Naruto : Venom

The Next Morning, Outside of the Academy, One Hour before the Chunin Exams

I walk up to Sasuke and Sakura. "You two will not believe the day I had yesterday."

Sakura's face floods with concern. "What happened? Did your parents do something?" Oh great, she knows about that. Who doesn't know about that?

"Nah, I did almost get kidnapped and whisked away to Suna though."

"Explain." Sasuke demands. And so I retell the craziness that was yesterday afternoon.

"Let me get one thing straight." Sakura says. "Three Suna nin approach you, ask to speak in private, you go with them, they say you're family, you prove you aren't and you invited them to eat ice cream with us after the Chunin Exams?"

"Yep that pretty much sums it up!" I merrily reply with a thumbs up.

"Are you crazy?!"

"Well... probably. It made sense at the time!" I turn to Sasuke. "Come on! They've never had ice cream before!"

"Leave me out of this." He insists.

"Sasuke you traitor! You're supposed to have my back!"

He rolls his eyes at me. "No. You're on your own."

"Yo. You're all here, good." Saved from Sakura's wrath by Kakashi! Yes! "I want you three to know, no matter what happens I am proud of you. Putting gennin with less then a year of experience in the Chunin Exams is almost unheard of. 

That means every other shinobi will have more experience than you. You need to be careful and plan. You don't have the luxury of being able to waltz through this no problem. This will be tough. If you work together, I know you can pass."

"Thanks Kakashi-sensei. We will pass this for sure!" Sakura exclaims with enthusiasm.

"Hn. We won't have any problems." Sasuke adds on in an arrogant tone.

"I'll look out for these two." I promise him. Unfortunately I don't know if I can keep it.

"Alright you three! You are to report to room 301. Good luck!" Kakashi leaves in a swirl of leaves. Probably to go join the other jonin sensei to bet on the kids. That's what I would do if I was him.

"Room 301. Let's go." Sasuke leads us into the Academy. We climb the staircase, only to be blocked by a mob of gennin.

"What's going on?" Sakura asks.

"Someone is blocking the door. They won't let us pass." A familiar voice tells us.

"Ino! You're here too! Oh my gosh we have so much catching up to do! How's your team?"

Sakura and Ino start talking non stop. I tune them out.

"Troublesome. They'll be at it for hours if no one stops them."

"Hey Shikamaru. Hey Choji." I nod at each boy. "You two nervous for the exams?"

Shikamaru shrugs. "Not really. I'm more nervous about what my kaa-san will do if I fail." I wince. Shikamaru raises an eyebrow in question.

"I am pretty sure my parents want me to fail." I explain to the two boys. "They... don't like shinobi. They haven't admitted it, but I am 90% sure they bitched out Kakashi-sensei when he popped by unannounced."

"That's rough. Want a chip?" Choji tries to comfort me in his own way. Bless his heart.

"Yeah. Thanks." I gesture to the gennin around us. "So what's going on here? A test of some sort?"

Sasuke thwaps me in the back of my head. "It is a genjutsu Alvarcus. You should have been able to recognize that. Kakashi-sensei taught us that much at least."

"Dammit Sasuke! Now everyone around us knows too! I was trying to keep it low key and see if our fellow Konoha nin needed assistance, but no go ahead and inform everyone." I reprimand him. "Pfft, like I didn't notice already. Please. I'm better than that."

Sasuke has the decency to look mildly ashamed. Huh. Never thought I would live to see Sasuke of all people look ashamed.

"We already noticed." Shikamaru informs us. "We were just waiting for someone else to break it for us. Underplay our skills so we have a better shot in the actual exams."

"HEY! YOU'RE NOT GENNIN! YOU'RE THE GATE GUARDS! KOTETSU AND IZUMO! THAT FLIMSY ILLUSION WON'T WORK ON ME!"

"Was that Naruto?" Choji asks. "That sounded like Naruto. Didn't he get taken by that guy with the long white hair?"

I look towards the door. "That is Naruto. No one else would ever wear that much orange."

This doesn't make sense. He shouldn't be here. He needs to be on a team for one! And he should be with Jiraya, right? Does that mean Jiraya is in the village? I hope so, because I'm 99% sure Orochimaru is going to go after Sasuke.

"Huh. It is. When did he get back?" Shikamaru rhetorically asks. "Anyways, the door is clear. Let's head upstairs now."

"WAIT!" Someone yells at us.

