"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm."

- Winston Churchill

<>

Minato looked at the assembled group of ninja. The jonin leaders, Mitarashi Anko, Morino Ibiki, Shiranui Genma, Hayate Gekko, along with seventeen members of the ANBU Black Ops under his command had joined, as they were going to be guarding the exams. This year, Konoha was hosting the Chūnin exams. Children from all over the Five Nations were coming to test, tourists coming to watch, and civilians coming to see the ninja extravaganza.

The Chūnin exams were a major tourist attraction, and a definite moneymaker for the village who hosted. Not only that, but Konoha was in charge of protecting all of those people.

Kakashi had brought up some openings in their security that Minato thought it was important to address with the people in charge of village defenses. The village needed to be prepared for the idea that they could be attacked. The Fourth Kazekage, Rasa, would be in attendance, along with his Jinchūriki child. Minato's own son who hosts a Bijū would be taking the exams this year. Not to mention, the heiress of the Hyūga clan, the youngest son of Fugaku Uchiha, the heiress to the Yamanaka clan, the heir to the Inuzuka clan, the heir to the Akamichi clan and the heir to the Nara clan, and the Aburame clan and the list just went on and on. If anyone got their hands on these important children, there was a good chance of war.

War was not an option.

So they tightened up security. Minato had luckily, successfully, secured a semi stable alliance with Suna, so if anything happened, they could become allies. However, depending on the situation, things could crumble. Minato was praying for a miracle.

<>

Naruto woke up the day of the Chūnin exams excited. He'd never thought to take the Chūnin exams again in his old timeline, so really he and Sasuke were just genin. Sakura had passed and eventually moved on to bigger things. He sat on his bed, remembering everything for a few minutes. Somehow, he was feeling a little bit better today. Kushina yelled at him from downstairs that Sakura and Sasuke were there, and Naruto told her to just send them up. Kushina ignored him, feeding them breakfast, first. Naruto could hear them eating and talking in the kitchen, and rolled his eyes.

Naruto took that time to get changed. He was slipping on his shoes when Sakura burst into the room, a giggle escaping her lips. Naruto had barely stood in time before she attacked him in a hug. He wrapped his arms around her waist, looking back at Sasuke, utterly confused.

He shrugged back. "She did it to me when I stopped to pick her up, too."

Sakura squealed again. "Sorry, I just can't believe it!" She backed up, and proceeded to wave her hands wildly around. "We're taking the Chūnin exams again, as a team! I'm so excited!"

"Yeah, well you'd better believe it, Sakura-chan, 'ttebayo!"

Sakura laughed out loud, the melodic sound bringing a smile to Naruto's face. He joined her laugh. Sasuke watched them both with a cryptic look in his eyes, then shrugged, a smirk coming onto his face. He looked around Naruto's trashed room that he'd seen a million times, and his lip curled, but Naruto didn't have enough time to flip him off, because Sakura was talking again.

"I heard they're already getting here!" Sakura said to both of them, her green eyes wide with excitement. "They've been showing up all week!"

"Have you heard who all's coming?" Naruto asked curiously. There was a chance that there would be differences, in these exams. Naruto hoped the majority of it stayed pretty much the same, so that they could have at least a little bit of predictability to work off of. After the situation with Madara, they'd learned that the couldn't expect everything to be exactly the same. They still hadn't figured out how that had changed.

"Saw Deidara a bit ago," Sasuke piped up, making the two of his teammates look at him and smile. Sasuke had been personally invested in Deidara's staying in Iwa.

The team had taken a couple missions close to it, and Sasuke had personally chased off some Akatsuki, recognizing Sasori in the midst. The others were off too quickly to be seen, so there was no way to be sure who all was in it. So... that confirmed Sasori was one, at least. Sakura had frowned.

"Sasori's mine." She sneered, a bloodthirsty expression taking up the kind green eyes.

Sasuke and Naruto exchanged wary glances.

Luckily, old man Onoki didn't mess up too bad with Deidara this time, and the terrorist bomber had stayed in his village. Of course, he'd blown the head off one of Onoki's statues as a prank, and had gotten suspended from taking the Chūnin exams for two years, so that was why he was here now.

