"Lord Hiashi wishes to see you at once, my lady."

Hinata had barely had time to take off her shoes after the long walk, but the immediacy of the summons was not unusual. It was an inevitable side effect of her father using Byakugan-capable branch family members for his personal staff. And just as the maid had only needed a brief Look to locate her, it took only a second for Hinata to establish that she needed to head to the study.

There was an art of sorts to coming when he called, though by now it was second nature rather than careful calculation. If she went too fast, he would be displeased at her unladylike demeanour. If she went too slowly, he would feel that she was failing to show respect. But the correct speed would bring her to the safe middle ground, where he'd say nothing, and simply move on to the business at hand.

"You called for me, Father?"

Hinata quickly scanned her surroundings. There was a cup of tea on the table (good; green tea tended to relax him). He was wearing one of his more formal kimonos (bad; official business regularly left him in a foul temper, especially if the Council was involved). His writing implements were on the desk at a slight angle, perhaps ten degrees (that could go either way; he always left them straight unless there was something on his mind).

Hinata, performing this standard check only half-consciously, got as far as the window, which offered a pleasant view of the farmlands on the outer edge of the village. Which is to say that, for the first time in her life, it was not obstructed by the Harumi Dojo. But before she could process this disorienting fact, her father beckoned her to sit down.

"Thank you for carrying those documents to Tetsu."

"Not at all, Father." Hyūga Tetsu was a nice man, if somewhat excitable. He always had a story to tell, despite his semi-permanent station in a guard tower in the middle of nowhere (apparently, he'd done something unwise with a Council member's granddaughter, but Hinata had never heard the full story).

Her father seemed to study her features for a few seconds, but she couldn't tell what he was looking for. That was worrying. Had she forgotten to do something? Or was her posture off again? He'd told her to take her time, but could she have taken too much?

His next words, however, came completely out of nowhere.

"Daughter, tell me everything you know about Uzumaki Naruto."

Hinata fought down a surge of panic. How much did he know? How much was safe to tell him? She'd been sworn to secrecy about both Naruto's intelligence and her training on that life-changing day, and she could never betray Naruto's trust, not even if it meant… being less than honest with her father.

But what could she say that was true without revealing either of those two things? Even to admit that she was doing ordinary ninja training with Naruto would invite a demand for explanation—why him of all people, rather than a member of her team or one of the elite Hyūga tutors?

Hinata was bad at lying. In truth, she was uncomfortable even with evasion, and while her father accepted perfect honesty from her as his due, he still considered a lack of deceitfulness a major flaw in the future leader of his clan. But no matter her lack of skill, she had to try. If there was one thing that she had to prevent from happening at any cost, it was a confrontation between Naruto and her father.

"H-He's a genin from my year. He's in Team Seven, under C-Captain Hatake Kakashi, with Haruno S-Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke." How much did her father know? What would happen if he caught her concealing the truth? Was Naruto going to be in trouble?

"I see." Her father's expression was unreadable. "Anything else?"

What was he looking for? Was there some piece of information that would appease him, or did he know, in which case she was only digging her own grave?

"H-He was bottom of the class at the Academy," no, you idiot, don't give him reasons to disapprove of Naruto, "b-but I think he has a perfect m-mission success record n-now he's graduated."

What could she tell her father that was true, and didn't make Naruto look bad in his eyes (the way his pranks, for example, would), and was something she could know without being close to Naruto in any way?

"H-His relations with his teammates—"

"Enough." Her father's voice was as sharp as a descending guillotine blade. "So, for his sake, you would go so far as to lie to your own father?"

Hinata froze. It was a test it was a test it was a test. Of course it was a test. It was a test and she'd failed. Again. As usual. It was a test and she'd failed and Naruto was going to be in trouble and she was going to be in trouble and what was she going to do and she couldn't think of anything and it was a test and she'd failed and she was trying to say something but she didn't know what and she couldn't even run away...

