on top of the building where the two kages had been sitting. Trees were beginning to burst up from the tiled roof within.

"Split," Naruto ordered. "Hinata, Shikamaru, you'll be more use to Konoha by dealing with the invaders. Either stick together or find your parents, see if you can't learn on the job. Shino, you're with me. If we can't get inside that barrier in a reasonable time-frame though, we'll join the regular fighting too."

Team seven and Shikamaru nodded in agreement, and they were off.

"Any ideas how we're going to get in?" Shino asked as they raced for the building. "There are AnBu just sitting outside of it after all."

"We're going to try coming up from underneath," Naruto explained. "Most barrier techniques don't put limits on the terrain, just the space."

Shino nodded his agreement to the plan and they ducked into the building beneath the battle.

"Ta-da," Naruto announced flatly, a disgusted frown pulling at his face. "Proof that invaders and defenders alike are stupid. Why are we the first ones here?" Naruto asked rhetorically.

Shino shook his head and sent up a couple of kikai to investigate how things were going on the other side of the roof. They returned moments later.

"The battle is happening on the other side of the spine at the moment. You're clear to punch through," Shino informed his friend. "I've also sent some kikai to start eating the chakra of Sandaime-sama's opponent."

Naruto nodded and laid a carefully balanced collection of exploding tags. They didn't want to kill themselves, they didn't want to draw a lot of attention, and they didn't want to risk the structural integrity of the roof – just make a hole big enough for the average adult Konoha nin to get through.

Naruto stuck his head up and looked around quickly, then ducked down again.

"I'm going to take out one of the corners of this mess," he said. "Whoever the Hokage is fighting isn't the Kazekage, but it sure looks like he's fighting the Shodai and the Nidaime as well as whoever was pretending to be the Kazekage."

Shino nodded. "Meaning he needs all the help he can get," he finished. "It's a good thing kikai don't get fat."

Naruto chuckled. "They just stop when they're full," he agreed, and moved off to one of the corners while Shino sent small portions of his colony through at intervals, so that they wouldn't be spotted among the trees that the Shodai had grown as part of the battle.

Shino had his kikai insinuate themselves all over the Sandaime's three opponents, leeching away their chakra carefully but quickly. He didn't want the unknown attacker to be able to react too quickly when Naruto blew a hole underneath one of the Oto nin holding up the barrier that was keeping the AnBu out.

There was no particular reason for Naruto to choose the corner that he did. He didn't know the skills or abilities of any of the four ninja holding the barrier. The two he'd been able to see from his survey out of the hole he'd made actually didn't look all that impressive. One was fat – and yes, he knew Chouji had a lot more going for him than his girth, and that any ninja that wide had to, but Naruto wasn't keen on getting squished just for having opened up another hole beneath him. The other was a girl – and Naruto knew that a kunoichi was equally as deadly as any male ninja, he had Hinata on his team after all, but he wasn't keen on completely mangling a girl all the same. So he went for one of the other corners. Conveniently, the AnBu were on that side, so they'd get to see the hole being blown and one of the enemy nin going down.

Or up in smoke as the case may be.

One ka-boom later, and Naruto was surprised at the number of hands that were lying around the hole he'd made. He was sure there was only one person at each corner of the – now failed – barrier technique, and yet there six mutilated hands lying around, as well as a few pieces of head and a whole lot of human hamburger.

"Success," Naruto declared happily, then ducked back down through the hole he'd made. "How are things going on your end Shino?" he called.

"My kikai are getting very full," he reported. "And they didn't exactly have empty stomachs before this," he pointed out. "Though testing their capacity on you once a week has allowed them to be able to consume more than they had been able to when we met."

Naruto smiled. "Glad to be of help," he said. He still never noticed the bugs eating his chakra. He just had too much for them to make a dent.

Shino nodded. "The barrier is down?" he asked.

Naruto nodded but frowned. "There were too many hands though," he said. "No person has six hands."

Shino's eyebrows drew together, but shook his head. This was not the time to be contemplating the oddities of their dead opponents. This was the time to be removing heads from shoulders and hearts from chests – all in the name of protecting their village and kage, of course.

~oOo~

An injured, but still living, Sandaime Hokage was able to announce the promotions a month later when he was let out of the hospital. In that time most teams had been working hard to re-build Konoha, though some had been given the task of escorting certain prisoners back to Suna, while the Torture and Interrogation Department held others for questioning, execution, or both as was the case for Orochimaru.

"I'm proud of you three," Kakashi told them after the promotion ceremony. "You're not my cute genin any more though."

"No," Hinata agreed with a smile. "Now we're your cute chuunin!" More important to her than her promotion were the changes within the Hyuuga that had come because of it. She was now confirmed as the Hyuuga heir, and would take over for her father as Head of the family when the time came. The elders had acknowledged her strength, and her father was willing to teach her the secrets of the main branch, making her even stronger.

Kakashi nodded in agreement. "So, what shall we do to celebrate? Where's a food place we haven't gone yet?"

The new chuunin looked across at each other, then together chorused their answer: "Ramen!"

~The End~