"Did you?" Naruto asked, grinning. He hated Deidara, personally. Well, he hated the old Deidara- the one that sat on Gaara's body in the place the Akatsuki were keeping the statue of the Ten Tails. The Deidara that kidnapped his friend, and killed him. He hated that Deidara. He couldn't forgive him. But meeting him now, he'd realized that Deidara was an innocent, funny kid. He called Naruto a 'damn brat', but Naruto still liked him.

He was happy Deidara had come.

"How do you think we'll do, guys?" Sakura asked, still beaming, looking back and forth between Naruto and Sasuke. Her optimistic attitude was contagious.

"Good." Sasuke uttered. "We have to win. We have to be made Chūnin. If it means we reveal our 'prodigious' talent, then let's do it. If we don't, we can kiss our freedom goodbye- we'll be working stupid cat missions again or something instead of doing something useful."

Naruto gagged at the memory of the scratches and yowling. And worse- the peeing. "Yuck. I'd forgotten how horrible those were."

"Okay," Sakura took a deep breath. "Guess we have to beat the exams. Obviously, we have to agree to refrain from using Rikudō Sennin Mōdo, but we can use our own talents?"

"As long as there isn't anything that can be connected to Jiraiya, or Orochimaru, or Tsunade." Sasuke nodded to Naruto and Sakura respectively. "Or any other teachers we had back then that we haven't now, like Killer Bee." He glared at his blonde friend pointedly. "Naruto, it's safe to say you'd be able to use your Rasengan and other Rasengan based jutsu since Minato 'taught' it to you." Naruto smirked. "Sakura, you have Earth and Water release, so you can do jutsu with that. You're ultimately talented enough to get on without Tsunade's punch. I'll stick to fire based, and Chidori related jutsu, since Kakashi 'taught' it to me." His teammates nodded. Sasuke gave a small, rather out of character smirk. "We're gonna do great."

"Probably," Naruto shrugged. It wasn't even optimism, this way. It was a fact. "Oh well."

<>

They walked together over to the house where they would be taking their exams. Kushina was going to join them later, with Mikoto and a couple of her other friends. Minato had left early, giving Naruto a quick hug and a whispered, "I'm rooting for you!". He still had to oversee the whole event, and greet the Kazekage.

As they were walking over there, they ran into Kankuro, Temari, and Gaara. Naruto greeted them excitedly. This was nearly a mirror image of their past life, but without the genuine threats. Naruto, Kankuro, Temari and Gaara were all good friends, because of Naruto's joining Minato on diplomatic trips to Suna. Sakura and Sasuke hadn't met them in this world yet.

"Ready to get your ass kicked, Kankuro?!"

"I don't know, kid, are you?!"

"More like ready to kick Suna's contestants!"

"Sure, brat, keep dreaming."

"Oi! Don't call me brat, bastard!"

Sakura watched, amused, when Gaara arrived in the same place he was. "Shut up, the two of you or I'll kill you, I'm getting a headache." In their past life, anyone would know the threat was real, but this Gaara was a pacifist, so now it was empty. Sakura snickered into her palm, and Temari just rolled her eyes, walking over to introduce herself to the pinkette. Naruto was the only one who had actually met the Sand Siblings, since Minato often took him on trips.

"Yeah, whatever, otouto, the brat's making fun of me!"

"EH? You're the one calling me brat! I'll beat you, Kankuro, 'ttebayo!"

"Hey," Sasuke called, catching everyone's attention. Naruto wondered if Sasuke was trying to make a statement by arriving the same way as he did in his last life- standing all brooding on a tree. If he was, it was a statement of confidence. "The two of you are annoying," he said in the same emotionless tone of voice.

Gaara dipped his head in acknowledgement of Sasuke's arrival. The two of them hadn't formally met in this timeline, yet, so this was interesting. Sasuke jumped off the tree, and stepped forward, extending a hand and a smirk. "I'm Sasuke Uchiha, nice to meet you."

