"Hm...Sasuke isn't here yet," Sarah said as she walked into the arena with two large scrolls strapped onto her back.

"Yeah, where the hell is he?" Naruto asked as he looked around.

"Hey stop looking around. Face the crowd," A guy commanded, "in this main tournament you guys are the stars so act like it."

Naruto flipped him off.

"I guess there's no need to worry about it. You and Hinata are up first," Sarah elbowed Naruto teasingly.

Naruto blushed slightly, "H-Hey!"

Sarah chuckled, "Good luck."

"Welcome everyone to the Hidden Lead Chuunin Selection Exam! We will start the main tournament matches between the 10 participants who made it through the preliminaries. Please stay and watch it until the end!" Hiruzen announced.

"There's something I would like to tell you all before the exam starts," the weird guy who reprimanded Naruto said as he held out a sheet of paper, "There's been some minor changes to the tournament. Nara Shikamaru you will now be fighting Temari of the hidden sand."

Shikamaru sighed, "How troublesome."

"Hey, Sasuke isn't here yet. What are you gonna do?" Naruto asked him.

"If he doesn't appear by the time of his match then he will be disqualified," the man responded.

"Damn." Naruto sighed as he looked over at Sarah, "That teme better get his ass over here soon."

Sarah nodded.

"Alright guys this is the final test. The arena is different but the rules are still the same as the preliminaries. You fight until the death or until one of you acknowledges defeat. If I determine a fight is over then I'll step in and stop it. Got it?" The man explained, "Now the first fight will be Uzumaki Naruto vs Hyuga Hinata. Those two stay here while the rest of you go to the waiting room."

Sarah waved to her friend while she and the other contestants went over towards the waiting room. Setting her two scrolls on the ground, Sarah pulled out a large textbook and began to read. Kabuto sat down beside her and looked over, "Hm..that sure is an interesting book. So you're into poisons?"

"Depends. I'm assuming you're also a medic ninja?" Sarah gestured over towards the pouch on Kabuto's waist.

Kabuto pushed up his glasses, "That's one of my many skill sets."

"I'm pretty sure lying would also be one," Sarah whispered.

Kabuto's eyes narrowed.

"You're a traitor, plain and simple. Nothing you can say will convince me otherwise," Sarah glanced over at him, "All I'm going to say is that I look forwards to kicking your ass."

"I'll make sure to wipe the floor with your blood," Kabuto hissed.

Sarah hummed as she focused her gaze back onto her book, "Good luck with that."

"This brat!" Kabuto looked at her, "She's smarter than she looks. Orochimaru-sama was right; I need to take her out now before she interferes with our plans."

Hinata and Naruto stood across each other. Naruto was shaking in excitement while Hinata got into the Hyuga fighting stance. She wasn't going to take it easy on Naruto despite her crush on him.

"Now let the first fight begin!" The man shouted.

"Byakugan!" Hinata shouted as she activated her dojutsu.

"Kage Bushin no Jutsu!" Naruto shouted as he formed handsigns, "Attack!"

"Hakkeshō Kaiten!"

Hinata destroyed all of Naruto's clones with her attack before throwing shurikens at him. Naruto blocked the shurikens with his kunai before rushing over and engaging in combat with Hinata. Hinata shut down the chakra endings in Naruto's arm as she continued to evade his attack. Naruto pulled a paper bomb and attacked it to Hinata's coat, burning it off in an explosion of flames.

"Hakke Rokujūyon Shō," Hinata shouted as she began jabbing at the pressure points in Naruto's body before knocking him onto the ground with a punch to the face, "I apologize if that was a bit improper but I can't loose here."

Naruto forced himself to get up, panting in pain as he gives Hinata a shaking smile. Hinata looked at him with a shocked expression on her face.

"That's good." Naruto grinned, "Im glad that you didn't give up."

Hinata smiled as she got back into a fighting stance, "I'll unblock the tenkekktsu once I win."

"Then let's make this a fair fight," Naruto formed handsigns with his one hand, "Fūton: Daitoppa!"

Naruto breathed out a huge gust of wind, nearly knocking Hinata into the wall. Hinata jumped out of the way and skidded across the ground, throwing two shurikens at Naruto.

"H-How can you still use chakra? I closed all 64 points?" Hinata gasped.

Naruto smirked as the Kyuubi chakra flowed through his veins, "Let's just say I've gotten stronger since you've last seen me."

Hinata's eyes widened, "N-No way..."

"Here I come!" Naruto shouted as he charged directly at Hinata, enveloped in the Kyuubi chakra. He jumped up into the air and threw handfuls of shurikens at her.

