Chapter 93 - Chunin Exam Part 1 First testing

-Some time later-

.

The various teams had gathered at the testing area. The different villages had arrived without incident. The Leaf Village had put up heavy security to keep the contestants from acting out. Tsume, had several patrols of Inuzuka's dispersed. Itachi made sure the Uchiha police force acted accordingly and not give into provocations. Especially when some of the "deserters" came. The had joined the Village hidden in Stone.

It took a lot for them not to get killed outright. A lot of "politics" went into making sure they were allowed in safely. One thing that was not allowed however, they were not allowed to go anywhere unattended. The Nara clan kept a careful watch on them.

"So you ready?" Naruto asked his teammates.

"Of course!" Sasuke responded first. Shino gave a small nod. His jacket gripped tighter cast a moving shadow down at the hem.

"We are going to kick butt!" Sakura chimed in.

"Confident aren't we?" TenTen came over asking. She was sporting her new Jonin vest. The Senju symbol on the right and Uzumaki on the left. Ino, Arietta, and Karin behind her, still wearing the Chunin vest. "You better not bring disgrace to the family."

"You better believe I won't!" Naruto said with a grin. TenTen walked over to him with a stern gaze on her face. She scanned his chakra network and was slightly upset in his choice. Naturo had continued his study with the frogs. Forgoing the training with the foxes. "Haha, what is it cousin?" Naruto asked nervously. Her gaze unnerved him.

"Good luck." TenTen gave him a hug in front of everyone. It was a tight one. The last hug she would give him that much was sure in her mind. Letting go, she looked at Sakura. "Take care of him ok. Your job is the hardest as the medic." She outed Sakura as the medic to bring more target towards her in combat. Her way of training her still.

"I have trained hard. I got this." Sakura stuck her fist in the air.

"Right." TenTen walked away after nodding. "Hey Rock!"

"Hey TenTen!" Rock looked embarrassed from how excited he responded. With a little steam out of his nose he calmed himself down. "You here to wish your cousin luck?"

"Did that already. Now I am here to wish my finances luck." TenTen kissed Rock on the cheek then Neji. "You better pass or its intense training for you two!" Shino to the side just looked on in wonder.

'What kind of training will she give them? They already train harder than most Jonin!' Shino was grateful that she never developed an interest in him.

"Hehe gulp, right." Rock chuckled nervously.

"We will pass. I guarantee it." Neji said. He had a little rose coloring in his cheek. "Isn't that right Kiba?"

"Um yes. We will definitely pass." Kiba said nervously. He then turned to look at Naruto's group. "We will definitely come out on top." He caught Ino who gave a small nod.

"Hey everybody!" Kimimaro said walking over. Behind him were Hinata, Anui, and Koyuki. The main ninja squad of the Frost Village. A few others were scattered around talking with others.

"Karin.." Gaara said as he approached her. His hands sweating a bit. "I want.. I want to talk with you after the exams." His teammates looking on with intrest. Especially since that was their brother and all. "As long as you have the tine."

"Huh sure." Karin responded absentmindedly. Then Arietta elbowed her in the side. "Ow! Why did you do that!?"

"Cause you are dumb sis." Arietta walked away to talk with her other siblings who arrived from the Frost Village. "Hiii!" She cheerfully waved at them.

TenTen pointed at Gaara's hands. Looking at them, Karin still didnt get it. Then she grabbed them and felt her aspect of Pandemonium activate.

"Eh.. your nervous about what I will say. What are you going to ask me!?" Karin looked at Gaara who sort of freaked and shifted to sand escaping away. "What the!? Get back here!"

"Hahahaaha. That is just rich." Ino laughed heartily. She walked over and whispered to Karin. 'He was going to ask you out most likely.'

'Pft no way. He is like a brother to me.' Karin said.

'But he is not your brother. Remember when we went to visit them a while back? Gaara came and talked straight to you. He made small talk with us but really perked up with you. I think he is just shy.' Ino whispered before walking away.

'That can not be right? Is it?' Karin was having serious doubts but tried to piece it togethor. 'Does he like me really?' Her heartbeat a little faster at the idea. She shook it off thinking that would be bad to think about during this time. 'Pop's knows. I will ask him.'

"Yoh what up?!" Naruto asked excited. It had been a while since he saw them all last. "How about the problem I presented you with Kimimaro? Any news on it?" The group chatted for a while before Kai came out.