Gaara shook it amicably. "Sabaku no Gaara. Honored to meet you, as well. Naruto talks about you and Sakura-san a lot."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at his friend, who sweat dropped and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Does he, now?" Naruto giggled nervously, and Sakura, who was spectating with Temari, was laughing. "Well, let us be the first ones to welcome you to Konoha. I look forward to facing you on the battlefield, and meeting you guys for Ichiraku's ramen afterwards. Sound good?"

Gaara shrugged, offering a small smile. "Good for us. See you then." He waved, and Kankuro and Temari walked off with him.

Naruto was sweating more. Gaara and Sasuke seemed to be getting along quite nicely, and while normally Naruto would be excited about that, he was positive the two of them would be ganging up on him and plotting against him. How did he know? Everything was about plotting with Sasuke.

The Academy was where they were hosting the written exam. Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura rolled their eyes at Izumo and Kotetsu's 'genin' trick, and easily found the right room. They scattered, but sat close together. Ibiki wasn't there yet, so they waited and talked strategy until the genin came. The test itself would be pretty easy, the trick was to cheat off of people, but the three of them were pretty sure the questions would be easier since they were older and had more experience. Naruto often pretended he wasn't paying attention in the Academy, but actually retained information quite well over the years. He was still dumb, but if he didn't know, he could always ask Sakura for the answers. She was a genius. And the tenth question was still ridiculously easy.

The rest of the genin arrived, and after Ibiki introduced himself, Naruto finally took his seat away from his teammates. He met Sakura's eye and nodded. She was behind him, a few seats to the left, in case he needed help with anything.

Ibiki started the test, and handed out the papers. Naruto squinted down at his paper, and glared. As expected, it was fairly easy. He didn't really think he needed Sakura's help too much this time, thank Kami. He shielded his paper from prying eyes, and completed the equations as well as possible. Fourty-five minutes into the test, Ibiki took their papers.

"First, you'll have to decide whether or not you will take the tenth question." He stared them all down menacingly. Naruto sweatdropped. He'd forgotten how intimidating the old man could be when he wanted to.

"What? Chose? What happens if we chose not to take the 10th exam?" Temari burst out. Naruto hid a smile. Temari was just as spirited as ever.

"If you chose not to take the exam, your score will be zero." Ibiki smirked at her tilting his head in her direction. "In other words, you fail. And, of course, that goes for the two others in the same group."

Everyone started talking at once, expressing their worry. Naruto looked at Sakura and Sasuke, and saw Sasuke's lips form a smirk. Sakura wasn't looking too concerned, and met Naruto's eyes with a smile. None of them would be forfeiting. The tenth question wasn't scary to them, since they'd already answered it once. Besides, if the question was changed, one of them was bound to know it, so they could telepathically tell the others the answer.

Or, worst case scenario where none of them knew the answer, they had Kakashi as a lifeline. Cheating, sure, but wasn't that the point of the exams?

You guys got my back, right?

If you decide to be a stupid dobe again, Sakura will bail you out.

Of course, Naruto, but I'm pretty sure you're smart enough to answer these- if it's even any different than it was in our past life.

Naruto scowled at Sasuke's insults, who in turn tipped his head up smugly. At least Sakura-chan was nice, as usual. Really, Sasuke should take lessons. He was just as much of an ass as he was in their past life, so Naruto was starting to think maybe it was just a Sasuke thing.

"And, one more rule..." Ibiki closed his eyes, tilting his head down, attracting the attention of the already unsettled students. "If you chose to take it and are unable to answer it correctly, then you will have to relinquish your right of taking the Chūnin Exam forever."

"What kind of ridiculous rule is that?!" Kiba shouted, pointing at Ibiki. "Besides, there are plenty of people here who have taken the Chūnin exam many times!" Akamaru barked, from his place on Kiba's head. Naruto still wasn't used to seeing the dog so tiny again- he used to be big enough for teenage Kiba to ride him. But he was no less cute, and Naruto made sure the Inuzuka was far out of sight when he, Ino and Sakura cuddled Akamaru and pet him.

Ibiki snickered, then full on laughed. "You're just unlucky I make the rule this year. But I did give you the option to go back! For those of you who aren't confident, you can chose not to take it, and take the exam next year or the year after that."