"Hakke Rokujūyon Shō!" Hinata shouted as she deflected the shurikens with her attack. Hinata pulled out a kunai from her holster and used it to block Naruto's attack, the blonde continuously bouncing off the arena wall.

"You're pretty good at fighting, Hinata." Naruto said as he went in for another attack, "But I plan on becoming Hokage so I can't loose this battle."

"Understandable. I-I can't loose this battle either. I got to prove to my father that I'm worthy of becoming the next Hyūga clan head, and maybe one day I'll finally abolish the cage bird seal so that nobody will have to suffer anymore," Hinata responded as she placed her palm on Naruto's chest, "Hakke Kūshō!"

Naruto was blasted into the arena wall. Before Hinata could realize it was a shadow clone she was hit square in the face with Naruto's fist. Everyone in the arena gasped as Hinata flew back into the ground. Hinata smiled as she closed her eyes, satisfied at the outcome of the match.

"Winner, Uzumaki Naruto!"

Sarah smiled as she closed her textbook, clapping as she heard that her teammate had won the match. She believed that he could win; after all he was the strongest on their team (especially now since he can somewhat control the nine-tails chakra). If Naruto had gotten this strong over a short period of time, how strong had Sasuke become?

"I guess we're about to find out."

-

The puppeteer, Kankuro, forfeited after realizing that he didn't want to go up against Shino and his bugs. Temari took his place and used her giant fan to glide herself onto the ground gracefully. Naruto shoved Shikamaru off the viewing area and onto the ground, Sarah smacking him in the head after doing so.

Shikamaru sighed after getting up off the ground, dusting himself off and looking up against Temari. "Man I really didn't want to fight another girl, but I guess I don't have much of a choice."

Temari used her fan and created several gusts of wind. Shikamaru fled and hid behind a nearby tree, trying to figure out how he was going to defeat her.

"Bust her up! Get her with that 16 hit combo Shikamaru!" Ino shouted.

Sarah rolled her eyes at Ino's antics, "So much for Sasuke and Gaara fighting."

"Say, isn't your match against Kabuto going to start after this?" Naruto asked her.

Sarah glanced over at Kabuto, "Yeah...it is."

She really wasn't looking forwards to that.

"Ninpou: Kamaiitachi!" Temari shouted as she swung her fan at Shikamaru. A huge gust of wind knocked the tree he was hiding behind over, forcing him out into the open.

Shikamaru used the cloud of dust as an opportunity to trap Temari in his jutsu. Temari noticed this and hopped back quickly.

"I've already seen through your jutsu. Looks like there's a limit as to how much you can stretch, shrink, and change the shape of your shadow, isn't there?" Temari smirked, "No matter how much you change and stretch the shape of your shadow you still can't stretch it any further than the surface area of your normal shadow...right?"

"That's right," Shikamaru responded as he got into some sort of strange thinking position.

"It's about time you finally took this seriously! Kamaiitachi no jutsu!" Temari shouted as she swung her giant fan, "There's no use in hiding! Face me like a fucking man!"

Shikamaru dove behind another tree and quickly took off his vest.

"How long are you going to keep running away? Give up!" Temari shouted as she swung her giant fan at the trees.

Suddenly a kunai was thrown at her direction. Temari blocked it with her fan as she skidded back onto the ground. She quickly readjusted her position and looked up at Shikamaru, already realizing his master plan. Before Temari realized it she was trapped in Shikamaru's jutsu. Shikamaru forced Temari to raise her hand using her jutsu.

"I forfeit."

Temari and everyone else gasped.

"Winner, Temari!"

-

Sarah knew that the exam matchups were based off of different people's skills. Naruto and Hinata were mainly close combat ninjas, Temari and Shikamaru were ranged combat ninjas, but what exactly did Kabuto classify as? For Sarah, it doesn't matter what distance she's at; there's enough weapons in her scrolls to cover a wide variety of ranges. But why was she paired up against Kabuto?

The silver haired ninja was a mystery. She needed to be careful how she approached him but more importantly she needed to be smart. One wrong step and it could cost her the entire match.

"Begin!"

Kabuto makes the first move by throwing three shuriken towards her. Jumping back, Sarah pulled a sword out from her scroll as the shuriken embed themselves in the ground where she was once standing. Kabuto rushes forward, throwing a barrage of kunai and shuriken as he goes. Sarah dodges and deflects each of them before a stray kunai manages to nick her hand causing her to drop her sword. Kabuto is on her in an instance, kunai in hand, forcing her to back away from her sword before she could make a move retrieve it.