After several seconds of this, her father put her out of her misery.

"I summoned Uzumaki Naruto for an audience earlier today."

The words had a curious calming effect on Hinata. She felt like someone who'd been desperately clinging to the edge of a cliff, and had finally felt her fingers slip. She was falling. Her struggles were over. There was nothing left for her now but to face the inevitable.

Hinata had been considering how to introduce Naruto to her father—they couldn't possibly keep the relationship secret from him forever. While she didn't know exactly what kind of partner her father would have in mind for her, she knew that Hyūga Hiashi was a perfectionist if nothing else. In addition to the obvious requirement that her future husband be a gifted shinobi, he'd probably want someone of noble birth, with plenty of social and political capital, independent wealth, aristocratic refinement and deep-rooted respect for tradition and authority. She had estimated she'd have to spend months tutoring Naruto (there was a dizzying thought) in the background knowledge a noble would take for granted, from training in basic etiquette to the subtleties of Leaf politics, before he stood even the slightest chance of impressing her father. So many of the things she loved about Naruto—his spontaneity, his irreverent sense of humour, his readiness to defy society's expectations and rules—would only work against him in Hyūga Hiashi's eyes.

Now all of that was gone. After so many years of effort, Hinata herself had still not managed to meet her father's expectations. What chance would Naruto have, without any warning or preparation?

"Yes, Father?" Her own voice sounded strange in her ears as she prepared to accept his judgement.

Hyūga Hiashi delivered it. "He is arrogant. Headstrong. Naïve. Impertinent to an extent that beggars belief. He has the refinement of an Akimichi child at an all-you-can-eat buffet and the subtlety of the Demon Fox during the Night of Tragedy."

"However," her father's tone softened slightly, "he is neither weak, nor a coward, nor the dimwit I had been led to expect. I have thus given the boy permission to continue his relationship with you for now."

Hinata had to exert a deliberate effort of will not to collapse beneath the tidal wave of relief. It took a few seconds before she remembered that she'd still concealed the truth from her father, in the face of a direct question, and that he knew.

She watched him contemplate her fate, feeling his gaze trace her face and its sequence of sharply changing expressions as if studying a painting. A clock on the wall ticked as if counting down to the end.

"Do you… still read those novels of yours?"

Hinata blinked. Was her father about to inflict some new sort of punishment on her? As far as she knew, he did not disapprove of the novels. He did disapprove of escapism, and of lost time which could have been spent on training, but he had never once criticised her reading habit itself.

"Y-Yes, Father."

Her father reached into a drawer of his desk, and withdrew what appeared to be a money pouch. He passed it to Hinata, who accepted it in a slight daze.

"Here. You may purchase some new ones. Or new clothes, I suppose. Or spend it on an outing with the boy. Regardless, it is yours to use as you will."

It might almost have sounded awkward, were Hyūga Hiashi possessed of the capacity for awkwardness.

"Father?" Hinata asked, totally blindsided.

There was a very brief pause. "Yūhi Kurenai tells me that your mission performance has been improving steadily. This is merely a reward to express my approval of your efforts."

A second's silence.

"You may go now."

"Y-Yes, Father. Thank you, Father."

Her father looked at her, but if there was something else left to say, it remained unsaid.

"Good night, Father."

"Good night, Daughter."

-o-

After what may have been an unwise late-evening nap, Naruto now lay awake in the middle of the night. Hyūga Hiashi might have turned out to be certifiably insane, but that was one of Naruto's bigger fears out of the way. With his love life now not only existing but going pretty smoothly, it was time to start thinking about how to repay Sakura.

Which meant he had to figure out Sasuke from an angle he'd never considered before. An angle it wouldn't have occurred to him to consider in a thousand years. When it came to romance, Sasuke was a dense and featureless rock wall against which girl after girl inexplicably insisted on beating her head.

Since no obvious ideas presented themselves, and Naruto was unable to get to sleep anyway, it seemed as good a time as any to search his memories for clues.