Naruto hoped desperately none of his friends would stand up and leave, but when he saw Kiba moving to stand up, Naruto raised his hand first. He'd repeat what he said last time, and hopefully be able to help them out. Then he slapped it on the table.

"Don't underestimate me!" He spat. He could hear snickers from Sakura coming from behind him. "I won't run! I'll take it! But even if I'm stuck being a Genin forever, I will become a Hokage! No matter what it takes!" Naruto stood up, a growl transfixed on his face. "I'm not scared!" He sat back down, huffed, and crossed his arms.

"I'll ask again. It's a choice that will alter your life!" Ibiki said. "If you want to quit, now's your chance!"

"I'm not going to take back my words," Naruto replied loudly. "That's my ninja way!"

When Naruto didn't hear any more chairs scooting back, and no one else was leaving, he let himself relax a bit. He'd managed to keep things as they were.

Tch. Dobe.

Good thinking, Naruto!

Thanks.

"I like your determination!" Ibiki announced. "Then, for those of you that stayed. The first exam- you have passed it!"

Naruto laughed breathlessly, pretending he had no idea that was going to happen.

Your turn, Sakura.

Yeah.

Sakura stood up. "Hey! What do you mean! Now you're telling us we've passed? What about the tenth question?!"

Ibiki laughed again. "There wasn't such a thing to begin with! Well, you can look at the choice you had to make as the tenth question."

"Huh?!"

"Hey!" Temari spoke up again. "Then what were the first nine for?! It was just a waste of time!"

"Not a waste," Ibiki insisted. "The objective of the nine questions were already accomplished. To test your individual ability to gather information!"

Naruto stopped paying attention right here, because he already remembered all of Ibiki's rant.

Okay! First exam complete, Kakashi-sensei.

Good for you! Was Ibiki a hardass again?

You bet.

He's just an old man, don't take him too seriously.

Yeah, we're getting that.

Does Anko always need to crash through the fucking window?! How obnoxious does she need to be?!

You're just pissed because you jumped.

Did not!

Sasuke, I'm sitting fairly close to you, I saw you jump.

Sakura, you're supposed to agree with me.

I do agree that Anko-sensei is overly aggressive. But I also agree that you jumped.

Alright, Kakashi-sensei, we're getting ready to start the second part of the exams again.

Are you keeping an eye on Orochimaru?

Yeah, we'll confront him later in the woods, if we can.

Okay. I've secured some... insurance for the three of you, just in case. See you soon, then. Sasuke, what do we say when strange men want to bite us?

Fuck off, Kakashi.

That is correct! Bye, now.

Bye.

<>

The next exam was the day after the first. Kushina hugged Naruto tightly before he left the house, saying that she was so proud he'd passed Ibiki's test.

"You're my kid, so I'm sure you're gonna kick some ass on the rest of the exams, ya know?!" Kushina pumped the air excitedly.

Naruto teared up a little bit afterwards. Minato had come into his room early this morning, because he had to leave early, and sat on Naruto's bed with him, asking about how the exams were going.

"Good luck, son," Minato grinned at him, ruffling Naruto's already messy hair, and Naruto grinned back.

Again, Sasuke and Sakura came to pick up Naruto. The three of them ate breakfast with Kushina, and Sasuke passed along the message that Mikoto wanted to meet for lunch. Kushina smiled and nodded. She kissed all three on the forehead before shooing them out of the house. "Good luck, kids!" She shouted behind them, waving fondly as they ran to the Forest of Death.

"You guys ready for this part of the exams?" Sakura asked her teammates, looking at them with an excited skip to her step.

"Yeah!" Naruto said, then the three of them stopped smiling- the memories from last time flooding in. "We'll have to be careful, huh?"

Sasuke had previously kept his mouth shut. "Aa."

When they arrived at the main entrance, Anko explained what they were doing, and gave them each a scroll. As expected, Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto ended up with the Heaven scroll. They signed the release form, then got started right away, heading for their gate out of the forty-four. Sasuke carried the Heaven scroll for them, and Naruto lead the way into the forest. Team Seven knew the Forest of Death like the back of their hand.

The were attacked almost immediately by people who had the Earth scroll. The team was from Kusagakure.

