"Wha-" Sasuke muttered but quickly cut himself off upon noticing Sakura's glare hardened as he spoke.

The two stared at each other for a moment, neither changing their expression before Sakura conceded and wiped the anger from her face, replacing it with a blank look.

She ran a hand through her freshly washed hair and walked away like a boss while Sasuke furrowed his brows in confusion of the events that took place.

"Hey, Ra! I think I'm finally ready for the next phas-" Naruto smirked but was cut off as she simply continued to walk past him without a second glance.

The genin stood with furrowed brows for a second, wondering what he did. His thoughts were quickly replaced by the noise of a pained groan coming from his right.

"Eh?! Ke! What happened?" Naruto exclaimed and rushed over to the Uchiha.

Sasuke straightened himself out and glanced at his teammate before looking back to the direction Sakura went.

"Hn. I think I insulted her" The raven haired genin mumbled with narrowed eyes.

Naruto stared at the boy with a 'you serious?' look and understood now why she ignored him.

"Insulted her? Well duh! I don't think she would've pummeled the 'great Sasuke-Kun' if you didn't" Naruto snickered into his hand and stepped back as Sasuke pushed him lightly in annoyance.

"Come on, let's go train your ability to handle that curse mark" Naruto casually said and walked with the troubled Uchiha. The exams just weren't working with him it seemed.

---

The next day came around far too slowly in Naruto's opinion and slowly, team by team, ninja began flocking into the tower and were ordered to stand in line as were the other teams who'd made it there earlier.

It all seemed rather unfair to the blonde as most of the genin hadn't had time to recuperate their strength. It wouldn't feel like a fair fight.

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Sakura mumbled to her teammates, pulling Naruto from his sour thoughts as he turned to look at the pinkette along with Sasuke.

"What?" Naruto questioned while glancing around himself to find what she was talking about.

Sasuke rolled his eyes as he immediately found what she was referring to.

"Seems they did some training after all" The Uchiha stated. Sakura could almost feel the anticipation for a fight from Sasuke as it enveloped and tried to trick her into being excited as well.

"Oh." Naruto's eyebrows shot up, finally realizing what they meant as the three now studied the torn clothes and worn down faces of their academy friends who had successfully made it through "Hey! That's great. Maybe we'll all become chuunin together" Naruto grinned, though his insides were churning with the thought of having to fight his friends.

"Hn. I hope this is over soon, I don't know how much longer I can stand your over positive act" Sasuke smirked in amusement, a rare but appreciated sight for his teammates.

Naruto dropped the grin and glanced around, making sure no one heard the Uchiha even though he spoke softly.

"I kinda like it. It's like forcing positive thoughts into my head, ya know. Maybe I'll act like this more often" Naruto grinned mischievously as Sasuke and Sakura glared at him.

"Shut up. The both of you. Hokage-Sama is about to explain the next phase" Sakura stated without any aggressiveness but with boredom.

She was planning to buy the next book in the Icha Icha series after this and simply wanted it all to be done.

"Ya know, maybe we should plan a stealth mission to find out what he's keeping from us" Naruto quietly whispered with furrowed brows as he looked up at the old man he once saw as a grandfather.

"To, I know you're mad at him but he still played a huge part in your upbringing. Have some respect" Sakura sighed, silently hoping the blonde would let go of his grudge against the most powerful man in the village.

"I have respect for him. It's not that I don't. It's just...he's always lying to me. Am I supposed to look past that and act as if everything is OK?" Naruto grumbled but felt saddened with the state their relationship was in.

"Yes. It's not like you don't already act. Besides...we aren't needed in this village to have feelings. We're needed to be weapons and play as pawns in political parties." Sasuke said with an emotionless mask.

The genin, being used to the state of the ninja world, simply sighed and together wished for a change that would benefit those that actually put their lives up for grabs.

"Ahem! Welcome participants to the end of the second exam and also the start of the third" The Hokage announced, his voice like a loud drum piercing the very core of the genin's ears. The man's powerful strength and reputation lived on to reach the newest generation and strike just as much fear into them as it did with their superiors.

Naruto tuned out the man's speech and focused his gaze on the ceiling, wondering what kind of path he's been chosen to take along with his teammates. The blonde was sure the village and the Hokage have changed their views on them to simply being dangerous weapons and no better, Kakashi-sensei was seen as the mastermind behind it all. Technically he was since he trained them, but the jounin wasn't planning to be a danger to Konoha.

No matter the great disliking the man had taken to their home as of recent, which Naruto had only noticed because of the look that passed through his sensei's eye whenever he looked at the villagers. It was the same look the blonde had while growing up.

"You may leave now" The sudden voice of a proctor cut the blonde's thoughts and moved it toward the white locks of hair that belonged to Kabuto. The mysterious 'genin' grinned sheepishly at his teammates and took his leave.

Naruto wondered why he left as no injuries could be seen on his body and his behavior didn't suggest any traumatic experience as of recent.

The blonde's instinct told him something else was going on there.