"Oh Kami what now! I just want to go to the damn exam room! Is that asking too much -" I turn towards the speaker, venom in my eyes "-green. That is a lot of green. Who the hell are you?"

"I am the great Rock Lee! I've come to challenge you to a spar Sasuke Uchiha!" So this is happening.

"He declines." I grab Sasuke by the arm. "If you want to fight him so bad, do it during the exams." I stomp over to Sakura and Ino with Sasuke trailing behind me. "Hey Ino. You look nice. I'm taking this, 'kay? Thanks." I pick Sakura up and toss her over my shoulder.

"Alvarcus! Put me down right this instant!" Sakura halfheartedly pounds her fists into my back.

"No! I will not be kicked out of the Chunin Exams because of you two being late! Sakura! You can talk with Ino in the exam room. Sasuke! Fight the green boy later. He's not going anywhere, he has a Konoha headband. If you don't fight during the exams, do it after. He will be more than willing."

With a great huff, I storm into the exam room. "There! Now don't leave this room unless told to by the proctors!" I release Sasuke and drop Sakura on the floor.

"OW! Don't drop me idiot!" That would be a lot more menacing if Sakura wasn't sprawled on the ground.

"Oh just go talk to Ino again. She followed us in here." I shoo Sakura away.

Sakura climbs to get feet and huffs in annoyance. "When did you get so bossy Alvarcus?"

"Since Kakashi-sensei left. Someone has to step up and lead. Both of you would be too distracted to do it properly. It was either step up or step aside, and I am not missing a chance for a promotion." Sasuke and Sakura look visibly cowed. Good. "Besides, I'm always the one that makes the plans when in the field anyways. It's not like you haven't followed my lead before."

Sakura heaves a sigh, and goes to resume her conversation with Ino. Sasuke just grunts at me. Whatever, I know if I need either of them they will come through for me.

"Alvarcus?" What do you know, Shikamaru and Choji followed us.

"Yeah?"

"I think you are my hero." Choji nods in agreement with Shikamaru. "If I tired that with Ino, she would punt me off a roof. How did you do it?"

I chuckle to myself. "You want the truth?"

"Yes! Anything to get her to listen!" Shikamaru sounds desperate.

"I saved both their lives. I protect them. I include them in my plans, I don't solo anything. Either I support them or they support me. They respect me, not because I demand it, but because I have earned it."

Sasuke dons a contemplative visage. Did he not realize that is why he follows my lead?

"I know what each of us is good at, and when each of us should handle a problem. I acknowledge when Sasuke or Sakura needs to lead, I don't always take the reins. 

For instance, in the middle of combat Sasuke is a genius. I haven't seen anyone his equal with his amount of experience. 

I'm good at the bigger picture, how to accomplish our mission objective, who needs to do what and how they should do it. Sakura, she keeps our heads out of our asses and keeps us on target. I don't lead the team, we lead the team. They just know that right now I'm the best to take the position of leader."

"So pretty much you have to work your asses off and almost die a few times to get to that point?" Choji asks for clarification.

"When you put it that way it sounds a lot less impressive." Sasuke 'Hn's in agreement. That guy needs to loosen up in crowds. He finally started acting like a human back on the Land of Waves mission, I don't need him regressing on me.

"Troublesome. That's not going to happen for a long time." Poor Shikamaru.

"Hey!" Is that Naruto? "Teme!" Yep, definitely Naruto. Only he would call Sasuke that. "How ya been? Learn any cool jutsu?"

"Hn." Sasuke looks down his nose at Naruto.

Alvarcus to the rescue. "Sasuke. We worked on this. Use your words."

"Hn."

"It's not a word. Only a select few know what you mean when you use that."

"Hn."

"I don't care if you don't want to talk to him. Be polite."

"Hn!"

"Who cares? I care! You're making Team Seven look weird! No one else talks like this!"

"HN!"

"You might work with the guy eventually! Shouldn't you at least be on good terms? I'm not asking you to be his friend, just treat him like a person."

"Fine." Sasuke huffs. "I am well Naruto-san. I have learned many jutsu. How are you?"

"Jeez. It's like pulling teeth." I leave Sasuke to talk with Naruto. If Naruto wants to talk to me he will come over. Speaking of Naruto, how did he get in here? Looking around I spot two Konoha nin in standard gennin gear. 

One has a red forehead protector, one has a green forehead protector. Are they his teammates? Probably, they do seem to be keeping an eye on him. Fine, from this point forward they are red minion and green minion!