Shinobi of Hope

Chapter 3: The Chunin Exams Begin

The day of the Chunin Exams had arrived, and Naruto was ready to take them on. On his way to the academy, he ran into Sasuke and Sakura who were waiting for him. However, Naruto could see from Sakura's interactions with Sasuke that she was a bit more unwilling to talk to the Uchiha. "You guys ready for this?" Naruto asked his teammates, while Sasuke gave an arrogant smirk and a humph Sakura just nodded her head and so they went inside and headed up the next floor where they saw a group of Genin trying to get through a door that was labeled 301 however two of the Genin one wearing a ridiculous green leotard with orange leg warmers with a black soup bowl haircut and huge bushy eyebrows and a girl with brown hair tied back into two panda ear shaped buns with wearing a pink sleeveless blouse and blue pants but they kept getting pushed back by two older Genin however Sasuke being the arrogant and smug jerk he is was about to spoil the whole thing by revealing the truth but Naruto just elbowed him in the side. "Don't even think about it Sasuke." He said as he walked past them telling Sakura and Sasuke to follow his lead, however his actions caught the attention of a young man with long brown hair and pail eyes wearing a tan shirt and black shorts.

"Tenten, Lee come on let's go." He said to his comrades who were a bit confused but then again this was Neji Hyugaa who was the top rookie of the year the preceding year however, Lee just stopped for a moment causing Tenten to look back at him.

"Lee, are you coming or not?" She asked him.

"You can go on ahead Tenten I just want to check something first." Lee replied as his gaze was focused on team 7.

"Okay, but just don't take too long alright." Tenten said as she went on ahead. Meanwhile Lee approached team 7 with a determined look in his eyes which caught Naruto's attention. "Hey, you, are you Sasuke Uchiha this year's top rookie?" Lee asked, his eyes focused on Sasuke.

"Yes, I am so what's it to you?" Sasuke answered with a scowl on his face.

"I wish to fight you right and now to test my skills." Lee answered.

"Are you sure about that kid? You're way out of my league." Sasuke said and boasted which Naruto shook his head at.

"Oh, great here we go again, Sasuke would it kill you for once to keep your mouth shut?" Naruto thought to himself before Lee turned his attention to Sakura with a twinkle in his eye that scared her.

"Also, I would like to ask this youthful maiden, your name is Sakura correct?" He asked the bubblegum haired girl who nodded nervously. "Please will you be my girlfriend? I swear to you that I will protect you with my life." He asked and then declared however, just by looking at the boy.

Sakura was scared half to death at the prospect of being Lee's girlfriend and imagined herself wearing that hideous leotard and those leg warmers, by this point Inner Sakura had taken over Sakura and screamed; "NO WAY WHY IS IT THAT I ALWAYS ATTRACT THE FREAKS WHY?" She screamed causing Lee to sulk. Naruto just gave an exasperated sigh, walked over to Lee and put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry about it, Lee there are plenty of other fish in the sea so to speak." He told the mini-Bruce Lee clone which did lighten Lee up a bit as he got set to spar with Sasuke. Naruto remained on the balcony to watch the fight while Sakura remained on the ground floor to root Sasuke on, however even with his Sharingan blazing Sasuke couldn't seem to keep up with Lee let alone hit him, unlike normal ninja who could use chakra to utilize Ninjutsu and Genjutsu, Lee was incapable of this so to compensate he focused his training solely on Taijutsu straight forward hand-to-hand combat but on an extreme level. The fight was less of a spar and more of a massacre of an ego if you were watching this from Naruto's perspective and just as Lee was about to finish it off as his bandages unwound themselves that's when Naruto saw it on Lee's right ring finger there was a green ring with a simple lantern design on the face. "Bushy brows is a Green Lantern but how?" He asked himself back to the fight when suddenly a pinwheel caught Lee's tape and pinned it to the wall.