Sasuke flash stepped behind the first one to attack, pinching a nerve in his neck and knocking him out. Sakura punched one of them hard enough in the stomach to make him buckle, and pulled the Earth scroll out of his ninja tool pouch. She dropped him with a swift hit to the back of the head. Naruto also knocked his out, but he hit him with a large stick he'd found nearby. They piled their bodies, and ditched them below a tree. Hopefully no wild animals would get to them.

So far, they were off to a good start. Hopefully they could finish this portion of the exams quickly and hunt for Orochimaru. Naruto had seen Kabuto and the other Sound ninja loitering around- more likely than not, they'd be upon them soon.

Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke sped up, silently, when they saw the sun start to go down. In an unspoken pact, the team only stopped once to help out Ino's team when they saw them. All three of them wanted to get out of there, immediately. This was where all of their problems had started. They suppressed all hints of their chakra to make it harder for Orochimaru or Kabuto to find them.

Surprisingly, Orochimaru didn't attack right then. Maybe it was because of the ANBU patrolling the woods unseen. Maybe it was because Kakashi was hidden in the forest, tracking his team and keeping tabs on Kabuto's team. But he didn't show up, and didn't try to bite Sasuke until they'd reached the tower in the middle of the forest.

Naruto stopped to use the restroom, and Sakura and Sasuke sat down against the trees, watching the sun go down.

Orochimaru was alone, and stopping them from moving forward. He stood there in the body of that Grass ninja, his long tongue flickering out of his mouth. Naruto shuddered. No matter what this guy had done to help in the war, he still hated him for what he'd done to Sasuke and so many other innocent people.

Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto all stopped, standing next to each other solemnly. How they wished they'd never had to see this Sannin. Sasuke sighed deeply, closing his eyes, and Naruto drifted ever so slightly close to his friend.

"Uchiha Sasuke-kun," Orochimaru said. He was still in the body of that Grass girl, but everyone knew who he was. Sakura shivered. She hated his voice. "You're a hard man to find."

Sasuke didn't respond, simply looking at the Sannin silently. He didn't ask who Orochimaru was, or what Orochimaru wanted him for, but Orochimaru introduced himself anyway.

"I'm Orochimaru." He said, in that same snake-like tone, long tongue flicking out and licking his lips. Sasuke had seen that happen a lot when Orochimaru was his teacher, so he wasn't particularly alarmed by it, but Naruto and Sakura shivered more. Naruto scowled. His fingers were itching to summon clones and take this old bastard down. But this was Sasuke's fight.

"I don't care," Sasuke told him in an utterly blank voice. He really didn't.

Orochimaru laughed. Naruto slid closer to Sasuke, pulling a kunai out of his pouch. Sasuke knew that Naruto and Sakura wouldn't hesitate to blow their cover to protect him, and Sasuke secretly felt the tiniest bit relieved that he wasn't alone right now. He wasn't emotionally alone. He could easily take the snake bastard by himself, (after all, he'd been the one to kill Orochimaru the first time) but the horrific memories would overwhelm him.

His snake-like eyes flicked over to Naruto, and they seemed to widen. "Ah, the Jinchūriki." He drawled, tipping his head back smugly. His fingers started to glow faintly. "Well, we can't have the demon fox interfering." Sakura's eyes zeroed in on Orochimaru's hand, and she nudged Naruto.

"That's the seal that shut the Kyūbi out in our first life." She whispered. The seal was a weaker version of the seal that had been used to trap the Nine Tails in Naruto's birth. It could hold the Kyūbi away from the fight temporarily and would take a lot to break.

Naruto's head dipped forward in a barely noticeable nod, and he began to glow orange. The lines on his cheeks blackened, and he appeared to be covered by a stable cloak of the Nine Tails. Orochimaru's eyebrows arched, but Sakura and Sasuke knew exactly what he was doing. He hadn't activated his Sage Mode, because that was a technique far too reminiscent of Jiraiya, but his pupils had narrowed into telltale slits. He was using his partnership with Kurama.

Remember him, Kurama? Naruto thought to himself, and was rewarded with raspy laughing.

Finally! A chance to stretch my legs. And on this snake, too. I thought we killed him?

