(3d POV) During the Chunin Exam Nominations

All of the Jonin, except Kakashi, as well as the Chunin academy instructors were gathered in a meeting hall, ordered by the Hokage. Everyone was idly chatting with one another when the final member decided to show up. With his flashy as ever entrance, and cocky yet laid back attitude, the silver haired Kakashi poofed in the middle of the room. All of the eyes turned to him, many rolling their eyes up to heaven at his annoying act of being late to everything. The Hokage decided to start the meeting, brushing off Kakashi's lateness by commanding him to join the other Jounin instructors.

"The Chunin exams are being held in Konoha this year, there are many promising genin, Jounin Senseis, who would you like to nominate for the Chunin exams this year? Speak now." Gai, clad in his green spandex was the first to step forward. With his trademark pose, he shouted his nomination of his three youthful Genin: Neji, Tenten, and Lee. Nobody had any qualms at this nomination, each of the Genin were respected enough in their skills, and even if the other ninja believe Gai is a nutcase, they all know his strength is not to be messed with, same goes for his Genin. A few other Jonin nominated their Genin with no questions or concerns. That was until the three rookie instructors decided to nominate their Genin, making them the first rookie teams in over 5 years.

"I Asuma Sarutobi nominate Team 10 Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Choji Akimichi for the Chunin exams."

"I Kruenai Yuhi nominate Team 8 Shino Aburame, Kiba Inuzuka, and Sakura Haruno for the Chunin exams."

"I Kakashi Hatake nominate Team 7 Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki, and Hinata Hyuuga for the Chunin exams." Iruka was shocked after each nomination, his eyes growing wider after each of his rookie students were nominated. The final straw came at Kakashi's nomination.

"Kakashi-sama are you crazy, I know my students, Naruto... the rookies are not ready for this kind of thing. Are you trying to break them?" Iruka shouted infuriated at the Jounin. How could he try to nominate a dead last like Naruto, a son figure, to be in something as dangerous as the Chunin exams. Kakashi sent a glare to Iruka, everyone in the meeting could feel the tenseness of the situation, but couldn't step in, this is their issue to resolve. Many of the Jonin agreed with Iruka, nominating rookie Genin, especially a deadlast demon like Naruto had most of them frowning and wondering of the stability of the already fragile Kakashi Hatake.

"With all due respect Iruka-san, these Genin are no longer your students now, they are under my jurisdiction, they are my soldiers and I can do what I please with them. I do think they are ready, so ready in fact that I think they have a high possibility of being the top three in the exams each one of them was holding back in the academy, one of my students is even ready to become a Jonin, so weather you like it or not, they are entering the exams." Kakashi spoke with a steel edge in his voice, but talking about his students, all of the Jonin noticed the fondness the previously cold man had. Everyone's thoughts were reeling, trying to comprehend Kakashi's words. All of his Genin were holding back, the top students and the deadlast are all more powerful than anybody knows about, and if he is so confident, they must be something special. It was chilling for each of the people in the room to find out that they had been played by mere Genin, and do not know the true power of the Jinchuriki demon and his teammates. To conclude the meeting and help Iruka feel more calm about the situation, he allowed for Iruka to do a small preliminary test for each of his rookie students so they could prove they were ready.

(Hinata POV)

I woke up at 6 in the morning, pissed off. Kakashi is making us meet at 6:30, of course he is going to show up late, but now he has Zabuza keep watch on me since I figured out to show up late. It's annoying because if I'm late, I have to run double of what the boys do. Moments like that are why I wonder why I even like Kakashi. So here I am now, pissed off because it's early and I'm awake at our training ground waiting for my bastard of a sensei to show up and give us a mission. I was meditating on flowing my chakra at a constant level, its hard to do without water, but I still needed to practice, Zabuza was sharpening his beloved Kubikiribōchō, Naru was grumbling about Kakashi and his bad cleaning habits, which I feel on a deep level, and Sasuke was being Sasuke, standing there with his hands in his pockets and glaring at nothing like a weirdo. Finally Kakashi showed up crouching on the railing of the bridge.