-o-

"You know, Naruto, we're going to be old enough for the Academy intake soon."

"You still want to be a ninja, then?"

"What?! Of course I do. I'm an Uchiha, remember? Excellence as a ninja is in my blood!"

"I dunno, I always pictured you more as one of those Uchiha bakers. Or maybe an Uchiha florist. I know all the shops in the Uchiha Quarter were run by your clan, so you've got plenty of options to choose from."

"I am not going to be a florist! I'm going to become the strongest, most brilliant ninja ever. There are things only I can do, and I can only do them as a ninja."

"Huh? Like what?"

Sasuke hesitated. "Like reviving my clan… and things."

"I don't think being a ninja will help with that," Naruto told him. "You'd have to get girls to like you, and that's not happening with that greasy hair of yours."

"What was that? 'Please use my unworthy body for taijutsu practice, O great Sasuke'?"

"That's right. You need to learn how to take a beating, and I'm gonna teach you how!"

"That does it. I'll show you the power of the Uchiha!"

-o-

"Hey, imbecile," Sasuke gave the lightest of nods.

"Oh, it's you, greaseball. Thanks for those books you lent me the other day. They were pretty hard, but I think I learned a lot." Naruto gave him the thumbs-up. "Say, how come you have such grown-up books around anyway, what with, you know…"

Sasuke shrugged. "I made sure to bring them with me when I moved. I figured if I could at least understand his books, then maybe…" He caught himself. "I mean, they used to belong to my family, and I thought they were interesting, that's all.

"Anyway," he said hastily, "what did you make of them?"

"They're a goldmine!" Naruto grinned. "Lateral thinking? Creativity? Getting rid of preconceptions? Pure solid gold. I already have so many new prank ideas, you wouldn't believe me if I told you. I don't suppose you know where I can get some smoke bombs?"

The depth of Sasuke's groan was testament to how well he knew Naruto. "What have I done?"

-o-

"What kind of idiot designs an alarm clock that only rings once?" Naruto ran through the streets at breakneck speed, various colourful curses picked up from manga running through his head. Today of all days, he could not be late. He made an uncompromising bee-line for the Academy, trampling through gardens, sliding under carts, terrifying pets and beasts of burden alike with his yells of "Coming through!" and prompting countless passers-by to turn around to see who was trying to catch him this time.

His impatience was rewarded, as Sasuke was still outside, standing next to the entrance in a pose of relaxed unconcern which he'd probably been practising for the last fifteen minutes.

"Hey, imbecile," Sasuke waved him over. "I'm impressed you had the guts to come."

Naruto's response was immediate. "Yo, greaseball. I'm impressed you had the brains to find the front door."

Ritual greetings exchanged, Sasuke rushed Naruto through the Academy. His momentum carried him through the classroom door just as the teacher was about to close the register, and he paused to catch his breath while Naruto waited for his turn outside.

The other children's whispers were loud enough for him to hear even from here.

"That's the Uchiha kid, right? My mum says that he's bad luck."

"I don't like him. He's always acting like he's so clever. He thinks he's better than everyone else."

"Yeah, he got the top score on the entrance exam, too. I bet he's gonna be the type that studies all the time and never has any fun, and then makes everyone else look bad."

After that, it was no surprise that Sasuke's self-introduction was rather hesitant. The teacher assigned him one of the few remaining seats, and then scowled as he saw his last new student loitering outside the door.

"Tch, Uzumaki Naruto? In my class? Fine, I guess you'd better come in and introduce yourself."

Those comments from Naruto's new classmates kept running through his head. He'd been hoping that things would be different at the Academy, the place for bright kids studying for the hardest job in the village. It was one of the main reasons he'd decided to follow Sasuke in, even though the ninja profession had already cost him so much. There were other reasons as well, including Sasuke himself, and a certain conversation with the Hokage.