Kurama, we time traveled, remember? And we didn't kill him. There was that one time we ripped him in half, but that didn't stop him.

Hm! Persistent bastard, huh? Let's show him what we think of insolence!

Wanna help me out?

Hell yeah!

He launched forward into an attack, aiming to slice Orochimaru up.

Orochimaru countered, but Naruto was accustomed with keeping bad guys busy while his teammates made a plan. Sakura called forward her first Byakugou no In, allowing it to appear on her forehead, her chakra writhing with the urge to use the power. She wished she could use it to its full extent. Sasuke cast a quick genjutsu, noticing what she was about to do, and made the diamond on her forehead vanish from sight. Sakura's chakra appeared outside of her body, cracking the ground and lifting up rocks with the force of it. Orochimaru paused in his fight when he noticed the appearance of a second powerful player.

He dropped Naruto from where he'd been trying to strangle him, and Naruto retreated a few paces to the left, dropping into a crouch. Orochimaru's eyes narrowed. He looked around wildly. "Tsunade?" He asked quietly, before his eyes landed on Sakura, and a hungry gleam appeared in his eyes.

Sakura's steely green visual orbs were locked on him, her hair and clothes whipping around with the force of her chakra. "We're not going to let you take our teammate again," the hard edge of her voice floated through the forest, hovering around so no one knew what direction it was coming from.

Sasuke smirked, eyes shutting. When they opened again, he'd activated his Sharingan and Rinnegan, his own chakra roiling. The genjutsu that always surrounded the three of them had dropped, and all Sasuke could see were three pillars of light and power. The wind had picked up. Naruto's own determination heightened, and there were now four pillars of threatening chakra in the Forest of Death.

Orochimaru's eyes had widened exponentially, and to their collective disgust, he licked his lips hungrily again. "Such raw power. Incredible." He murmured to himself.

"Hey, you fucking snake bastard, your opponent is over here!" Naruto said, swinging a fallen tree at Orochimaru. He hadn't been paying attention, so it knocked into him. He bounced back, his disgusting regenerative properties keeping the tree from knocking his ribs loose and causing internal bleeding.

It had knocked his outer skin loose, however, so he removed the appearance of the girl. Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke watched solemnly as Orochimaru pulled his own face off. The sight had disgusted them in their past life, but now they were almost used to it, sadly. Orochimaru flipped back, his limbs feeling more free, landing on the branch of a tree. For a moment it looked like Orochimaru would retreat, but Sakura and Naruto flanked Sasuke protectively anyway.

Sakura toned her chakra down a bit, feeling another presence arriving. Naruto picked up on it quicker than her, and had already gotten rid of the cloak, though he could summon it again easily within seconds. Sasuke dropped the genjutsu over himself easily. If another Genin team stumbled upon three powerhouses and an insane Grass Ninja, there would be questions. Especially if it was Hyuuga Neji's team like Sasuke guessed it was.

Orochimaru's head launched forward without warning like it did in the old Chunin exams, but the man had made a mistake in not taking out Sakura and Naruto beforehand like he did last time. After all, they were just as much of a threat as Sasuke himself was. Both of them were ready with kunai, ready at a moment's notice to counter him, but before he could get anywhere near Sasuke, a sword came from out of the blue and sliced off Orochimaru's head. Naruto thought it might've been Kakashi, but it wasn't.

Itachi was decked out in his full ANBU outfit with the mask on his face when he walked out of the shadows. His ponytail waved in the air as he looked down at the body. Legally he wasn't allowed to interfere with the exams, so if his brother had died, he'd died, but since this was a wanted criminal Sannin impersonating a student and attacking his brother, he was allowed to take him out. Itachi wiped his sword on the grass, and avoided touching Orochimaru's blood directly. He didn't look at Naruto, Sakura or Sasuke once, and disappeared just as quickly.

Naruto's mouth dropped a bit, barely believing that had just happened. Orochimaru hadn't expected that either, apparently, since his head hadn't grown back. The body of that girl slumped forward onto the floor as Sasuke thought. He knew Orochimaru had tried to get Itachi's body when they were in the Akatsuki together, but he knew that his brother had thwarted that attempt just as quickly. Now, Orochimaru had tried to strike on Sasuke, and Itachi had been there to counter it. That hadn't happened before. That hadn't even almost happened before. His brother was almost eighteen, now, and a full time ANBU captain. Why was he here?