"Yo. Sorry I'm afraid I got lost on the path of life." He said with a wave and an eye smile. My eye twitched, Naruto was just pissed.

"More like you too into reading your porn and had to take care of yourself before you came here." I thought I mumbled it, but by the reactions everyone had, I was a lot louder than I meant to be. Kakashi was bright red and shaking his hands furiously in protest, Zabuza was letting out a loud scary laugh and gave me a pat on the back, Sasuke was glaring harshly but he had a faint blush on his face, and Naruto was just very confused about what I meant, the poor innocent boy.

"Hinata-chan, what was he taking care of?" Sasuke and Kakashi paled greatly, Zabuza looked amused and I cracked my knuckles a shit eating grin plastered on my face, ready to give him the lesson of his life. After everything, especially Lady Seiko's lessons I am a master at this kind of information.

"You see when somebody gets horny and-" Kakashi slapped his hand on my mouth and pinned me to the ground. He whispered harshly in my ear.

"You finish that sentence and I will put you on probation for a month." I nodded quickly, I don't want probation, I need to do my ninja stuff. Kakashi released me and I stood up brushing off the dirt on my clothes. Sasuke gave me a harsh jab to the ribs, he didn't like my little lesson either. Kakashi cleared his throat and told us today we have a special training. We were all amped up, Naruto had fire burning in his eyes, ready for a new training session. How much we all regret that, we should have know new training didn't mean nicer training. I would like to call this training from hell. Apparently Kakashi thought it would be fun to gather some of his retired ANBU friends and along with Zabuza, we would have to hide and stay away from them. No jutsu aloud either. Plus, every time we get hit by one of them, its 5 laps around the village. ANBU are scary and sadistic and lets just say I was running and flipping for my life. I managed to only get hit a few times, Naruto and Sasuke weren't so lucky. By the end of the session, all of us were puking our guts out from the continuous sprinting we did for hours on end. When Zabuza and Kakashi were carrying us to Sasuke's for dinner, a messenger Hawk was circling above Kakashi. He saw it and gave Sasuke to Zabuza to carry all three of us. Kakashi poofed away for the meeting I'm guessing about nominating everyone for the Chunin exams. Zabuza grumbled about carrying us, but when I promised to take him to scare some of the new academy students if he shut up, he did.

We made it to Sasuke's house and when we entered, Zabuza dumped us on the floor, making me let out some not so nice words to the asshole. I looked up and saw Shisui make his way over, a big smile on his face.

"Is that the sound of my sweet little Imouto's foul mouth?" I pushed myself off the ground, some of my energy regained.

"Shisui-nii!" I jumped, wrapping myself around him. Shisui caught me and put me on his back laughing happily at my PDA for him. Naruto got up next and attacked Shisui as well, whining about how Kakashi's training is even more evil than Shisui's was.

"Sasu-chan, why don't you give your dear old Shisui a hug." Shisui teased at Sasuke's antisocial and awkward behavior. Sasuke rolled his eyes, not that Shisui could see, and walked right past Shisui into the kitchen to cook us dinner.

"Hn." Shisui grabbed where his heart was and faked being in great pain.

"Sasu-chan you wound my poor broken heart. I know you don't love me like you do Naruto but cant you give me one hug." Sasuke threw a knife right by Shisui's head and Naruto screeched in protest. Zabuza and I laughed loudly at the other member of the SasuNaru club. We all slept over at Sasuke's that night, it was fun even when Naruto and Sasuke argued the whole time.