"Sasuke Uchiha and Yoroi Akado remain where you are. The rest of you, please move to the stands" The proctor announced and no sooner, Naruto felt himself move with the crowd to the stands as Sakura dragged him by the arm.

He looked back at the Uchiha and gave him a thumbs up.

Sasuke rolled his eyes at his teammate's quick motion of encouragement and readied himself.

Yoroi swallowed thickly, feeling the sudden tension in the arena double. He knew Sasuke was strong but that didn't mean the sound nin couldn't beat him. He just had to be smart.

"Ready?" The proctor asked, a bored look in his eyes and smoke traveling up from his mouth as he breathed in a cigarette.

The two genin nodded and jumped forward as soon as the proctor yelled "begin!".

Meanwhile, as the fight went on and Sasuke evaded every attack of Yoroi's attempt to absorb his chakra, Sakura turned her eyes from the fight and looked up at their sensei.

Kakashi watched intently, almost grinning as Sasuke slammed Yoroi's face into the ground, clearly having enough of the absorption jutsu. He felt a tug on his sleeve and looked down to his short pink student with a curious look.

"Hm?" He hummed in question to her sudden puppy look she'd shifted into.

"Why do you look like a kicked puppy, Sakura?" He asked again, sighing at her dramatic behavior.

"I finished my book" Sakura mumbled and looked down.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow and lightly chuckled at her shyness...or was it simply sadness at finishing something so great?

"I'll get you the next book then" he said with a shrug, causing Sakura to life her head with new found energy and happiness "But..." He continued unexpectedly which made Sakura halt in her happiness. "You have to train extra hard. Your speed is far lesser than that of your teammates. You are weak in that area and can't afford to be anymore. Understood?" Kakashi ordered with a hard look. It came out of the blue and took the other genin and their sensei's around the two by surprise as they overheard.

"Hmm.."

"How harsh"

"How can you speak that way to your-"

"Hai sensei! I look forward to improving" Sakura grinned, an honest emotion of happiness rushing through her eyes.

The shinobi around the two were beyond shocked, to say the least. To Sakura though, Kakashi-sensei was being extremely nice and usually would've used an intense force of discipline if he saw someone in the team slacking. She was wondering more and more lately, why was he becoming nicer to the three genin?

A sudden bang brought everyone back to the fight before them and was just in time to witness the Uchiha about to bring a kunai down into Yoroi's eyes.

Everyone's breath caught in their throat as they realized they would be too late to stop the young boy from killing him because they were distracted with his teammates talking. As luck would have it though, Kakashi had seen the lack of control coming and rushed down to stop his hand as it came just mere millimeters from the sound nin's eyeball.

Silence followed through the arena and Naruto noticed silence always seemed to follow his team whenever they did something a ninja is supposed to do.

"Winner: Sasuke Uchiha!" The proctor yelled.

Kakashi slowly moved the heavy panting boy away from his opponent and gently pushed him toward the stands.

Sasuke walked backward but came to a halt as he narrowed his eyes on Yoroi's malicious grin toward him. A look that screamed 'He'd be back for him'.

The Uchiha glared and felt his killing intent sip through his control as he desired to take the sound nin's life more than anything at that point.

Kakashi, of course, noticed this and moved his body in front of the injured shinobi, hiding the sight from Sasuke so he wouldn't become more riled up.

Everyone waited and watched the scene with anticipation. The Hokage himself was surprised to see Kakashi move his body in front of the sound nin in order to distract Sasuke.

He wondered if the jounin was starting to lose control over the genin.

"Sasuke Uchiha, move to the stands" a proctor from the sidelines ordered with impatience.

Kakashi narrowed his eye at the Proctor but waited to see what the Uchiha would do.

Sasuke took a step forward, much to everyone's surprise, his eyes were determined to look past his sensei's body at Yoroi.

"I won't ask again!" The proctor called in aggravation.

Sasuke almost rolled his eyes at the man but he couldn't focus. He needed to feel Yoroi's blood on him. He needed to make him suffer. He just couldn't figure out why.

"Stop." A sudden cold voice called out to him, making him stop almost immediately.

The raven haired genin noticed the familiar sound of his sensei and felt himself come back to reality. He sighed and lowered his gaze to the ground in shame, refusing to look at his sensei.

Sasuke slowly backed away, wary of the jounin glaring at him, and walked toward the stands.

A moment of silence once again followed before Kakashi ushered over the medical team to take Yoroi away and returned to the stands as well.

Naruto and Sakura cheered in celebration of Sasuke's victory and Kakashi seemed to be back to his lazy self while the majority of genin and jounin came a little closer, though, in silence and shock, they were more curious about team 7 than the actual exams at this point.

The matches continued on however and the attention slowly shifted from them to the fighting again. That was until Sakura and Ino's name came up anyway.

"Ooh... that's some harsh luck" Naruto snickered.

Kushina, having moved over with her team in curiosity of team 7, glared down at the blonde for acting so uncaring toward his teammate.