The answer was obvious.

'Insurance', Kakashi had called him.

Sakura looked at Sasuke. "That was surprising, but it won't hold him for long. We should get going, and get surrounded by Jonin, like right now." Sasuke silently agreed. The three of them entered the building, and waited. They were quite obviously the only ones there, and they'd made it in three hours. Last time, Gaara's team made it in 97 minutes, but this time Gaara, Temari and Kankuro came a couple hours late, and something told Team 7 that their team had run into the obstacles they bypassed. Such as Kabuto and his team. The Sound ninja.

They felt more than a little guilty about that.

<>

"Naruto, Sasuke," Sakura came over with a canteen of water. They didn't want to be the first ones to open their scroll, because they did still have to maintain at least a little bit of their cover, so they were going to rest until Team Gaara arrived. Sakura had gotten thirsty, and went out to the little spring she saw behind the tower.

Sasuke and Naruto were leaning with their backs facing a large, round column, leaving a space in between them for their pink haired teammate. The backs of Sasuke's eyes were burning, creating pressure in his head. Sasuke and Naruto hadn't said anything to each other since Sakura left. Naruto needed a lot of concentration for what he was doing, and he and Sasuke tended to fight. He was meditating, using the Sage chakra he'd learned from Pain's attack on the village to sense out Orochimaru and the locations of the other teams.

Sakura walked up with the canteen and sat in between the two of them, and opened it, taking a swig for herself before offering Naruto the canteen. He shook his head, eyes closed. She shrugged and offered it to Sasuke. He took it, and took a sip, leaning his head back. The cold water was helping with the burning headache. He handed it back to Sakura, who took another drink of it before looking at him skeptically. Sasuke raised an eyebrow at her face, but said nothing.

Then she splashed the water in the canteen bottle on him.

"What the hell?!" Sasuke yelped, jumping a little bit at the biting cold. "Why'd you do that?!" He asked Sakura, who was snickering.

"Cause I knew your reaction would be entertaining," she shrugged, sloshing the water in the canteen around. "There's always more where that came from."

Sasuke started wringing out his shirt, while Naruto (who'd been startled from his meditation by Sasuke's shout) laughed. "Sadist..." he muttered, a little cold now that the wet shirt was clinging to his skin. He didn't flip her off, due to his remarkable self control, and settled further into the column, knowing that eventually the water would die.

Sakura shrugged at him, looking smug. "That's what you get for not telling me about your headache." Sasuke didn't even ask how she knew about his headache- he hadn't been super obvious about it or anything, she just always seemed to KNOW when something was wrong with him or Kakashi, even though neither of them complained about it like Naruto did. Maybe it was just a doctor's intuition, but she was always remarkably good at sensing discomfort in Sasuke, even when they were both pathetic genin in their first life.

"PFFT- HAHAHA TEME SHE GOT YOU GOOD-"

Sasuke looked at her like she was from a foreign planet. "You're crazy."

"You're stupid." Sakura lifted a hand and put it on Sasuke's forehead, her green medical chakra steadily streaming into his head, soothing the inflammation. Naruto guffawed in the background. He'd fallen over and was gripping his stomach, tears of laughter streaming down his face. Sasuke nearly flinched away from the contact, but remained still, even when Sakura's chakra probed around his optic nerves, then pushed her cool chakra into his head. When the headache had been fully soothed, Sakura withdrew her hand and looked around, gauging the time by the positioning of the visible sun. "Think it's about time for us to open our scroll, then?"

"Probably," Sasuke said, opening his tool pouch and retrieving the scroll from it. He looked at the scroll, and sighed. "Here goes nothing."

<>

They still had a month until the finals, but the preliminaries were here. Naruto had forgotten about the preliminaries.

