Today, the Chunin Exams were starting.

Not gonna lie, I was very nervous. I couldn't mess this up for my team and I knew that the proctors may be questioning whether I should stay a genin or not since I was new.

I finished getting ready and I walked out of my house to meet up with Team Seven. 

"Man, I'm so pumped for this!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Yeah, me too!" I added, trying to hide how nervous I actually was.

We walked to the academy to start the first round and made it to the room we were supposed to be in. Everyone was eyeing each other trying to intimidate and check out the other competition. There were lots of other people our age from different villages.

"Man...I had no idea that there would be so much competition," Sakura whispered. "If being scary of one of the tests, then they got me beat,"

"This doesn't bother me at all," I said with my arms crossed.

On the inside, I was agreeing with Sakura.

"Sasuke!" A girl exclaimed. "Where've you been?"

I turned around, seeing a blonde girl with bright blue eyes had her arms around Sasuke with a blush on her cheeks. 

Sakura had her eyes narrowed and Sasuke just seemed annoyed.

"Boy, you have no idea of how much I hoped you'd show up here. I've missed those good looks of yours," She giggled.

She looked at Sakura and I as if she was trying to show us up. 

It worked on Sakura, but I didn't care at all.

"Hey, you porker!" Sakura shouted. "Back off! He's mine!"

I sweat dropped and the blonde let go of Sasuke.

"Miss Forehead?" She asked with fake shock. "They let YOU in? You still got those big outlines on your billboard brow, I see,"

"Leave my forehead out of it!" Sakura retorts. 

They stared each other down and a new voice came in.

"Oh, it's you guys,"

I looked away from the commotion and I saw two boys walking over here. One had spiky hair and a lazy expression while the other was chubby with swirls on his cheeks.

"I knew this was going to be a drag, but I never thought it would be this lame," The lazy one spoke.

"So, all of the three stooges are here," Naruto mocked them.

"Hey, you know what you little pipsqueak..." The boy trailed off and sighed. "Ah forget it, you're a waste of time,"

They looked at me now with curiosity.

"Who's the new girl?" The chubby one asks.

"Oh, this is our new teammate, Mika," Sakura introduced.

"New teammate?" The lazy one rose an eyebrow. "What's your story?"

I looked a bit shy. "I'm Mika Ish-I mean Hatake," 

I could tell they were surprised at my last name. I had to stop calling myself by Ishii, but it was hard since I was used to introducing myself with my mother's last name. 

"And I was formerly a Sand ninja, but then my mother passed away and I'm here to stay with my father since that was what she wanted," I introduced.

"Your father...it's Kakashi, isn't it?" He asked.

I nodded. 

"I see, so there is some hope for Team Seven," He was joking, but he didn't laugh. "I'm Shikamaru and the other two are Choji and Ino,"

The blonde looked at me. "By the way, Sasuke is mine, so if you could so kindly back off,-"

Sakura started shouting at her again. "Excuse me?!"

I sighed as they started arguing and Shikamaru noticed my reaction.

"Troublesome, isn't it?"

"Very,"

"They do this every time they see each other and usually they start arguing about Sasuke," He said. "I hope you're not a fangirl because that would be even more troublesome if a third one were to join them,"

Sasuke was attractive, but I wasn't interested. Plus I don't think he liked me anyway.

"No," I shook my head. "I'm more concerned about being a ninja instead of looking for a relationship,"

Shikamaru seemed relieved and Kiba came over here.

"Well, well," Kiba said. "What do you know? The whole gang is back together again,"

Hinata's face turned red. "Oh...hi Naruto,"

Naruto looked at her and she looked away, turning even redder. 

I ignored this and just greeted Kiba.

"You guys too, huh?" Shikamaru asked. "Man, everyone's here for this stupid thing,"

"Yup, here we all are. All twelve rookies," Kiba grinned, but then corrected himself. "Well, thirteen. But this is gonna be fun for those who can make the cut. Right Sasuke?"

Sasuke smirked. "Kiba, be careful you don't get overconfident,"

"MIKA ISHII!" A loud voice boomed.

Oh no.

"Please hide me," I whisper shouted and hid behind Sasuke and Naruto.

"Nice try Ishii, I can see you!" 

Kentaro pushed them out of the way and grabbed me, pulling me forward.

"What do you want, Kentaro?" I rolled my eyes. "Also, it's not Ishii anymore. My last name is Hatake now,"

"I just wanted to tell you that I am not scared of you and I will beat you!" He shouted in my face again.

Before I could reply, Rika cut in and Naoki was following her.

"Quit making a scene," She snapped and punched Kentaro's shoulder.

"I may be into older women, but I have to admit, your village has some pretty hot chicks," Naoki said, eyeing Hinata and Ino.

He walked over to Hinata with a grin and put his hand into hers.

"Hey there, my name is Naoki Amari,"

She turned even redder and looked like she was about to faint. He was about to kiss her hand as he does to every woman he likes, but then Rika punched his shoulder and pulled him away.

"Knock it off! You're making our village look like a joke!" She shouted at him.

She was always the mother of our team. She knew how to shut him up and apparently she knows how to shut Kentaro up too.

Naoki looked at Ino and tried to walk over to her, but Rika pulled him back.

"Nice try, loverboy," She rolled her eyes.

"Naoki, you're stupid," I pinched the bridge of my nose and turned to everyone. "I'm so sorry about him. Just ignore him and he'll stop,"

"Hey! Don't ignore me! I'm Naoki Amari and I'm one of Mika's friends," He said quickly. "And this is Rika Itami. She's grumpy and impatient, so don't mind her,"

Kentaro snickered. "So she's like an old lady,"

Rika shot him a glare and he immediately got quiet.

I snickered and Rika then looked at me.