"Alright you miscreant, neirdowells, vagrants, and varmints. Time for your testing, come on in." Kai turned and went back inside. "As for the upstanding and noble whatchamacallit, come on in. Do not want to be accused of singling people out."

Inside the room were Tsume, Kari, and Killer Bee. Each in a different corner.

"This is the first round of testing." Tsume stated.

"The way this works.. you need to score a certain percentage on your test to move on. If you get caught cheating, your out." Kai said neutrally at first. He then let out a baleful amount of chakra. "If you fail here, that's it. No more chances to become a chunin ranked ninja."

"That goes for your whole team as well." Kari said from her corner.

"Last chance to back out kiddies. If you know.." Killer bee started to rap before Tsume gave him a death glare. "Umm nevermind from me."

"Quit now and try again next year." Kari said. A few got up and left. However a fair amount stayed. All from Kai's three clans remained.

"Get this test awarded old man!" Kiba yelled hitting the table. He stared directly at Kai.

Shikamaru popped up ready to fight. "Let's go!" Looking around, he sat back down embarrassed. He had know idea what made him do that. Hinata a little further down blew him a kiss. "Hehe." Shikamaru giggled crazily as he sat down. 'I am so ready for this to end. I am loosing my mind.'

'That boy of mine I swear.' Tsume thought. But she had a shit-eating grin on her face. 'To think he has even affected the Nara boy.'

"Test start!" Kari yelled.

The genin went to work. A few chunin proctors came in and walked around. One from every village that participated.

One passed by Hinata and dropped down three seconds later. Foam coming from his mouth. An attempt on her life was thwarted easy by herself.

"Don't mind him. Bad shellfish." Kari said. She gestured for a chunin to remove the man. 'Sigh the quality of poison masters has dropped significantly.' Kai had the biggest grin on his face. He was very proud of Hinata.

"Ah my paper!" A candidate declared. "Where did it go?!"

"Be quiet!" Kai said sternly. He walked over and put a fresh test sheet down. "Your running out of time."

"Uh right." The candidate started filling in as much as he could. Someone from a small village in Stone country. A fist symbol for their headband.

"You will be fine." Kai gave the young ninja a pat on the shoulder. He marked his chakra signature as well.

A few more declared they lost their sheets. If they looked closer, they would have notice it was caused by killer bee.

"Ring, Ring!" The alarm clock gave ring signaling testing was over.

"Time is up. Put your sheets to the left." Kai watched as they did so. "One last question. A doozy of one. If you answer this, you automatically pass. So, who wants to try?"

"Ahhh!" Sakura raised her hand. Before she could say anything, Naruto and Sasuke covered her mouth and pulled her hand down. "Mmmpff!" The look of outrage was deadly.

"No takers, really?" Kari asked. A smirk on her face.

"I will try." A timid boy said. He was from a small village. Figuring he had nothing to lose, he went for it. His partners didn't say anything since they believe they failed already.

"Good." Kai looked around no other takers. "Well you passed. You and your team come forward."

"Wait what was the question?" Naruto asked

"So who wants to try?" Tsume answered. "That was the question."

"Yup. Sometimes you have to go all in, If it is your last option specifically. A few of you doubted yourselves. It showed. You need confidence as ninja and as young a.d.u.l.ts. In the future, I hope to see you grown into fine individuals. And if we meet on the battlefield, give it your all. Heh." Kai smirked at the end.

"Alright follow me!" Kari yelled. "We are moving to the next area." Kai brought up the rear as the other proctors shot off.

"See! You boneheads had to stop me!" Sakura cursed. The others just remained quiet. "I knew the answer!" They had sheepish expressions. Except for Shino. "Now we have to go on to the next round. Haaaa, what a drag." She sighed heavily in defeat.

Several ninja groups rethought the ideas about attacking her. She seemed to be the leader. Which meant she was more than just the medic.

.

-Leader Area-

.

The various Kage's and aides sat in a conference room. Monitors showing everything that went on. What shocked most for this Chunin exam, was the admittance of several small villages into it. Not just the regular small ones. But the clans that had only a few thousand people were permitted to join.

"Chunin's just like that. Such an easy way to do things." The Kazekage said with a hint of snide in his voice. His eyes looked over to Kai and Karura. The white hair and pale skin was not enough to deter him after finding out she was with him. "But that is how you do things huh? You as well Karura!"

"Ohh?" The Stone Village representative was curious. It was a man that radiated a bit of malice. "What do you mean Lord Rasa?"