Sarah quickly dodges each of his attempted swipes at her. Ducking and weaving around each of his attacks, waiting until she sees an opening before taking it. She had to admit, Kabuto was pretty good at fighting. He was fast, but when it came to skill he was lacking. Eventually he makes the mistake of overextending his arm when trying to stab her with his kunai. Grabbing his wrist, she twists it until he's forced to drop the weapon on the ground effectively throwing him off balance. Raising her leg, she kicks him square in the chest with just enough force to send him stumbling backwards. Giving her enough space and reprieve from his attacks to go and quickly pick up her sword.

Sarah swung her sword at Kabuto a few times as she rummaged through her pouch for some senbon. She threw the poison-tipped senbon at Kabuto, the silver-haired ninja quickly deflecting them with his kunai. Tossing her sword at Kabuto, Sarah quickly stepped back and gathered all of her energy into her fist.

"Eat shit sucker!" Sarah shouted as she punched the ground, a giant crater forming around them.

Kabuto managed to quickly get out of the way, Sarah coming up towards him with a well aimed fist to the face. Kabuto's body flung back into the arena wall, his glasses cracking from the impact.

Sarah smirked as she quickly stepped back and waited for Kabuto to move. Kabuto quickly got up and healed his injuries, walking towards Sarah with a plan in mind.

"I'll admit I underestimated you." Kabuto said, nudging his broken glasses higher up the bridge of his nose. "You're better than I expected...although I'll admit, taijutsu was never my forte."

Sarah's eyes widen in surprise as she watches him move through familiar hand signs, his hands covered in blue chakra.

"Chakra scalpels." Sarah muttered.

Kabuto was a medic-nin. This was so not good. Sarah scowls as she quickly got into a battle stance; one touch from his hands and she was done for. If she was going to win this, she needed to be smart. She needed to hit him hard and fast, throw him off balance so she could get the upper hand. Although that was going to be hard, since he's already aware of what she could do - Orochimaru's observation be damned.

Kabuto charged at Sarah as he attempted to strike her down with his scalpels. Sarah dodged and quickly pulled a seal out from her bag, attaching it to his chest. Kabuto's body was quickly covered head to toe in vines. Kabuto quickly used his scalpels to cut away the vines. Before he could react Sarah punched him in the face, sending him flying through the arena wall.

"Winner, Sarah!"

Sarah sighed as she wiped the sweat off of her forehead. If Kabuto was still somehow conscious after that fight, then that'll be a problem in the future.

"Well at least he failed to kill me," Sarah thought as she walked back up to the viewing area.

"Sarah-chan, you did great!" Naruto exclaimed as he started to reenact the fight, "You were like 'BAM!' and Kabuto was like 'Oh nooo I just got my ass kicked by a girl!'"

Sarah rolled her eyes, "I'm just greatful that my taijutsu hadn't gotten rusty. I haven't trained in a whole month."

"A whole month? What the hell have you been doing?" Naruto asked her.

"Uhm.." Sarah didn't know how to explain the whole medical procedure she had recently created to Naruto without crying his brain, "I was practicing my medical jutsu?"

"Makes sense. See I was practicing with this guy called Pervy Sage to master the you know-you know's chakra. I also got this super cool toad summon that's cooler than your smelly ass cat one!" Naruto explained as he made a gesture, "I fell off a cliff and nearly died too!"

Sarah's eyes widened.

"But it was fine because I ended up becoming stronger," Naruto shrugged as he leaned back in the chair, "So..when's the teme coming to fight?"

"I don't know," Sarah responded.

"I was right here the whole time," a familiar voice responded.

"Wait...Sasuke?" Sarah turned around.

Naruto's eyes widened, "Sasuke, you're back!"

Sasuke chuckled, "I was here the whole time watching from the rooftop with Kakashi. I just wanted to wait for everyone to finish up their fights before I kicked that Sand bastards ass. By the way...you two did great."

"Heheh, I know I did!" Naruto grinned, "I'm the best fighter there is!"

Sarah rolled her eyes, "You might want to go on down there before you get disqualified."

Sasuke nodded as he quickly made his way down towards the arena. Gaara used his sand to transport himself down into the arena.

"Finally..the match you've all been waiting for. Uchiha Sasuke vs Gaara! Begin!"

Sand began to immediately rise from Gaara's gourd. Sasuke quickly stepped back as he watched Gaara clench onto his head tightly.

"Mother...Don't get so angry. I know I fed you some nasty blood earlier...but this time I'll make sure this next batch will taste delicious..."