We had all finished breakfast at a small teahouse in town when a pink flurry showed up. Sakura was standing there holding on tightly to Saasuke's arm, begging him to take her out on a date since they haven't seen each other in a while. Sasuke declined Sakura in the harshest of ways I've ever seen, if I hadn't forgiven her I would have laughed. I mean, somebody getting shot down so badly is funny... always. Sasuke said goodbye to me and told Naru and I to meet him for lunch before we have to go meet Kakashi later. Sakura was fuming and sad that Sasuke dissed her but not Naru and I, she sent us a vicious glare which Naruto partially ignored.

Before Naruto could ask her to hang out, she stomped off. We were walking around aimlessly when a square box with holes for eyes started following Naruto every where he went. It was very entertaining to watch him try to outmaneuver the rock. Finally fed up, he turned around and shouted at the box telling them to reveal themselves. A loud bang and a shit ton of smoke later, I was staring at the three cutest kids ever. They were all 8-sh, worshipped Naruto, and were wearing goggles like Naruto used to. The kids noticed me finally as I watched them happily, glad that I wasn't being insulting to them, they turned to me and did their introduction, poses and everything.

"With adult sexiness, I'm Moegi from the senior class of Kunoichi Preschool!" The little blushing girl with orange pigtails that curved and defied gravity.

"I love factoring, I'm Udon!" A little brown haired boy with glasses and a runny nose stated sort of awkwardly.

"The most brilliant ninja in the village, Konohamaru!" The leader of the group, a boy with a long blue scarf and a hell of a lot of confidence stated. Then they all joined together in a very Power Rangers fashion and posed together.

"And we are the Konohamaru Ninja Squad!" They shouted in perfect synchronization. That might have been the dorkiest thing I have ever seen, I LOVED IT! Seeing it in person is just wow, adorable. Naruto rolled his eyes but mine were sparkling. I clapped loudly for the kids and turned to Naruto.

"Oh. My. KAMI! That was so fucking awesome Naru, why don't we have something cool like that. It would be like my very own superhero squad! We have to make one of these now, I'll even get duckbutt and Kakashi-sensei to join in!" Naruto just stared at me in confusion of why I would want to be anything like the littles. I also think he was trying to play cool around them but thats none of my business. I turned my attention back to the Naruto minions. "Hey guys, I'm Hinata, Blondies badass teammate and best friend." All three of the small ones eyes widened and began to glow when they found out who I am.

"You're the Hinata-san that was the best female graduate in Konohoa history, you're even prettier in person, you're my idol!" Moegi squealed, latching on to me. I blushed a bit in embarrassment at the praise. I didn't even know that I was the best female graduate ever, thats so dope, some of my hard work has been showing off. Naruto looked ready to ditch the small fries and go train with me, but before we could bid ado, Konohamaru stopped us with his cute puppy dog eyes.

"Boss, you and your teammate can come play Ninja with us, you promised remember?" Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"Heh, I did say that didn't I." Just then, a new voice spoke up, full of annoyance and disgust.

"A ninja playing ninja, how twisted and childish. Not surprising for losers like you two." Naruto and I turned and there was the big forehead, pink haired ex-friend if mine, her face twisted into one of contempt. I rolled my eyes at her bitterness. Naruto was looking at Sakura intently his eyes full of questions, but unlike at the academy, there was no blush on his face. Maybe he really has been thinking about why he likes her and is learning he might not. My boy is growing up. Plus with his big dick power, he is too good for her right now anyways. Maybe if that stick got pulled out of her ass, but whatever. Konohamaru noticed Naruto's intense gaze on Sakura and came to his own conclusion, smirking slyly I was waiting for the question to come.

"Oh boss, who is that, is she... your girlfriend, you smooth operator." The ninja squad looked a bit more impressed with Naruto when they thought he had a girlfriend. I stepped back and watched how the scene would play out. Naruto's face looked a bit wistful at the statement, Sakura on the other hand looked so ashamed and annoyed that the kids would even think she would date Naruto. That pissed me off a lot.