She was about to reprimand him herself when she noticed Kakashi giving her a warning glance.

Say what you want about the woman but she knew the signal to back off when she saw it. Instead, the newly announced jounin glowered next to her students.

"Shut up, you're not even allowed to talk about luck considering yours is nonexistent" Sakura snapped back a remark which diminished Naruto's grin. He pouted at her for bringing his lack of good experiences up but patted her on the back anyway and wished her luck before shoving her toward Sasuke.

She looked back and glared at the jinchuuriki. "Good luck" Sasuke suddenly said, his face looking slightly pained, Sakura smiled in thanks and wondered if it was his curse mark causing him pained. She pushed that away for now and jumped down with Ino.

Naruto came up next to the Uchiha and smirked at him "Stop looking like you're in pain, Ke. It can't be that hard encouraging someone other than yourself" he mumbled to the, now glaring, boy.

"You know what they say, To." Sasuke smirked.

Naruto waited for him to continue but when he didn't, the boy grew slightly irked "Clearly, I don't. What do 'they' say?"

Sasuke looked away from the boy and down to the two girls who were getting ready for their match "They say to shut up"

Naruto grinned, even with the clear insult, he was glad the Uchiha was starting to come out of his loveless shell.

"Looks like our girls are finally going to sort out their troubled friendship" The voice of Asuma called out to Kakashi as the Guardian came to a stand next to him.

"Seems so. Though I wasn't aware of Sakura being troubled by a frivolous friendship such as this one" Kakashi stated, his eye closing half way as he grew more disinterested in this whole event by the second.

"Frivolous you say? Now hang on a second, Kakashi-" Asuma began with a frown. The man had insulted his student by insinuating she wasn't worth Sakura's time.

"I meant no disrespect, Asuma. I simply mean she should be focusing on her training" Kakashi had quickly cut the man off with a closed-eyed smile.

Naruto and Sasuke, who stood on the other side of Kakashi, rolled their eyes at his efforts of being polite when he clearly meant what he said before.

"Hn. I see..." Asuma replied with uncertainty.

"Why do you care anyway? Shouldn't you be focusing on Ino's training rather than her personal life?" Naruto found himself butting in suddenly, quite rudely too.

Sasuke's eyes widened as he could practically feel the discipline the blonde would receive after the exams.

"Quite the defender aren't you?" Asuma grinned half-heartedly but still felt slightly insulted.

Kakashi remained quiet but watched the scene. He simply let the boy dig himself a much deeper grave than he already has.

"Here's a little defense for you. Mind your own bus-"

"Asuma, shouldn't you retrieve your student?" Kakashi cut the boy off while throwing a small glare in his direction.

Asuma threw whatever the blonde said out from his mind and looked down in concern for his student.

Ino laid on the bloody arena floor with bruises and cuts covering her body. She seemed to be unconscious and as Sakura moved toward her after the proctor announced her to be the winner, everyone panicked. Probably assuming she'd want to finish her opponent off like Sasuke.

"Step away now!" That same impatient Proctor that tried to order Sasuke, yelled at the girl.

Sakura looked around with confusion. She was in perfect control, that was her strongest asset apart form her strength, she knew they assumed she'd be like Sasuke but couldn't they see she wasn't?

Kakashi sighed in disbelief at the stupidity of the shinobi and the drama this day has brought forth.

"Kakashi Hatake! Control your student immediately!" Another proctor called out.

"What the hell? She's in perfect control" Naruto grumbled, feeling himself becoming angrier by the second.

"They're treating us like dangerous weapons." Sasuke muttered with a frown, not really bothered by their words as he didn't care.

A hand on each of their shoulders brought their attention upwards to see their sensei "Calm down. It's just a misunderstanding"

"This is ridiculous!" Someone yelled from their side of the stands.

The boys turned to see that Gai was the one who yelled and was glaring heavily at the proctors.

"Proctors. I suggest you control yourselves as the genin is clearly in perfect control" He practically roared with..what does he call it? The power of youth...

Kakashi sweat-dropped at the man. He was thankful for having him defend him and his team like that but to be so dramatic about it was completely unnecessary. He understood why the proctor's were acting this way. They were afraid, team 7 has come a long way in a very short time. They've gained a widely known reputation within Konoha and their progress is a startling wakeup call for many shinobi as the team catches up to older ninja faster than they've ever seen.

The Hokage watched with a frown of his own. The old man didn't realize the type of attention team 7 would receive could be so...insulting. he grew annoyed with those doubting them all the time but there wasn't much he could do about it, unfortunately.

"Shall we move on?" The arena proctor, Hayate Gekko, sarcastically questioned to his comrades, also annoyed with their outbursts.

Sakura had moved back to the stands and started healing Ino's wounds as she laid unconscious behind them all.

After a few more matches and impressive fighting, Naruto's name finally came up. Though his worst nightmare did as well. The blonde would have to set aside his morals and do the one thing he hoped he wouldn't have to. He'd have to fight a comrade. A friend. Kiba Inuzuka.