But six more years of being hated and left out of everything? There had to be another way.

Maybe there was. He could see why Sasuke would never have thought of it. But then Sasuke had memories of a real family, and probably higher standards for what he wanted from life. Naruto just wanted things to change.

With a deep breath, he crossed the threshold of the classroom, and left part of himself behind.

Then he tripped over his own feet.

He tumbled into a badly-coordinated forward roll, somehow managed to stagger upright, but then lost his balance and grabbed the teacher in a vain attempt to stay up.

More precisely, he grabbed the teacher's trousers, pulling them down to the horrified man's ankles. The class was greeted with a particularly embarrassing pair of polka-dot boxers.

"Eep! Sorry, sir! Here, I'll help you hide your shame!"

Naruto quickly grabbed a pair of chalkboard erasers.

"Uzumaki-Style Genjutsu: Mist of Misdirection!"

He slammed the two erasers together above his head, generating an enormous cloud of chalk dust—which enveloped the teacher's head and torso quite effectively, while leaving his boxers on full display.

The teacher urgently bent over to pull up his trousers, but never made it, as he was suddenly wracked with a huge sneezing fit.

"Achoo! Achoo!"

"Oh, sir, a photo just fell out of your pocket. Here, I'll hold onto it for you until you feel better."

"What?! No—achoo!"

"Hey, there's something written on the back. 'To my sexy little…' Man, this handwriting is all squiggly and hard to read…"

"Aargh, no, give that back, you little—achoo!"

Sasuke and the rest of the class watched, at first with mouths hanging open, and then with uncontrollable laughter, as their teacher shambled around the classroom, trying to pull his trousers up with one hand and grab Naruto with the other, with both efforts (as well as a number of curses) being constantly disrupted by violent sneezing.

By the end of the day, Naruto had been unanimously promoted from class pariah to class clown. And while he, and his children, and his children's children, were now officially in detention for the rest of their lives, none of the teachers seemed to realise that this only gave him more time to plan.

-o-

Yes, it must have been then that things changed. He and Sasuke never stopped being rivals, but something disappeared around that time, something Naruto never found with anyone else at the Academy. Maybe Sasuke had just been too proud to hang out with Naruto's idiot persona, or maybe, with the passage of time, he'd been taken in by the act like the rest of them.

They'd been much more alike before the Academy. Brighter than anyone else their age and proud of it, two best friends fighting to keep the shadows of rejection and loneliness at bay with sharp wit, all-consuming intellectual curiosity, and a certain easygoing arrogance, all of which would regularly boil over into competition.

It was like the Academy had taken a single boy and split him in two. Naruto became an incorrigible, endlessly inventive joker, his ambition limited to pranks and games with which to amuse himself and his peers, as well as to frustrate those in authority. Sasuke became a cold, elitist lone wolf, driven by a higher goal that led him to push himself ever harder even as he pushed his inferiors away.

But none of this was helping, and was in fact only making Naruto feel melancholy. What it came down to was that Naruto and Sasuke had never talked about girls, not before the Academy, and not during it (when they never really talked for real at all) or after graduation. Naruto had nothing concrete to go on when it came to figuring out how to get Sakura a date—unless a miracle occurred and she stopped insisting the date be with Sasuke.

His mind eventually began to wander, bouncing between old memories and new prank—er, technique—ideas, and the last thing to pass through it before he fell asleep was pride at his successful handling of the Hyūga crisis.

-o-

"How could you, Naruto?!"

It was the following morning, and Naruto was facing the one thing he hadn't expected right now: an upset Hinata.

"I don't understand," he said plaintively. "What did I do wrong?"

Hinata was trembling. "What were you thinking? H-How could you read that invitation, and decide it was probably a t-trap, and go anyway?!"

"But… But what else could I do?"

Hinata raised her hands in frustration. "You could have sent a shadow clone!"

"But there'd be no point in going if I was just going to offend him by ignoring his instructions!"

