Fox In The Leaf

Prelims part 1

Naruto was standing in front of a Kurama sized bowl of Chicken ramen. NAruto couldn't help but drool at the idea of jumping in and eating all of it with no remorse. Getting a running start, he jumped into the air, ready to do a swan dive into the holy broth but before he made contact, he heard a loud Ping that startled him. Naruto's head bolted up from the sound and cursed at the fact that it was all a dream. Naruto was hoping to sleep more but unfortunately, he heard the PA system act up again

{all teams that have passed the second part of the exams please make your way to the arena for an important announcements}

Naruto groaned at this as he got up from his bed. It was the middle of the afternoon and he was feeling lousy. His body wasn't in pain or anything but it felt like his skin was on too tight and it was just plain uncomfortable. As he was making his way to the arena he heard his name being called

"Hey Naruto-kun!"

Turning around, he saw running towards him a glasses wearing red haired girl. She wore a black shirt sleeved shirt covered by a mesh shirt. Over this she wore an olive green jacket that shown some wear and tear. She also wore black shinobi pants that cut off below the knee and black sandals. Her hitai-ate was missing the metal plating that would show what village she was from, so she wore the cloth as if it was a bandana. This was Karin, a girl one of his clones had saved from being attacked by a bear. A bear that Naruto knew as Kuma-san. Naruto's clone had stopped Kuma-san from killing the girl by staring into its eyes and amazingly bopping it in the nose. Naruto promised the bear that if it behaved he would pay back the food that he stole the last time and then some. Kuma-san reluctantly relented and let him go but not without swiping at Naruto a few times which earned him a hard fist to the head

Naruto smiled at the girl "Hey Karin-chan. What are you doing here?"

Karin stopped running when she caught up with him and they began to walk towards the arena "I asked hokage-sama if I could stay since my team was killed and I had something important to ask him later when he had the time. He seemed really busy these last few days so I don't think I will be able to ask him until the exams are over"

"Is one of those things about our name?" Naruto said with a bit of apprehension

Karin nodded her head "yeah. I just want to know why you were never told about our clan!" she said as she let out some anger at the end

Naruto nodded his head as he also wanted to know but withheld his anger "hey we don't know if I really am from your clan. Remember you said Uzumaki's area all red heads and I don't think I dyed my hair at all in my life. He could have just given me the name to fill it in"

Karin shook her head "maybe but I still think that you should have known the origin of the name"

Naruto chuckled a bit sheepishly at this "well uh I wasn't really the best student so for all I know it was taught but I never paid attention" 'or I was kicked out before I could learn it'

Both arrived at the arena and each went into different directions. Karin went to the side so she would be out of the way and Naruto went to his team where he noticed a deep scowl on Sasuke's face. Naruto had heard that they had to put a seal on him to subdue what the snake - teme placed on him. He also heard that it wasn't an easy thing to do since Sasuke fought against them every single step of it. It was only the threat of disqualification that made Sasuke comply to it.

Sasuke was looking around for someone. He was looking for the Grass Kunoichi that Orochimaru disguised as but much to his chagrin, she wasn't there 'damn it, looks like he's not here!

Sakura gave a small wave at Naruto as he walked up "hey your almost late. Hokage-sama is about to start talking"

Naruto rubbed his head sheepishly "sorry I was in the middle of taking a nap"