"I told you this guy was batshit insane!" Sarah shouted.

"Sasuke..." Naruto looked down at him, "I hope you know what you're doing."

Sasuke threw two shuriken at Gaara, who deflected it with his sand. A sand clone of Gaara formed and began making its way over towards Sasuke. Sasuke hopped up into the air and landed a swift kick towards the clone before punching it. The clone disappeared as Sasuke went in to punch Gaara, the red-head's sand forming a shield to protect him from the impact. Sasuke swiftly changed his footing and appeared directly behind Gaara, punching him in the face.

Gaara's sand armor cracked as he looked angrily at Sasuke. Sasuke got into a battle dance similar to Lee's. He quickly charged at Gaara and began slowly chipping away at his armor with his taijutsu, his sand barely being able to keep up with Sasuke. Sasuke kicked Gaara into the arena wall forcefully, watching his armor crack away further.

Gaara quickly got back up and began circling himself with sand. Sasuke charged in and landed a direct kick to his forehead. Gaara's body skidded away in the arena. Both of them were heavily panting, having difficulty keeping up the fight.

Gaara quickly formed handsigns as the sand around him formed a protective sphere. Sasuke charged at him and punched a hole in the sphere, stumbling back as he realized his arm was injured.

Naruto quickly got up and ran out to find Kakashi. Sarah saw Shikamaru follow closely behind him.

"Wait...what exactly are those two doing?" Sarah thought as she quickly got up from her seat, "Oh shit...Gaara..."

Sarah dashed off behind the duo. She now understood why those two had gotten up in a panic; Gaara was about ready to unleash his tailed beast.

"This is not good. Sasuke's going to die if we don't stop this match now!"

They were able to quickly find Kakashi, Naruto warning him about Gaara's true intentions. Kakashi reassured them that everything will be fine. Sarah turned her head back and noticed Sasuke forming some familiar handsigns.

Sasuke ran towards Gaara's sphere with a lightning blade in his hand, "Chidori!"

The lightning blade struck the sphere with a great amount of force, hitting Gaara square in the shoulder. Sasuke smirked, "Got you."

Sarah's eyes widened, "Oh no...he's done it now.."

Gaara began to freak out, screaming as his sand began to lash out against Sasuke. Sasuke quickly pulled his arm out and ran backwards, his Sharingan spinning to life.

Suddenly feathers began appearing from the sky. Sarah watched as everyone around her fall asleep, Kakashi and Gai dispelling the genjutsu. The Kage booth exploded, signifying the start of the raid.

"Well...looks like my hunch was correct." Sarah grabbed a hairtie from her bag and tied her hair back into a ponytail, "We're under attack."

"It appears so," Kakashi responded as he looked down at the arena.

A barrier was erected from the rooftop, surrounding the Kazekage and Hokage. Sarah grabbed onto her scrolls tightly, knowing that this is what she had to do.

"The Chuunin exams is over. You should grab your teammates and flee from here as fast as you can," Kakashi said as he looked up at the sky.

"Sorry Sensei, but I'm going to have to decline." Sarah rushed off towards the barrier, "I got a snake to catch!"

Kakashi sighed as he looked down at Naruto, dispelling the genjutsu that put him to sleep. "These kids..."

-

Sarah dashed off towards the Hokage booth as quickly as possible, pulling out a giant axe from her scroll and cutting down any enemy shinobi she came across. Knowing Orochimaru he came here to kill the Hokage. If she didn't break the barrier now then Hiruzen would most likely fall to his hand.

"But the only way to break this sort of barrier is from the..." Sarah had an idea.

Quickly running up towards the barrier, a member of Orochimaru's elite shinobi noticed and attempted to stop her. Sarah formed strings from her mana and attached it to the wall of the barrier, pulling herself up and climbing towards the top. Grabbing a handful of explosive tags from her bag, Sarah attached them to her axe.

"I guess there's only one way to find out if this works! Cha!" Sarah slammed the axe into the barrier with all her might, blowing open a way inside.

Dropping down onto the floor, Sarah shrieked as she narrowly dodged an attack from the redirected Nidaime Hokage. Wait...resurrected Nidaime Hokage?

"Huh? What is that brat doing here?" Orochimaru hissed.

"EEK! SHIT SHIT SHIT!" Sarah screamed as she narrowly dodged multiple attacks, "THIS WAS A BAD IDEA!"

Hiruzen managed to punch Orochimaru in the face, sending him flying back far away. Sarah quickly dodged a water dragon coming her way, grabbing a paralyzing seal from her bag and running up towards the Nidaime Hokage. She jumped up in the air as he sent another attack her way, slamming her foot down into his face as she quickly attached the seal onto him.