They were waiting in the arena for a startlingly long time before the team after Gaara and his siblings arrived. Being that they hadn't been the first time the least time, they had no idea the Sand Siblings had to wait that long. Temari and Sakura removed themselves to complain about their brothers in private, and meanwhile, Sasuke and Naruto were doing hand to hand combat spars, while Kankuro and Gaara watched, giving them pointers. Naruto and Sasuke had fought each other so much over the past couple years in their old lives that they were entirely comfortable with each other's fighting style. It looked more like dancing than fighting. Graceful. People who were good at hand to hand combat were a pleasure to watch. Legendary people like Might Guy, Tsunade, Minato, Kakashi, and Madara Uchiha were known to excel in the art. Temari from the past had told Sakura what it was like watching the reanimated Madara completely decimate the Five Shinobi Nation army, and even though she was horrified, there was a bit of awe in the back of her voice.

"You guys look like you were made to spar together," Kankuro mused, crossing his arms over his chest.

Naruto looked at Sasuke and grinned. Sasuke closed his eyes and smirked, before a swift kick to Naruto's jaw sent his friend flying.

"OI! I WASN'T READY FOR THAT, BASTARD! YOU JERK!"

"Ninja should be ready for everything, ursuratonkachi," Sasuke replied, attacking Naruto again when he stood up.

"Oh, fuck off, know it all!"

Gaara leaned back against the wall, and finally, someone else appeared. Hayate Gekko walked out of the doorway, looking at the assembled genin. "Well then," he said. "It appears we have some prodigies. When did you get here?"

"Twenty minutes ago," Kankuro said, then pointed at Sasuke and Naruto, because they were the only ones he could see. "They got here ten minutes before us."

Sakura looked across the arena and exchanged smirks with Sasuke and Naruto.

"Well then. You guys will probably be waiting here for a bit." Hayate Gekko said, chuckling quietly.

<>

Itachi stopped in front of Kakashi, not looking at the man, and Kakashi didn't look at Itachi. They looked like two strangers standing next to each other to any other civilian, as Kakashi took a bite from his stick of dango, and offered Itachi the other one on his plate. Itachi took it, eating a bite, before letting out a sigh and looking at Kakashi. "Orochimaru. That's why you told me to be there."

Itachi was a busy man, due to the fact that he was often with his family performing his duties as clan heir, or on missions with the ANBU. But Kakashi was a dear friend, and the sensei of his otouto, so if Kakashi wanted to talk to the Uchiha heir, Itachi would shift his whole schedule to talk to Kakashi. Any threats to Sasuke's life Kakashi mentioned to Itachi, the boy took seriously, investing in counterattacking these attempts. Kakashi tended to be right, like he was today. He hadn't said what was following Sasuke, but Itachi figured out pretty quickly who it was.

Itachi hated Orochimaru. A couple years earlier, the Sannin had confronted Itachi- offering power and freedom from responsibilities- if he would only surrender his body to the Snake Sannin. He'd attempted to attack Itachi, who put a stop to it swiftly and easily. Now- that the snake would attack his little brother- Itachi was angry. No one tried to harm his brother. Ever.

Kakashi barely inclined his head in agreement with Itachi's inference, looking out at the street without allowing his eyes to stray toward Itachi.

"Do I want to know how you knew?" Itachi asked, crossing his arms and taking another bite out of his dango, his anger forcing him to clench his fingers into his black shirt to not punch something.

Kakashi chuckled, then, giving up and looking at his friend. "Probably not." They sat in silence for a moment before Kakashi threw his dango stick onto his plate. "Listen, you can trust me to keep him safe, Itachi. When I'm not around, you watch him for me. Okay? There are many bad people who want him because he's easier to access than you. The two of us need work together to make sure that he's not easier to access."

Itachi nodded, taking a bite out of the last piece of dango and savoring it before he allowed it to slide down his throat. He knew Kakashi would take good care of his brother, but that didn't mean Itachi wasn't going to personally keep an eye out for Sasuke. "Alright, Kakashi-senpai, I'll help you out."

"Thanks for that. And for paying the bill." Kakashi said, before poofing out of existence.

Itachi grinned bitterly as he realized that Kakashi had left him with the check, and a stick of dango in his hand. The old man played dirty. "You're welcome." Itachi muttered, pulling out his wallet and plastering a smile on his face, walking up to pay the woman at the register.