There was a second's hesitation from Hinata.

"Th-Then you should have offended him!"

Her reaction caught him completely off guard. Hinata herself seemed surprised by the words coming out of her mouth.

"Hinata, I don't understand," Naruto repeated. "Why is this such a big deal? I mean, I was really tired, and maybe I could have planned things out a bit better, but I thought I could handle it, and I was right. And now everything is better and we don't have to keep our relationship secret anymore. So what's wrong?"

Hinata looked at him, her eyebrows knotted in an expression of frustration at his apparent denseness. Gradually, her trembling subsided.

"You thought it was a trap," she said. "You thought it was a trap and my father wanted to kill you, and you went anyway. Naruto, if you'd offended my father, we could have patched things up with him eventually, even if it took months or years. But if you'd died… If you'd died…"

She trailed off. Her eyes glistened slightly.

Her distress began to make sense.

Naruto beckoned her over to sit next to him on the bed. He took her hand.

"I'm sorry I scared you. But I'm not going to die, and I'm not going to leave you. I promise."

The look she gave him wasn't what he expected. It was still frustrated, and also a little sad.

"I'm not asking you for that sort of promise, Naruto," she said quietly, "and you can't make it. This isn't one of your manga where just saying, 'I promise I'll come back alive' makes it happen. We're ninja, and risking death is part of our job. You can't make that go away."

She took a long, slow breath.

"It's not that I'm upset because you were in danger. I know my father would never really hurt you. But you didn't know. You went into mortal danger when you didn't have to, and I don't understand why, and it scares me."

Why had he gone into mortal danger when he didn't have to? In the cold light of lucid, non-exhausted thought, the idea that he'd risk his life to obey Hyūga Hiashi's demands just in order to avoid offending him didn't sound all that convincing. It wasn't rational, and it wasn't even his style. Yes, if Lord Hyūga hated him, he might not be able to date Hinata anymore. But he couldn't date Hinata if he was dead either. In fact, even a low risk of death was far worse than a high risk of offending Hinata's father—not only because damaged relations could be restored, while death was final, but because if he died he lost everything, including things that had nothing to do with his love life.

So what had he really been thinking? Naruto was aware of the presence and warmth of Hinata by his side. Would he have thought to ask this question without her? Not today, but at least eventually? Or would it have stayed a permanent blind spot in his consciousness? How many other blind spots did he have?

He pictured the letter and tried to recall what it had been like to read it, and the thoughts and feelings he'd had as he decided how to respond. No, he realised with a flash of horrified insight, it hadn't even been a decision. It had been a reflex. Hyūga Hiashi was challenging him, saying that, under these conditions, Naruto couldn't beat him. He had to be proved wrong.

"I'm sorry," Naruto said. "I've only just realised, but I guess I took it as a challenge. I felt like I had to win, and I didn't really think about the possibility of turning it down."

Hinata nodded, as if that made sense. She didn't look any happier.

"Naruto, I'm not… I'm not asking you not to risk your life. You can't even do that as a normal ninja, and you're going to be Hokage one day. But if you're going to make a promise, then promise me this. When you have to put yourself in danger, will you try as hard as you can to think of a better way first?"

"I promise," Naruto said, feeling a growing sense of shame that Hinata had needed to tell him something so basic. Become Hokage? It was like he was still learning how to be a genin.

And then they were simply sitting next to each other on his bed, hands held, and several different kinds of awkwardness began to compete for dominance.

After a few seconds, Naruto stood up with the pretext of putting the letter away. "So, uh, do you want to hear what happened yesterday?"

"Y-Yes, please."

"That was terribly rude of him!" Hinata said indignantly. It was a rare treat to hear Hinata's indignant voice, a flicker of assertive behaviour she'd never yet used on her own behalf.

"But well done for not reacting to any of his insults. He must have been very impressed with your patience."

