Naruto and Shikamaru followed right behind Iruka, anxious to see Hinari. Apparently, Jiji had assumed that it would be a situation where they would need an anchor.

They didn't, well, maybe Naruto, but they did want to see their daughter. So they followed behind, buzzing with anxiety and excitement. It had only been two days, but they had missed Hinari dearly. Iruka pointed to a door up ahead, and the two shot off, sprinting towards it.

Iruka hurried to catch up, exasperated. When he looked in, it was to Anbu spawled on the floor and Naruto and Shikamaru holding Hinari, who was giggling. The Hokage was shaking, an amused expression on his face. It quickly sobered, and he steepled his fingers. 

"Genin Uzumaki Naruto and genin Nara Shikamaru. Report."

Naruto frowned, and handed Hinari to Iruka. "Team 7 headed into the forest, and traveled with no encounters. We were trying to meet up with Team 10, as to increase our chances of passing. We were using Kurama and Yoru to find each other. Just as we were mere feet away, we were blown away, separated by a Fuuton: Daitoppa. Ino and I were blown in the same direction. I was eaten by a snake, and managed to escape using a very hard to control Wind Blade. We made our way back to a grass kunoichi. She was attacking Sasuke. I got all of them out of there and told them to head to the tower, I'd hold her off. "

"I didn't want to go. I wanted to stay and help, but I had to protect the group...... I wish I had stayed behind..." Shikamaru said, looking at where Naruto's wounds had been.

"After they left, I found out it wasn't a grass kunoichi. It was Orochimaru of the Sannin. We fought, and I was losing. I had a dislocated shoulder, My bone to my arm was sticking out of my skin, my ribs were broken, I had a concussion. I was desperate. So I made Kurama give me four tails."

"Naruto!!" Hiruzen gasped. No wonder the blond was shaking slightly. Her chakra coils were probably really sensitive right now. 

"I'm fine though. Orochimaru took some damage too. I got away as fast as possible. I believe he was after Sasuke... more specifically, his Sharingan."

Naruto sat down, her shaking having gotten borderline violent. Kurama only filtered traces to continue healing her, but she couldn't move while she healed or the strain would be too much.

They all sat there in silence for a while, Hinari giggling every now and then.

"Naruto, Shikamaru. I guarantee you two will become chunin. You already are in fact, however, I ask you still complete the exams."

The two nodded. "Of course, thank you, jiji."

Naruto winced as she stood, still shaking. Her chakra couldn't recover until her coils healed, and that would be a few days. She could barely handle the traces of Kuramas' chakra. Her outer wounds were healed though, and the two left. 

"Shika, I won't be able to use chakra for a few days..... I'll have to use taijutsu to win the preliminaries. "

Shikamaru nodded. "You can do it Naru. Just rest so your chakra coils heal faster."

Naruto nodded, and the two went back to Shikamaru's room. Naruto didn't know where hers was so she would bunk with Shikamaru for now. She collapsed on the bed and snuggled into the blanket.

She felt the bed give as Shikamaru sat down on the bed. She peeked out of the blanket and hummed as Shikamaru poked her cheek, smiling.

She eventually fell asleep, her cheek cupped in Shikamaru's hand.

For the next few days, most of what Naruto did was sleep. It was the day of the preliminaries, and Naruto could use chakra in small amounts over an extended period of time. She had to take a while to gather it, if she just summoned it her coils would end up more damaged than before. But that would be enough. Just enough for what she needed. 

Admittedly, she had been a bit too reliant on her new bloodline, but she was still pretty good at taijutsu. She stood with her team, Shikamaru with his. Jiji stood in front of the gathered genin, rows of Jounin sensei behind him. Naruto slowly allowed her chakra to flow, and slowly laced it through the air, feeling other chakras. Most of the genin had relatively small reserves. The Jounin sensei's reserves felt like lakes. However, two signatures stood out. Both felt.... tainted, and both familiar.

https://youtu.be/ghjltJUti84

Kabuto, the silver-haired boy from before, had reserves larger than a few of the Jounin. He also looked moderately fine. The other was Orochimaru's. Her cerulean eyes scanned the Jounin, and met the snake-like eyes of Orochimaru, disguised as an Oto Jounin. He smirked at her, eyes flickering amusedly. They taunted her. 'You can't make a scene here or many will die.'

She stared at him levelly, eyes colder than ice as she felt her now-short hair raise and lightning flickering along her skin. Orochimaru's eyes grew a tad wary. 'You wouldn't.....would you?'

She was unpredictable, and now angry. The first matchup was made.

Uchiha Sasuke of Konoha versus Akado Yoroi of  Konoha

"Kick his ass Sasuke. In the simplest way possible. No Sharingan. There are enemies lurking about."

Sasuke just stared at her for a few seconds before giving a small nod. He stayed back while Naruto parkour ran up the wall to the stands. Shikamaru walked over to her, having gone up the stairs. He took her hand. 