"He, uh you see..." Naruto stuttered, not knowing how to answer. Sakura took the liberty of doing it for him, she wound up and punched him straight in the face. I growled and clenched my fists.

"No way in hell would I date a loser like Naruto." All three of the young students looked in horror and unmasked anger at how poorly Sakura treated Naruto. I was still growling, but Naruto walked up to me and grabbed my arm to calm me down. His eyes were downturned and it broke my heart to see that look of pain yet understanding he has whenever the villagers disrespect him.

"You ugly witch! What kind of girlfriend are you." Konohamaru shouted at her, I giggled lightly at how similar him and Naruto act. Its like a mini clone. Sakura cracked her knuckles and when Naruto walked up to protect Konohamaru, she hit him again.

"Is she even human, I mean with that attitude and large forehead of hers." Everyone's eyes widened at how the air chilled, Sakura looked enraged. She raised her hands to attack the kids and when her fist came down, I flashed in front of her, grasping her fist tightly in mine. The kids and Naruto scurried away. I threw sakura back and followed after them, knowing what was coming next. I arrived, Sakura behind me, right as Konohamaru was sprawled on the ground after running into a boy with a black cat jumpsuit, a puppet on his back, and purple face paint, next to him was a girl with 4 ponytails and a large fan. Kankuro sneered annoyed and picked up Konohamaru by his scarf, pulling him into his face. His friends shouted in fear for Konohamaru, and Naruto looked ready to destroy Kankuro.

"That hurt little punk." He barked out, trying to intimidate everyone. Sakura stepped forward her hands raised in an apologetic manner.

"We were just messing around, no need to hurt him." Kankuro scoffed, Temari just stepped away from the scene. Konohamaru began to kick at Kankuro, trying to get released, it failed, just ended up pissing off Kankuro more.

"You bastard, let him go!" Naruto took a run to stop puppet boy, but before he could, chakra threads were attached to Naruto's feet making him trip and fall. Right as Kankuro's fist was going to connect to Konohamaru's face I flashed down, hitting Kankuro in the arm with a gentle fist strike, numbing it. He dropped Konohamaru into my awaiting arms. I set him behind me and stood defensively in front of everyone. Kankuro is way more of a dick than I thought he would be. I growled, already in a bad mood and he was just making it worse.

"Back off, don't start a fight you cant finish puppet bastard." I growled out, exerting a minor KI, and that made a larger, more deadly one react. Gaara. His presence was overwhelming, the pressure and dark whirlpool of his chakra was so intense and bore down on us, it felt like drowning in syrup, it was so toxic.

"You Bitch, what the hell did you do. I hate brats like you, you're nothing but a pretty princess playing ninja. I was going to show them first, but I guess you need a beatdown first." Kankuro shouted at me, aggravated. He began to unravel his puppet ignoring his teammates protest.

"Don't call Hinata-chan that you bastard. I should destroy you for that." Naruto shouted, growing pissed. Canker was going to retaliate, but I stepped in, ending this before it would progress.

"If attack any of us again, I'll end you quickly. You're no match for me Kankuro of the sand. How would your father feel if you ended the treaty with the leaf, at this rate thats whats going to happen. That little brat is the Hokage's Grandson and I'm the heir to the Hyuuga clan. Attacking either of us would end very badly for you and your village. Do you want the last three Uchiha, my clan, rogue swordsman Zabuza Momochi and the 9 tails Jinchuriki to retaliate for your ego? You're bound to lose. Got it asshole?" I spoke to the two of them, all of my playfulness gone for the moment, I need their attention to be focused on me and not Sasuke. If I can get Gaara's attention, I can get closer to him. Gaara's pressure was intense, but his chakra spiked in interest, not the good kind. The two of them stared at me a bit freaked out with their realization. "And you, the third teammate in the tree come down."