"What insults?" Apart from a brief, wordless sense of mortal peril during the second half of their meeting, and the actual mortal peril at the end, it had to be admitted that Lord Hyūga had been coolly civil throughout.

"Oh," Hinata said, not looking him in the eye. "Um, never mind."

"Naruto, have you ever heard of the humility game?"

"No. What is it?"

"Well, we don't really talk about it because that's supposed to be in bad taste, but I guess you'll need to know sooner or later. So you know how when two warriors meet for the first time, sometimes they'll exchange boasts until they decide which one is superior? Noble people do that too, except they don't boast at each other because they think that would be crude. Instead they compete to see who can be the most humble. And the winning move is when you're so humble that the other person can't go lower without being rude or breaking the unwritten rules."

Naruto soaked this in.

"You're saying… he set it up so that I would challenge him to a game only nobles know about, play exactly according to the rules, and then force him to win as soon as I was doing well enough."

Hinata nodded.

"That bas—I, uh, mean, how annoying of your father to do that."

"He has a refined sense of humour. I'm sorry."

"You… really said that? About me?"

"Yeah, well, something like that, I guess. I mean… it wasn't exactly… you know…" Naruto was busy making both of them tea, mostly as an excuse to turn away from Hinata and not let her see that his face was the colour of Sasuke's best Great Fireball Technique. He could not for the life of him explain why confessing his romantic feelings before the ice-cold avatar of aristocratic disdain was easier than talking about them to his gentle and caring girlfriend.

"He did what?!"

"You did WHAT?!"

On her way home, Hinata reflected.

Hinata's father had tried to kill her boyfriend, probably not for real. Hinata's boyfriend had tried to kill her father, probably for real, but in self-defence and mostly as a distraction while he tried to escape. He had also razed a priceless reconstruction of a dojo dedicated to "Godhand" Harumi, the legendary Hyūga matriarch said to have reached One Thousand and Twenty-Four Strikes.

As a result of these events, Hinata's father had approved the relationship.

Apparently, Naruto was right. Manga was an accurate guide to how romantic relationships worked in the real world. Hinata found herself wishing she were of age to drink alcohol.

There was something else too. After Hinata had given Naruto a carefully edited account of her meeting with her father (passing over family dynamics that she wasn't yet ready to discuss), he'd asked her a question. It kept going around and around in her head, demanding an answer that she couldn't begin to formulate.

He'd asked her, "Why didn't your father say he gave you his permission to date me?"

-o-

"This was not the agreement, sir. When I initially recommended Uzumaki Naruto for participation in the Chūnin Exam, it was explicitly on condition that he first undergo a full psychological and physical evaluation by a Leaf demon host expert." Kakashi held up a copy of the recommendation form, which contained a small novel in the "team leader comments" section.

"And he will," the Hokage replied. "I am just as keen for that to happen as you are. But you know who our expert is, and how difficult that man is to get hold of. Team Twenty-Four say they will have his current location within the week, and then we'll be able to bring him here, or send Naruto to him, without any further delay."

"That will be after the majority of the Chūnin Exam." Kakashi's voice was tense with suppressed frustration. "In light of the events of his last mission—"

"I gave him a comprehensive debriefing," the Hokage cut Kakashi off, "and am satisfied that there is no danger of him willingly tapping into that power again. I have also confirmed that the seal continues to prevent any accidental leakage."

"With respect, sir, that is precisely the kind of judgement for which we need the expert in the first place. I'm sure I don't need to remind you of the awakening protocols?"

"No, you don't."

It was a futile question. The Hokage knew, had to know better than anyone, why you did not debrief an unstable and potentially traumatised demon host in the field. If your unprepared debriefing pressed the wrong buttons, reopened the wrong wounds… well, there was a reason why there was no longer such a village as Hidden Swamp.

"But those same protocols state," the Hokage went on, "that in the absence of a suitably qualified expert—and as you know, we've been in no position to train a new one—I have to make the final call as to whether Naruto is fit to continue serving as a shinobi. I am making that call."