"Naru? What's up?"

The Uzumaki stared ahead angrily, eyes flickering red here and there. 

"Orochimaru. He is right fucking there. And I can't do anything." 

Shikamaru scanned the crowd and found the snake Sannin, whose yellow gaze was trained on Sasuke. Naruto glared at the Sannin. "I want to hurt him. In a way it will be difficult to recover from." Her eyes landed on Kabuto, who just smirked at her.

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. "Naru, you cant be-"

"Him. He knows about Kurama, and his chakra feels like Orochimaru's. If I'm matched with him, he is dead. He seems to be strong and should deal a considerable blow to Orochimaru."

Shikamaru had to see her point. But still.... "Naru-"

"No Shika! It's two birds with one stone. My chakra coils are almost healed. They will be just fine in a few minutes as long as I don't try to go four tails again! I can show the other countries that Konoha's' Jinchuriki isn't weak. I can also take down what could potentially be Orochimaru' right-hand man."

Shikamaru sighed. "You're right. But what if you don't get matched up with Kabuto?"

"We'll figure it out."

Shikamaru shook his head and leaned on the bars, watching Sasuke beat Yoroi with nothing but Taijutsu and a fireball. Quick efficient, and unrevealing. Shikamaru felt something crawling down his arm and looked down, seeing a Kikai beetle fly off his arm and to Shino.

"Next match! Aburame Shino of Konoha versus Abumi Zaku of Oto!"

Shino nodded to Naruto and Shikamaru as he walked down the stairs. Well, with his Kikai, he probably knew a lot. Shikamaru could only trust the Aburame to do what he judged to be right.

The match started, and Zaku blew around some flashy wind blows. From above, it was easy to see both sides' strategies. Shino had a wave of his Kikai approach Zaku from behind to which Zaku made a show of blowing away. In reality, he had merely scattered the Kikai, making it easier for them to land on him and crawl into the tubes in his hands.

Zaku went for a direct ull powered attack, and the Rookie 9 and Team 9 besides Naruto, Shikamaru and Sasuke flinched as Zakus arms blew off.

"Ouch." Shikamaru said, rubbing his arm. That's gotta hurt. Zaku was already out from the pain though.

"There goes his shinobi career." Naruto said.

"Yeah. No way he's gonna be a capable shinobi like that." Sasuke snorted. 

The rest of the genin stared at them like they were crazy, except for the redhead with the scar on his head, Gaara. He looked interested, and even a bit amused. Shikamaru clapped a slightly shaking Shino on the shoulder as he came up the stairs. Naruto smiled sympathetically, and Sasuke nodded in respect. Shino stopped shaking and straightened. 

"It was the quickest and efficient method to take him out without alerting the infiltrators." Naruto assured him.

"You did a good thing Shino. I have a feeling he would have been trouble later if you hadn't." Shikamaru said.

"Hn. He probably deserved it." Sasuke muttered.

"I appreciate the sympathy. However, I need time to come to terms with the severity of the injury I caused." Shino murmured, and walked off. Naruto glared at the genin who stared at Shino, her ice-cold eyes causing them to look away.

"Next Match!  Hyuga Hinata of Konoha versus Sabaku no Kankuro of Suna!"

Hinata was shaking like a leaf. The smug glare Kankuro was giving her wasn't helping either. Naruto sighed, and walked over to her friend.

"Hinata. You can do this. He is a puppeteer. You have a super cool eye that can help you, and you're really fast and flexible! You got this! And even if he dares to beat someone as amazing as you, you'll learn from it. Go kick his ass!"

Hinata smiled shyly. "T-thank you Naruto-san. I will do my b-best!"

"Go get 'em girl!" Naruto said. She hated how she had to be a boy for this..... but she didn't yet want for the world to know. Her peers knew, as did a few others, and that's all that was needed for now. And since her chakra coils still needed a bit longer to heal, she had had to cut her hair and put that weird chalk pray in it to hide the red. Not to mention she hadn't wanted to bind her chest so she was wearing a really baggy jacket and avoiding facing people who didn't know. Of course, people were more interested in the fights, so she didn't need to worry.

"You got this Hinata." Shikamaru said.

"OoOoh, Hinata, do a flip off of the rail like a badass!" Naruto encouraged excitedly.

Hinata blushed, nervous. "O-okay!" She took a running jump and flipped, hand springing off of the railing, basically finishing in a roundoff, landing like a cat"

Naruto wolf-whistled playfully. "You go girl!"

Hinata stood, and faced the stairs, where Kankuro came out. She was visibly nervous, and immediately everyone knew Kankuro had underestimated Hinata. He looked smug as hell, and looked completely relaxed.

'Hina, you got this. Just believe in your abilities.' Naruto thought.

The match began.