"Kankuro, you're a disgrace to our village, remember what we're here for, if you forget again...I'll kill you." Gaara's low gravelly voice spoke out in annoyance, as he appeared in front of my by a whoosh of sand. That was definitely the coolest thing I've ever seen. Gaara stared me down, his beautiful sea foam and black ringed eyes were filled with sadness and hatred. Even though I wanted to cower at the intensity of his chakra, the way it was burning to even breathe it in, I had to block it out, not sensing the chakra to the best of my ability.

Instead of cowering like my body was yelling at me to do, I stared right into his eyes. It made me sad to see, his eyes flashed with surprise when I didn't flinch away afraid, instead I smiled brightly at him, my entire demeanor changing back to obliviously happy, one thing Naruto taught me was if you are afraid, keeoing a smile on is the best way to fake it until you make it.

"Wholly Hell, that was so awesome, your sand transport is so fucking dope. Hey I'm Hinata Hyuuga, I know you Gaara, one tailed Jinchuriki, no need to introduce yourself. You're a lot cuter in person ya know, you look like a cute redheaded panda." Gaara's sand began to emerge but I didn't move a muscle like the idiot I am. Surprisingly his sand went back into his gourd when I didn't react. "I hope to see you guys again, maybe we can be friends, as long as you keep the puppet bastard on a leash." I said, still smiling. I tried hard not to laugh at the shocked faces of everyone around me. Gaara's eyes were watching me intently, confusion, intrigue, and intense bloodlust was surrounding him. My smile was strained, tense. Naruto was poised and his eyes were blinking in awe, the bloodllust from Gaara was has less of an affect on him than it did me and the others, something from Kuruma probably.

"Hinata Hyuuga, goodbye." Gaara stated emotionlessly, ignoring Naruto saying Gaara want's to know who he is too. Right as he and his team turned around to leave, Sakura opened her mouth to speak up, but I covered it and whispered that they are aloud here for the Chunin exams.

"Wow boss, why aren't you as cool as Hinata-chan?" Konohmamru asked, making me bust out laughing.

"Dude, Naru is cool in his own way, he's not the pranking king for nothing." His little minions eyes sparkled in awe at their boss and Naruto basked in their praise. A bit later, we met with Kakashi, who gave us applications for the Chunin exams. We all gladly signed overflowing with excitement. Before Kakashi could leave, Naruto asked him about puppet users and how to counter their chakra threads, so he and Kakashi went to train on it. Naruto really didn't like Kankuro, I could see the desire to beat him burning within. It was Sasuke and I left, so we went and got food, talking about the Chunin exams. Sasuke really wanted to fight Neji and Naruto in the exams. I want to fight Kabuto and see how I compare to him.

After dinner, Sasuke and I sat at 'his' dock by the lake and just laid there together, formulating about how to take down Danzo and bring Itachi home. It was hard to talk about, like always, but having Sasuke hold me when I would cry about Itachi was helpful in me not losing my mind. I think it was the same for him, he would hold me tighter whenever he would get too angry, calming down. Sasuke went home and I decided to walk around the village since its quiet at night, and I wanted to clear my head before training on my water techniques. I made it to an unmarked pond at the edge of the forest, and decided to do my training here.

I finished my training, panting heavily laying on the ground, but I had a massive grin on my face. I managed to have the water I was controlling move around easier and farther than usual. I was able to control it for a few minutes this time without breaking my concentration. I can also propel myself up to my shoulders and back out with just my chakra. It is exhausting, but it has helped my control over water increase drastically. I finally sat up and could enjoy the scenery around me. The moon was almost full, lighting up everywhere around me.

It reflected of the water, leaving it glistening, the glow of the moon made the trees look so beautiful and serene. I was awed by its beauty and so mesmerized, I didn't see the sand until it was wrapped around my body. I couldn't move but the sand wasn't crushing me...much, so I decided to save my energy for an escape if needed. I allowed the sand to pick me up and I was brought face to face with my favorite panda who looked almost ethereal in the moonlight, too bad he was deadly and probably wanted to kill me.

