AN: Howdy one and all!! I am back in action and I'm sorry to say that for a little bit I lost inspiration for writing anything at all though there is an idea for another Naruto Fanfiction that I was starting to explore as well since it seemed like it would be fun. Anyways, that idea is still going to be taking a back seat to this one for at least a while though on my bio page I may be asking opinions about the idea and whether I should write it or not anyways.

Getting on track I would like to thank the two songs I just heard on a cd I bought a few days ago that helped me get back into the mental groove for writing. 'Bleed it out' Written by Linkin Park is the first one. Don't ask me how that song did it though since it seems to talk about a person committing suicide and then wanting people to move on around him. The second song, which is much better in my opinion, is 'What I've Done' by the same band. Just listening to those two songs got my creativity flowing again.

Now unfortunately I had the beginnings of the meeting that follows Gaara and Naruto's second spar but unfortunately I just was unable to find a way to write it where I wouldn't just be giving a recap of events with a little bit of humor thrown in. So I decided to forgo that meeting and skip ahead a little to when they get back to Konoha since I would be just writing filler stuff in there instead of moving on with the story. For those of you who were wanting to see a scene for when Naruto gets his new battle fan, but again I felt that it'd be pretty redundant to his previous visit to the Sunagakure Weapon shop, and so that will also be skipped. I'm sorry if these two things skipped cause some disappointment to many of you, but I want to move the story along to the chuunin examinations. (insert evil grin here) Now there ought to be some original things happening there, and the 3rd rounds of the exams should be especially entertaining since it will have a fight in the tournament that I'm sure that none of you will have seen coming. Sorry, but no hints beside the fact that it will be unexpected. (Sticks tongue out at readers)

As usual I'd like to thank all of you for your great reviews.

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Za Kaze Shokkou: A Naruto AU Fanfiction.

Written by: Cloud1239999

Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me. It is as simple as that. I'm only writing this story for both my personal and the enjoyment of others. I do not intend to make any form of money off of this story. If however you do see reason to sue you will find no money within my pockets. That's right; I'm a 21 year old with no money and still living with my parents. :P

Rated: M (For Swearing, Gore, and any other mature thing that may show up including a possible future lemon ((Don't know this one for sure)). Reader Discretion is advised.)

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On this early morning in Konoha many people were out enjoying the cool fresh air that the new autumn day was bringing them. The birds were chirping their early morning songs, the sun was slowly rising over the Hokage monument, and there were two gennin who were sitting on top of said monument looking over the village.

Drinking from their flasks of water Naruto and Shikamaru were watching over their home village looking almost eager as they waited for something to happen.

"Oh kami, this is going to be good." Naruto spoke up breaking the silence between the two.

"You said it." Shikamaru answered as he chuckled to himself.

"Hey, hey. How about we have a toast to our first act in our new alliance?" Naruto suggested as he looked towards Shikamaru with a sparkle of humor in his eyes. Shikamaru outright laughed in reaction to Naruto's suggestion.

"Sure." Shikamaru said lifting up his own flask of water as Naruto did so too.

"Then here's to the debut of Konoha's legendary prankster duo!" Naruto said with a grin on his face as he moved to bump his flask against Shikamaru's.

"To Konoha's legendary prankster duo." Shikamaru parroted as the flasks connected.

It was right at the moment that the flasks bumped against each other in a toast that there was a loud explosion within the village. Naruto and Shikamaru watched as a plume of green and pink smoke exploded upwards from an apartment building that was only eight rooftops away from their position. Following the explosion was the loud scream of a familiar cycloptic jounin.

Naruto and Shikamaru both burst out laughing when they heard the scream.

After the few minutes that it took for the two of them to calm down from their laughter Naruto lifted up his water flask towards Shikamaru again with a huge grin on his face.

"And here's another toast to our first successful prank as business partners." Shikamaru laughed again hearing that as he bumped flasks with Naruto again.

"Enhanced paint bombs, a prankster's best friend." Shikamaru said as he continued chuckling to himself.

"And the best thing is that the villagers would never be able to pin this prank on me." Naruto said with a chuckle.

"Yeah," Shikamaru replied. "Especially since they would never think that we were working together so they would never think to check my place for our prank supplies."

"And past events tells me that they will certainly try to pin the blame for this on me."

Shikimaru frowned in thought when he heard that. After a few seconds he went back to smirking.

"Well this time they can't do anything to you so you get to enjoy this all that much more."

Suddenly Naruto had a huge grin on his face that in all honesty scared Shikamaru when he saw it.

"You know what this means don't you?" Naruto asked.

Shikamaru thought about what Naruto was saying and a similar grin started to spread across Shikamaru's face.

"Yeah." He said slowly as his grin grew larger. "It means that since this was just our debut we will only be expected to pull off bigger pranks from here."

If anyone was there to see the two grinning gennin they would more then likely be on the verge of running for the sake of their sanity. The grins on their faces were positively evil.

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It was later that day when several high-ranking ninja were in a meeting within the Hokage tower. Snickers were heard after Kakashi entered on time for the meeting for a change.

Kakashi obviously wished the Hokage didn't order him to be on time for sure to this meeting. Due to the prank earlier that day everything Kakashi owned was currently covered in green and pink paint. Sure, Kakashi managed to get the paint off of himself and the set of clothes he was currently wearing since, but he was unable to get most of it out of his hair. Kakashi's hair was currently tri-colored with pink on one side, white in a strip down the center, and green on the other side. Gai was silently crying about how hip Kakashi looked, and that was the cause for the many silent snickers around the room, which were accompanied by glares towards the snickerers from Kakashi.