Kakashi knew he was close to overstepping his bounds, but he had to ask. "Why is this so important, sir? Why can't we let him skip this exam, receive a proper evaluation, and then train so that his success in the next one is guaranteed?"

The Hokage gave him a weary look. "Because the eyes of the entire world are on Leaf, and it is essential right now that we make a show of strength. That must include Naruto, the genin who was able to fight a jōnin as a near-equal. With matters as they are, we have nothing to lose and everything to gain by demonstrating his ability as a shinobi to the other villages.

"Now," he reached for yet another set of forms, as if to indicate how busy he was, "was there anything else?"

"Actually, yes. There is still the matter of Haku."

"Zabuza's apprentice?"

Kakashi nodded. "Exact details aside, the fact of the matter is that Naruto failed to report their interactions to his team leader, even after he became aware of Haku's true identity. If it hadn't been for the awakening protocols, I would have dealt with it as soon as the mission was over. Are those still in effect, or can I proceed?"

"I suppose this is a textbook case of becoming emotionally compromised," the Hokage sighed. "And if there is one thing Naruto does not need, it is for us to encourage his tendency to ignore authority. However, I believe we've missed our chance."

"What do you mean, sir?"

"Events overtook us. What will you say to him now, Kakashi? Will you punish him for the decisions he made regarding Haku, when he has exploited those decisions to save your life in court? Will you tell him that there is some plan you could have devised if you'd known about Haku, one with a better outcome than what Naruto was able to bring about? No, to punish him now would make him forever label you a hypocrite. Far from restoring discipline, it would alienate him, and that is something we cannot afford to do."

The Hokage's expression softened as he saw the uncertainty that must have been written on Kakashi's face. "I know," he went on. "This isn't optimal. But it is tolerable. The usual concerns—impacts on wider discipline, accusations of favouritism—do not apply to such a deeply classified mission. That only leaves his teammates. Do you believe that our failure to punish Naruto will have negative implications for them?"

Kakashi considered. "No, sir. Though I do believe I should speak to all three at some point to make certain they know the protocol for such situations. For now, however, they are going to have enough on their plates."

-o-

The sun shone brightly in the morning sky, which must have been a great relief for three jōnin and one vaguely familiar-looking chūnin (probably one of those two guys who somehow kept landing all the most boring jobs in the village), given that the Chūnin Exam reception desk they were staffing was outdoors.

Naruto was excited, and a little anxious. This would be the turning point of his career. Instead of coming out to people one by one, he would demonstrate his intelligence in a blaze of exam success, taking everyone by surprise, and incidentally enjoying a significant competitive advantage over both fellow Leaf genin and any foreigners enterprising enough to have done some research. At the same time, becoming a chūnin was an essential step towards the ultimate goal of Hokage, and would come with glorious new rights and clearance levels.

Sasuke, who'd arrived first, seemed similarly fired up, though he'd brushed off Naruto's attempts to start a conversation (well, verbal sparring). Sakura's presence was more surprising.

"I wasn't sure if you'd make it," Naruto said.

"Well, I thought about it, and I guess I decided that in the end somebody has to keep you guys out of trouble. Besides, it's a test, and I rock tests, which is more than can be said for a certain someone who never even passed his Academy finals."

Naruto opened his mouth to argue, but was cut off by one of the jōnin, a blonde, ponytailed woman Naruto didn't remember having seen before.

"State your name and team affiliation."

"Uzumaki Naruto, Team Seven under Hatake Kakashi."

"Uchiha Sasuke, Team Seven under Hatake Kakashi."

"Haruno Sakura, Team Seven under Hatake Kakashi."

The jōnin did a small double-take on hearing Sasuke's name, but she didn't comment.

"This is your final chance to back out of the Chūnin Exam," she said. "As soon as I enter your names in this log here, you are officially examinees, and subject to the Exam's full rules, regulations and testing procedures. Are you sure you want to proceed?"