"Hey Panda-kun." I said with a happy grin, masking the slight unease I felt, god I didn;t know somebodies chakra could make me react so negative. Even Zabuza's KI had nothing on the monstrous danger Gaara exuded. He's unstable and I can't take him lightly right now. I have enough chakra to escape, I can't fight him right now, and even at full capacity I don't think I could really manage to fight him and live, at least without repercussions. Gaara glared at me, his sand squeezing me a bit tighter but not painfully.

"Why, why aren't you afraid. Everyone is afraid, they have to be afraid. Why aren't you afraid, why don't you look at me with those eyes!" Gaara started out as a whisper, but it ended up in a full blown shout, he was clutching his head and his voice was cracking in pain. My heart hurt at the sound of it.

"I see nothing to be afraid of, all I see is a misunderstood boy who was hurt by a bunch of assholes so he lashes out to help his pain. I see somebody who needs love, who is deserving to be loved. Why would I be afraid of that." I told Gaara, my eyes never leaving his. His cold mask stayed on, but his eyes spoke volumes. They were filled with confusion and longing, but then something happened and they turned back into being full of rage. His sand clenched around me painfully and he started shaking, letting out a cruel and psychotic laugh.

"Love, mother said the only one who loves me is myself! If I squeeze tight enough, I can make your fear show, then I can have your BLOOD and prove my existence!" The sand squeezed and I could barely breathe, black spots started dancing in my vision.

"Gaara" I rasped out. "You're wrong, I can show you the love you're missing, I wont let you be alone anymore." His sand stopped squeezing for a second and I used a blast of Chakra out of my Tenketsu points to make his sand release me. I fell to the ground in front of Gaara, gasping for breath.

"No, NO! LIES! Love is fake, the only one who loves me is myself!" I took my chance and walked up to him hesitantly. His sand didn't react, not taking me as a threat, and I put my hand up to his face, cupping his cheeks, making him look me in the eyes.

"I'll never fear you Gaara. I promise. You may hate me or not believe me, but I understand what it's like to be alone. I will be there for you." I cut my hand and allowed blood to spill out of it, suicide probably but whatever. Gaara didn't get excited and murder-y like I thought so I took the opportunity and I pulled Gaara into a hug and felt him stiffen at the unusual contact. Finally he relaxed a bit and I made his arms wrap around me, returning the hug. His body was cold. His grip tightened around me in a possessive grip and he inhaled deeply. Hopefully this means he wont kill me, but only time will tell. A tendril of sand came out of the gourd and attached itself to my wrist...tightly.

"What's this for?"

"I don't believe you, and if I decide you've lied to me like the others, I'll kill you."

"Cool, cool. But let's make a deal. If I can prove to you I'm stronger because of the people I fight for and that I'm not going to try to kill you, you'll sit and listen to what Naruto has to say and if I don't, I'll fight you...to the death if need be." God, I just do dumb shit all of the time. How the hell am I supposed to show somebody as fucked as Gaara the truth without literally beating it into him like Naruto. Maybe, just maybe this will work. Actions are important and hopefully I can prove to him I fight and am strong because of others, not myself and not have to let it get pounded into him.

"Friends are a weakness. I accept, be ready to die Hinata Hyuga." Gaara spun on his heal and left, his shoulders loose and his face stony.

***

(3d POV) Team 7 preliminary tests from Iruka Umino

Naruto was telling the story of him and his teammates defeating their Sensei in the bell test. He was embellishing and telling about his 'amazing' skills during the battle and how he had to help out his Teme of a teammate. Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon were watching in awe of their boss, hanging on to every word he was saying, adding in their own 'ohh's and ahh's' at the appropriate moments. He was getting to the climax of the story, how he made a super awesome gravity seal to take out the Copy Ninja, when a cloaked figure swooped by at ninja speed and grabbed Moegi, hauling ass away from the three boys. Moegi screamed, and her teammates screamed for her, unsure of what to do to take down the enemy ninja.