"He means about my look alike." Karura pointed at her self. "I look a lot like his ex-wife after all. No wonder he felt the need to bite out. A pity he didn't do that back then from what I heard. She might not have gotten sick. Or their youngest son wouldn't have to go through so much. It was such a terrible fate, that if it wasn't for her close friend, she would have died. My name Is Pan by the way. Use to have the name Karura though. Had to change it for safety sake. People would have confused me for a corpse, I rather not have that."

Pakura smiled at that. It was short lived as she caught sight of something.

"You are still my wife! Not matter what you claim now!" Rasa roared leaning towards her. His arm was caught by one of his aides. A covered man that showed nothing but his eyes. The weird green pupils looked disgusting. "Grrr." Rasa growled frustrated.

"Calm yourself Kazekage. This is not the way to do things." The voice was low but powerful. The "aide" stepped after letting go. Under the clothes of Rasa, bruises had already formed.

"If I was her, declared dead, so marriage was over officially. It was over way before that however. That is what I heard from a bunch of the Sand refugees." Kurara's eyes had a cold glint in them. "Since the Leaf Village and Sand Village is under a truce, I am sure the divorce is still honored. Even with the identity change. If you do not believe I am not her anyway."

"Yes it is." Chiyo said. "The Kazekage is a widow. Lost his children as well. Do forgive us for causing trouble." As the other aide tending to the Kazekage, she voice concerns. Doing her best to keep the peace for one. "You are not her. This old lady here treated her extensively herself. You do not have the smae chakra signature or body appearance. And another thing, you b.r.e.a.s.t are bigger."

"Hehe thank you for help clearing it up." Kurara chuckled dryly.

"It is best we not dwell on things of unimportance." Mei said. To the side, Kisame and Shukaku stood at the ready. Zabuza was presiding over the Mist village currently. "The Chunin exams are whats important."

After some hemming and hawing, they turned back to the footage for the next part. However, Rasa said some choice words to Chiyo and kicked her out of the room. Kai got up and left to follow. Rasa watched with uncontrollable rage. The presence of the other aide kept him in check. But that would last only so long.

'She is defintely Pakura of the Scorching sand. How to get a meeting with her?'

'You ok?' Karuri transmitted to Pakura's ears. She watched as her friend shook a little. She follow her gaze towards the advisor of the Kazekage. 'You know who he is don't you? No matter. Just do not do something you will regret.'

'I know.' Pakura said softly. She turned to the screens to distract herself from her thoughts. 'Kai.. I hope you will not react to badly.'

.

-Chiyo-

.

"Why are you following behind an old woman like me?" Chiyo turned to look at Kai. "Can't be to have a go with this old woman. My h.i.p.s could not take it dear." She teased.

"Married so no. I am also older than you." Kai said calmly. "I am here to honor the deal "One" offered. Or did you change your mind."

Chiyo's eyes went wide. She gave a nod after snapping out of it. Kai grabbed her hand, and sped her to the forest. There, a bunch of the Senju stood by.

"Heee heee!" Chiyo was shaking catching her breath. "A little warning next time!"

"Right. When you are ready, take out the puppets. Set them in the middle of the formation." Kai said calmly. He walked over and checked everything over. Talking with his clan members about how things were proceeding in the country.

Besides a small detachment of Grass, Stone, and Sand ninja moving about. All in the guise of protecting their country members they argued it was needed. A fuss was thrown up before the Leaf stopped playing with them. They were allowed to stay near the border for "posterity" sake. Up above high, a detachment of the Uzumaki's were there to take care of any problems.

"I am ready." Chiyo said. She removed the scrolls and dropped them in the center. They unraveled and two macabre looking puppets appeared. The formation immediately lit up. The wood and bindings dissolved. The organs inside received a heavy dose of chakra keeping them alive. "The madness that went into what we done.. maybe .."

"Hush now." Kai said calmly. "If not for that, it would have been a lot more difficult."

"Swwwoosh!" Kai released a large volume of chakra to portals opened releasing stored chakra. Bones and flesh formed around the organs.

"Right now the souls are getting nourished. Stay here and look it over. if this fails, they will return to lingering spirits." Kai turned and walked away. "You should be happy. Your foolish grandson kept them anchored to the land of the living. They never had the chance to enter the supposed "pure world" crap."

"Thank you." Chiyo muttered tearfully. She could feel the chakra signature grow slowly. "Hope they can recognize me." As she sat in wait, her thoughts went to her grandson. 'How to explain what happen to him?'