"Yeah!"

"I am."

"Yes, ma'am."

"All right," the woman said as she wrote something down on a scroll. "Since you've all agreed, you have my congratulations. If any of you had refused, now or at an earlier stage, your entire team would have been rendered ineligible. The Chūnin Exam tests teams as well as individuals."

Sakura nodded. "And Kakashi-sensei didn't tell us in advance so the people who wanted to take part wouldn't put pressure on anyone who didn't."

"That's correct." The jōnin started to walk away. "Follow me."

However, now that Naruto had found himself faced with that rarest of phenomena, an authority figure being forthcoming with information, he intended to milk it for all it was worth. "But if you've told us now, what about next time? In the unlikely event that we fail, I mean?"

The woman reluctantly slowed down to let him catch up.

"In that case, you'll have some idea of what the Chūnin Exam is like, and will be able to talk it over and make a group decision. But based on past experience, this way works best for new applicants."

"But if one of us had said no," Naruto pointed out, "then we'd be fresh examinees next time, but we'd still know that one person refusing had got us disqualified."

Naruto could see it, the minute slump of the shoulders that marked the jōnin's realisation that the flow of questions wasn't going to stop any time soon.

"If one of you had refused, I would use some excuse to get rid of the rest as well," the woman told him. "There's a standard list of believable and hard-to-check ones, although I'm technically allowed to disqualify people simply for being too obnoxious. While the Chūnin Exam doesn't normally test them, social skills are important for a ninja too."

Naruto chose not to get the hint.

"But what if—"

Unfortunately, his time was up. The other two jōnin, coming up from behind, took symmetrical positions around his guide, and at her nod all three began to make the same series of complex hand seals.

"What was that?" Sasuke asked suspiciously when they were done.

"Standard scanning array. In case any of you had the bright idea of letting your jōnin big brother take the test for you. Ah, no offence, Uchiha."

Sasuke acknowledged the apology with a particularly apathetic shrug.

"All right," she said. "I'm going to take you through to your waiting area. Access to the assembly hall is staggered, so you'll need to wait for around–"

A series of explosions echoed in the distance. Several columns of smoke began to rise from somewhere in the middle of the village, some of them in frightening chemical colours.

"Is that part of the test?" Sakura asked hesitantly.

The jōnin gave her a meaningful look and vanished in the characteristic blur of the Body Flicker Technique.

The three members of Team Seven stared at each other.

"It's probably just some kind of accident, right?" Sakura asked. "Poorly-made explosive tags or something?"

"If you mess up while making explosive tags, they're practically guaranteed not to go off," Naruto told her. "Making them reactive is the hard part."

"How do you know that?" Sakura asked in a voice that strongly suggested she didn't want to know the answer.

"I read about the theory of how to make them after I decided it'd be good to have a bunch around in case of emergency. But it turns out even if I could do it myself, you need special clearance for some of the materials, and can you see anyone allowing me to make explosives anytime soon?"

Sakura snorted, the distraction helping to reduce her anxiety a little. "Yeah, I don't think we need a second Leaf Crater just yet."

Sasuke didn't take part in the conversation, but started to check his gear one more time. Having nothing to do but wait, the other two soon followed his example.

Finally, the jōnin returned, her face pale. "We're in a state of emergency. Your nearest meeting place is Number Four. Go there for further instructions. Don't ask questions. Go."

"What's going on?" Naruto asked before he could help himself.

The jōnin gave him a look of the purest exasperation, but nevertheless explained. "The village is under attack by a coalition of mercenary groups. Akatsuki, Crimson Web, Dogs of War, maybe Kōtsū as well."

Sasuke slowly looked up from the ninja wire he was adjusting. "Did you say Akatsuki? Are you absolutely sure?"

"Pretty damn sure," the jōnin said through gritted teeth. "The invaders are being led by Uchiha Itachi. He's duelling the Hokage."