Naruto acted right away and before the enemy could get too far away, he chased him down, activated his brass knuckles and punched the enemy hard enough to knock him out of the tree and leave a nasty bruise. Naruto used his shadow clones to grab Moegi, and throw the ninja back up to Naruto. Naruto ended the fight with a strong blast of wind, sending the cloaked enemy back to the ground in a fatal blow. Unfortunately the ninja substituted away, running to save their life. The little kids looked at Naruto in pure shock at his awesome skills, he really earned his role as their leader. Moegi even gained a little crush on her hero; she ran up to him hugging him tightly with a blush on her face.

Sasuke was given a new training schedule curtsey of Shisui. He was nearing the end of his workout when Hinata walked up to him, a smile and blush on her face. Sasuke could feel something was off with his Hinata, but decided to play it cool and see what was going on. Hinata walked up and grasped his hand, making Sasuke have a slight blush that didn't go unnoticed by Hinata.

"Sasuke-kun, lets go get some dinner, I'm so hungry and I don't have anything to cook for us tonight."

"Hn." Sasuke narrowed his eyes, his suspicions confirmed. That isn't his Hinata, he knows her like he knows the fireball justu. Hinata would never call him Sasuke-kun, she never blushes around him, and the personality of Hinata was so wrong. Sasuke's hands clenched in anger at a person trying and failing to imitate Hinata. He grabbed out a kunai and swiped it at the fake Hinata still latched on to him.

She jumped back and smirked, releasing the transformation jutsu revealing an enemy ninja. Sasuke made two sets of hand signs, releasing a fireball, then a small lightning jutsu one after another, taking out the enemy ninja instantly. The ninja substituted away and when Sasuke was sure the weak enemy fled, he left to go make dinner for him and Shisui, slightly wishing Hinata really would look at him with a blush.

Hinata was talking to Shikamaru about the success of their theory of the byakugan being able to watch and help imitate creating a justu based on chakra flow alone. They were figuring out how to speed up the process of figuring out the jutsu's flow of chakra, needing to watch it once instead of multiple times. They were laying down under a tree right outside the Nara's compound, Shikamaru's arm around Hinata, watching the clouds and identifying them, as they conversed. Choji came and grabbed Shikamaru for one of their training sessions, leaving Hinata alone to her musings. As soon as they were gone she called out to the ninja she knew was hiding in the tree behind her. She didn't even open her eyes, instead waving her hand in a nonchalant way, letting the ninja know to move on.

"I already know its you Iruka-sensei, move on and test somebody else." The disguised enemy ninja flickered away, onto a rooftop next to the copy ninja Kakashi.

Iruka sat in shock for a few minutes at how much his all of his old students have grown. He knew Team 7 was strong but the skills each of them showed in their tests blew him out of the water. Sasuke was already a basic prodigy, but his use of two justu's back to back stunned Iruka, if he was a lesser Shinobi, he would have been seriously injured by the boy. Hinata didn't even have to open her eyes to know he was there, and she even knew that it was Iruka himself. Naruto came as the biggest shocker, Kakashi said he was strong, but Iruka was speechless at how strong the loudmouthed knucklehead really was. To be able to use his shadow clones so well, have such improved speed, and his use of wind made Iruka proud at how strong his surrogate son was. All of his doubts of Kakashi's high praise of his team flew out the window, leaving Iruka excited to see what's next for his little ninja.

"So believe me now?" Kakashi asked amused, with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes. I want to know how Naruto got so strong so quickly." Kakashi let out a chuckle and told his buddy Iruka about Naruto and Hinata's scheme to get on the same team, as well as all of the training all of his students do. He even let Iruka in on some of the real strength of the new team 7, getting him excited to watch them fight, especially Naruto, and how the other Genin will react to the impressive strength of the knucklehead and his team.