'I swear that if I ever find out who did this that the person will learn that I picked up more from Obito then just how to be laid back and tardy.'

A few minutes later the meeting started.

"Now as you all know," the Hokage spoke up, "the chuunin selection exams will be starting at the end of the week."

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"Drop him now."

After hearing the statement from a familiar voice, that in all honesty scared him as much as his brother, Kankuro dropped the annoying boy that bumped into him immediately. Turning around to face Naruto, Kankuro scowled as he looked at the blonde.

"And what the hell do you want gaki?" Kankuro asked in what he thought was a confident voice. Temari who was behind him though was just watching amusedly since she was able to tell that Kankuro's confidence was being faked.

"I was just giving some advice that would help you avoid trouble. After all, I'm sure that the jounin on the building behind you wouldn't be happy with you if you hurt the Sandaime's grandson." Naruto said this with a big smirk on his face.

Kankuro turned around seeing a sunglasses wearing Jounin standing atop the building behind him with a frown upon his face as he stared down upon the situation.

It was at this time that Hinata and Shikamaru quietly walked up to Naruto and looked at all of the people present. Noticing the grin on Naruto's face Shikamaru shook his head and Hinata smiled amusedly to herself.

"So what did you do now Naruto?" Shikamaru asked breaking the silence. Naruto couldn't help but sweat drop hearing the question.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted as he turned to his teammates. "What makes you think that I started this whole situation?"

"The past." Was all Shikamaru said as he looked up at the spectacled jounin for a second before turning back to Naruto causing Hinata to giggle as Naruto pouted.

"True I guess." Naruto conceded. "However this time it was the squirt here" Naruto patted Konohamaru on his head causing the boy to pout in a way similar to what Naruto was just doing, "who started this situation off by insulting Sakura's forehead." Naruto chuckled to himself thinking about the insult.

"I'm guessing there was a high speed chase involved then?" Shikamaru asked looking the third's grandson up and down.

"Yeah!" shouted the little boy while pumping his fist in the air. "It was great, billboard brow couldn't catch me at all."

At this time Shikamaru noticed that Sakura was off in the background with her eyebrows twitching. Shikamaru smirked a little bit seeing the twitch.

"How about you run along squirt and we can handle this situation." Naruto spoke up as he put his hand back atop the young boys head.

Konohamaru pouted again towards Naruto and beckoned for his two friends to follow as he ran off with them. After waiting a minute for the children to disappear from sight Naruto turned back to the older two thirds of the sand siblings.

"If you two are here, then I'm guessing that Gaara is around too isn't he?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah." Temari answered. "We're not sure where he is at the moment though. He said he was going to check something out. He was probably searching for you."

Naruto took a brief look at Ebisu, who was silently watching the conversation in case there was trouble, what he saw made him smirk.

"You know Ebisu-san, you must not be much of a jounin if a gennin from Suna was able to sneak up on you."

After hearing Naruto's statement everybody looked up to the jounin who was just turning around. When he finished turning around he blinked in surprise upon seeing the redheaded twelve-year-old standing quietly behind him.

"What the…" Ebisu said as Gaara silently walked past him and suna-shunshined down to the ground in between Naruto and his siblings.

"Are you taking the exams?" Gaara asked as he stared at Naruto.

"Ah yes, the Chuunin Exams. My team has a meeting in an hour. I guess I'll find out then." Naruto said in answer.

"Then I look forward to fighting you again in the exam." Gaara turned as he said that and then walked past Kankuro and Temari. "Let's go." He said to them as he walked past.

"See you around Naruto." Temari said as she and her brother left following Gaara.

(1)

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"Check!" Naruto's voice rang out as he grinned at Hinata who was sitting across from him at the chessboard.

That statement was followed by an impassive stare that shortly returned down to the board. It was five more moves before Hinata's voice rang out with its own call of "Checkmate!"

Now it was Naruto's turn to stare impassively at Hinata while she grinned at him.

As that was going on both Asuma and Shikamaru were chuckling to themselves over Naruto's situation.

After turning a mock glare to his sensei and teammate, Naruto decided that now was a better time then later to start the meeting so that they would stop laughing at his horrible end game.

"So what are we doing today Sensei?" It took a few more seconds for Asuma to calm his chuckling before he answered the question.

"I heard about your meeting with the Kazekage's kids today." At the enthusiastic nod from Naruto along with the more subtle affirmatives from his other two students he continued. "I was told that the three of you might be interested in participating in the upcoming Chuunin examinations."

It took Asuma a second to register the looks from all three of his students that just screamed 'you think?' He smirked at them before continuing.

"Now I'm wounded." He puts his hand over his heart while giving a mock-pout. "I'm starting to think that the three of you just want to make Chuunin so that you won't have to work under me any more."

Asuma's only reaction to that was for the three gennin to burst out laughing.

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End Chapter

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AN: I know that I said at the start of this chapter that I wanted to avoid turning this chapter into a filler chapter, but unfortunately that's what wound up happening. I just wound up deciding that it would be better to get what I have out now, even if it is shorter then I'd like it to be, instead of being another week overdue so that I could add at least the first two exams to this chapter. Instead those and maybe the preliminaries for the third exam will be what are on the menu for the content of the next chapter. That one will probably be the longest chapter yet with an estimated length of thirty pages in Microsoft Word.

(1) Please keep in mind that the sand siblings mainly interacted with Naruto out of the Konoha ninja so they would talk to him more then Naruto's teammates.