7 - Stellar Snare

Of course they had to run into a whole bunch of clones of a creepy rain ninja.

Of course.

They quickly realized these things don't disappear when taking damage like Naruto's shadow clones. Sasuke's Sharingan was still handicapped by the curse mark. Also, these clones were creepy.

Since there were so many, Fuyuka quickly found herself surrounded by five of them, who just wouldn't drop dead no matter how many shuriken and kunai she chucked into them.

"They're genjutsu!" Naruto shouted from somewhere on the other side of the crowd. "Come on, we have a plan!"

"I'm trying, idiot! There's too many!" Fuyuka yelled back. Suddenly, while dodging a strike, the flower in her ponytail fell out. Instinctively, she reached out, snatching the plant.

Her chakra stirred again.

Suddenly, a pentagonal web-like shape appeared beneath her feet, zapping all the clones surrounding her. Fuyuka had no clue what she just did, but now wasn't the time to think. Now that she had the space, she grabbed a kunai and stabbed the nearest clone, shoving it back as a shield against the rest.

"What's the plan?" she asked, stumbling towards her companions. Naruto had decided to use a shadow clone jutsu, and Sakura filled her in quietly on the plan to let Naruto's clones pretend to be them.

Fuyuka nodded, but she was still focused on the web move she had dished out earlier.

It was pretty cool. First thing to do with a fancy new move- name it. Maybe Stellar Snare would do. Stellar Snare: Pentagonal Snare.

Plus, it had something to do with the blue flower, she was certain. Finally, the three real ninja revealed themselves, thinking they had the genin beat.

Then, the real ones stepped from the bush. Fuyuka smirked smugly. "Would you look at that, falling for a transformation jutsu."

Angered, the rain ninja summoned more clones, this time real ones. Sasuke couldn't use his Sharingan, so he couldn't identify the real body despite Naruto and Kabuto's efforts.

"Step back!" Fuyuka shouted, holding out her hand. Okay, she got this. She used the web thing before, she could do it away. The flower was still tucked in her ponytail.

She didn't even use hand signs earlier, was this even a jutsu? Or some crazy flower induced magic? Regardless... "Stellar Snare: Pentagonal Snare!"

The same glowing pentagonal blue-purple launched towards the clones, zapping away a lot of them. Still, there were too many left...

"The ground! From the ground!" Sasuke shouted, clutching his curse mark in pain. Naruto, Kabuto and Fuyuka whipped around, spotting the real bodies crawling out of the earth.

Naruto punched one, shoving it into the other two, knocking them out in a single hit.

That was over, and they got the scroll. Time to get to the tower.

Finally, they arrived, at the nick of time too. They bid farewell to Kabuto, before entering the tower. Sakura read off the words on the wall, instructing them to open the two scrolls. Naruto and Sasuke each held one, their hands hesitantly drifting over them.

"Open it."

Poof, Iruka jumpscare.

"I-Iruka-sensei?" Naruto exclaimed, taking a step back. "Why did you appear?"

Iruka explained how he was the chunin messenger for their team, what would've happened if they opened the scroll earlier, and congratulated the team for passing. He then explained the meaning of the words on the wall. "And... be careful in the third exam."

"Don't worry, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto declared proudly. "We will."

There were 25 passing candidates. Team 7, Team 8, Team 10, Team Guy, Team Haruka, the sand siblings, the sound ninja, and Kabuto's team. The Hokage congratulated them for passing. Glancing at the old man, Fuyuka promised herself to question him on where her family disappeared to as soon as possible. Which meant passing the exams first.

Hokage explained the reason these exams were held with other villages, before Hayate Gekko, the sickly proctor for the third exam, took over.

Except, nooo, they had to do preliminaries first. Kabuto chose to forfeit, thankfully leaving them with an even number. So now she watched as the still cursed Sasuke fought a creepy guy named Yoroi from Kabuto's team.

Sasuke was quickly put at a disadvantage due to the curse mark's constant pain. Still, he managed to knock his foe down as well with some clever leg moves. Still, Yoroi was clearly in much better condition.

Plus, it was quickly revealed that he was also draining Sasuke's chakra with some weird move. Clearly, emo boy was losing with pure taijutsu and a lack of chakra. However, suddenly he began to reveal a technique originally seen on dear bushy brow.

Suddenly, the curse mark began acting up. But somehow, by pure willpower, the mark stopped spreading, reverting to its three dot form.

With some neat kicks, Sasuke won the match.

Immediately, Kakashi approached the black-haired boy, taking him away. The rest of team 7 exchanged confused looks, but didn't question it. Fuyuka noticed that Naruto didn't know about the curse mark, but hey, she's not exactly nice. So she kept quiet.

'Zaku Abumi vs. Shino Aburame'

Next up was bug boy Shino and Zaku, the spiky-haired sound ninja who's arms got mauled by Sasuke.

This one was pretty easy. Zaku busted out his injured arm, only for Shino to do really creepy bug stuff to clog the opening where air came through. This was enough to beat the heck out of him.

"What was going on there, Neji?" Lee asked, turning to his brown-haired teammate. Neji, in turn, stared at Shino, making some hand signs. "Byakugan."

He flinched.

"What's going on? What do you see?" Fuyuka asked, deciding to join the conversation whether she was welcome or not. Neji smoothly ignored her until Lee asked the same question, in which he explained that Shino was literally full of insects.

'Kankuro vs. Misumi Tsurugi'

Kankuro, the sand sibling, was up against the other member of Kabuto's team, Misumi. This one wasn't even interesting, he did some puppet thingy and beat the crap out of Misumi.

"Next." Hayate said after announcing the victor. He turned towards the screen, which began to flash.

Mitsuka sighed. "Hell, I wanted to at least get through the preliminaries."

'Naku Sora vs. Mitsuka Sora'