Sarah quickly ran behind the caskets and tried to formulate a plan but was ambushed by the first Hokage. Hashirama impaled her side with a wood branch, Sarah screaming out in pain as she used her strength to yank it out of her. Quickly healing her wound as best as she could, Sarah threw several shurikens at Hashirama. Hashirama deflected them easily, charging at her as he started to rapidly form handsigns.

Sarah ducked as several wood dragons came towards her way. Biting onto her thumb, Sarah placed her hand onto the ground.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu: Nekobata!"

A ninneko half the size of Sarah appeared. Sarah handed over a paralysis seal to the feline, "Make sure to attach this to that weird ass guy with long hair."

Nekobata nodded as the two sprinted off in different directions. Sarah jumped on top of a wood dragon and started attaching paper bombs to it, explosions detonating behind her as she ran up towards Hashirama. A wood pillar erected from the ground, slamming into Sarah's chest as she was sent flying into the air.

The wood dragons all immediately came charging at her. Sarah coughed up blood as she grabbed two seals from her bag and shoved them into her mouth, spitting out a giant fireball. The dragons all bursted into flames as Sarah's body collapsed onto the rooftop.

Sarah coughed up blood and dust upon impact, "Never...doing that again."

Hashirama came charging at her as Sarah managed to force her badly beaten up body off the ground. Before she could attack the edo tensei stopped in its track, Nekobata hopping off Hashirama's back. Sarah quickly freed herself and landed on the ground.

"The seal is in place," Nekobata said as he stood guard in front of Sarah.

Sarah nodded as she focused on healing herself, "Good..."

Grabbing some bandages from her scroll, Sarah wrapped up her bleeding head tightly. Looking over, both Hiruzen and Orochimaru were in a stalemate. Neither of them seem to be moving.

Sarah quickly got up and ran over towards them, grabbing a sword from her scroll. Orochimaru smirked as he sent snakes over towards her, Sarah cutting away as many as she could before getting ambushed by Orochimaru from behind.

"Hm..so this is the Genin that fought me back in the forest...Sarah, was it?" Orochimaru asked as he held Sarah by her hair, a kunai being placed at her neck. "I'm still not pleased that you and your teammates have gotten away. I was really looking forwards to taking the Uchiha's body for myself."

Sarah narrowed her eyes as she struggled against Orochimaru's grasp, "Go fuck yourself, you snake-pedo!"

"My my, you sure are a spitfire. You almost remind me of Tsunade-hime in a way." Orochimaru chuckled.

"Let her go Orochimaru! She has nothing to do with this!" Hiruzen shouted.

"Oh but she does. You see..she isn't just an ordinary girl. She possesses a great power from within, one akin to a tailed beasts.." Orochimaru looked down at Sarah, "It's almost as if...you're not from this world."

Sarah gritted her teeth as she stared Orochimaru in the eye. Orochimaru continued, "Even if that were the case, I'm still going to kill you for ruining my chances of stealing Uchiha Sasuke from me."

"In your dreams," Sarah responded as she pulled a kunai out from her holster, "Now Nekobata!"

Orochimaru looked up and noticed a giant cat coming down from above, kicking him in the jaw. Sarah used this as a prime opportunity to get away, grabbing her ponytail by the base and cutting it off with her kunai. Strands of lavender hair flew in the air as Orochimaru looked at the wad of hair in his hands. Sarah stood there with a determined look on her face.

"Did you really think I was going to sit still and let you kill me? Ha!" Sarah pulled out a large ice club from her scroll. "In your dreams asshole!"

"Get away from here now Sarah! He's too dangerous!" Hiruzen said.

"He'll kill you if I let that happen," Sarah responded, "And quite frankly I would prefer it if our village kept its leader."

Hiruzen sighed, "Fine."

The two charged at Orochimaru, constantly dodging and sending attacks his way. Orochimaru started to hesitate, realizing that he was being backed up into a corner. Stepping into a seal, vines began to wrap around Orochimaru.

"No!" Orochimaru hissed as Sarah jumped up into the air.

"Oh yeah! Eat shit sucker!" Sarah shouted as she slammed the club into Orochimaru's stomach with all her strength, sending him flying outside the barrier.

Sarah panted heavily. She did it, she somehow managed to save the Hokage. As her vision slowly darkened, Sarah could see Hiruzen rushing over towards her.

"At least in the end I was finally able to do some good..."

And with that Sarah drifted off into a dreamless sleep.