"I'm not grumpy, I just don't like it when people keep me waiting. We're Mika's old team and Kentaro here took her place after she left," Rika added.

After the introductions, Naruto shouted.

"MY NAME IS NARUTO UZUMAKI AND I'LL BEAT YOU ALL!"

Naoki had a competitive look on his face. "I'M NAOKI AMARI AND I'LL BE THE ONE WHO BEATS YOU ALL!"

Naruto and Naoki both glared at each other.

Kentaro was about to join, but then Rika pulled him back by her side. "Don't even,"

She then pulled Naoki by her other side and looked embarrassed.

Sakura yelled at Naruto for making a scene while Rika scolded Naoki and Kentaro.

"If you guys keep yelling like schoolgirls, then the contestants will kill you," A boy with silver hair said out of nowhere.

I looked at him and something about him didn't sit right with me. He looked at me with a glint and I glared back at him.

 "Well who asked you?" Ino retorted.

"Yeah, who the hell are you?" I narrowed my eyes.

"Kabuto Yakushi," He smiled. "But look around. You guys made quite the impression,"

I looked around and realized the ninjas from the other villages were glaring at us. As much as I didn't like this guy, he was right.

Everyone questioned him and then he offered to help us with ninja info cards. 

He looked through his cards with a small smirk and he looked back up at me, then looked back down at his cards.

"Do you have any information on Gaara of the Sand and Rock Lee?" Sasuke asked.

Kabuto showed him their cards and he was using chakra to reveal information about them. Just who the hell is he? Why does he keep looking at me like that? Does he know that I don't like him?

He looked at me. "What about you? Is there anyone you'd like to know about?"

"No," I crossed my arms. "I'm good,"

Kabuto and I stared each other down, until a strict voice caught our attention.

"Alright everyone, listen up,"

A man who was very buff and had an intimidating aura about him cleared his throat. 

"I'm Ibiki Morino, the examiner for the first round," He introduces and looked sharply to our left. "Hey! Hidden Sound guys! Stop doing as you please. Do you wanna get disqualified already?"

"Sorry," A man who was bandaged apologized. "It's our first time and we got a bit excited."

Ibiki turned his attention back on all of us and continued talking. "There will be no fighting without the permission of the examiner. However, if permission granted, killing the person will NOT be tolerated,"

I looked at Rika and she just rolled her eyes.

"Those who disobey me will be failed immediately. Am I clear?"

We all nodded.

"Good, then we will now start the first round of the Chunin Exams," He said. "Instead of your current seating arrangements, you'll pick out one of these tabs and that will be your seat,"

He then mentioned that we will be doing a written test.

"WHAT?!" Naruto shouted. "A PAPER TEST?!"

I had the same reaction, but I wasn't vocal about it like Naruto was.

I picked up my tab and looked down at my number. I found my seat and I sat down, looking to see who I'd be sitting next to.

"Looks like I'm the person you're sitting next to," That irritating voice said smugly.

I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, whatever Kankuro,"

He chuckled and sat down next to me.

Ibiki glared at us. "Is there a problem?"

I widened my eyes and Kankuro snickered at my reaction. "N-No sir! No problem here!"

He's very intimidating.

"Do not turn your tests over and listen to what I'm about to say," Ibiki started. "There are many rules on this test so I'll write it on the board as I explain. Questions will not be allowed, so listen very carefully,"

Almost half of the room gulped.

"The first rule," He said. "You guys will start off with ten points. The test is made up of ten questions and each one is worth a point. But the test uses a subtraction system,"

I rose an eyebrow.

"Basically, if you answer all ten questions correctly, you will keep your ten points. Say if you lose three points, you'll have seven," He explained. 

This test didn't sound too bad so far. Sounded like an assignment we did in the academy.

"The second rule," Ibiki continued. "This is a team test. Whether you pass or not will be determined by the combined score of your teammates,"

I licked my lips nervously. I hope I don't fail my team. They'd hate me forever if I were to make them lose.

"Now for the third rule," Ibiki said again. "During the exam, anyone caught cheating by the testing officers will have two points subtracted with every offense. So there will be some who lose all of their points during the exam and they will be asked to leave immediately,"

Another jounin added his threat. "We'll be watching all of you guys."

Ibiki nodded in agreement with him. "Now for the final rule. Those that lose all of their initial points during the tests and those that don't answer any of the questions correctly will be failed along with their teammates,"

I sweated nervously. I was really being put under pressure here. I didn't want to be dead weight to them.

"You only have an hour to complete this exam. BEGIN!"

We all flipped our papers over and I scanned through the questions. I knew some of them, so I answered the easy ones first and focused on the complicated ones after completing the easy ones.

"NUMBER FORTY-EIGHT, YOU'RE OUT!" Ibiki shouted.

Three ninjas left and I was stuck one final question.

I was frustrated and I was trying to figure out a way for me to get it from someone else without being caught.

Kankuro rose his hand. "Uh, excuse me,"

Ibiki looked up at him. 

"I gotta use the restroom,"

One of jounin put handcuffs on Kankuro before walking out. "We go with you to make sure you're not up to anything."

"That's perfectly understandable."

Kankuro didn't seem bothered and they left the room. 

I looked up at the clock, seeing I only had about twenty minutes to figure out this last question on this test. 

I panicked even more and I knocked the pencil down on the floor as a way to cheat without making it obvious. I leaned down to grab it, looking over at Kankuro's paper in the process and then saw that he had the answer that I was looking for.

I wrote it down after picking up the pencil and then put it down, flipping my test over. 

I took a deep breath.

I want to get this part over with already. 

~~~~~~~~~~

I realize the chunin exams arc here is kind of mixed up, but I'm making sure this is close to the original story as possible. I also don't remember the part where they first met Kabuto very well, so spare me lol.