Naru couldn't wait for the exams to start. Asuma had recommended them...and informed them that Kakashi had rethought his position on allowing his team in. After catching Sasuke stealing other shinobi's techniques with his new Sharingan, he realized with a heavy heart that the boy wasn't ready for such an exam.

Sakura didn't mind, since she was slated to help in the Tower because she wasn't in the exam. She had gotten really good at healing jutsu.

Naru was humming a tune she had heard from one of Ino's magical girl animes (it was the song Lucia sang in the first episode of Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch) when she felt an odd presence.

It felt like...her.

She was about to investigate when she noticed something.

"Rocks aren't square gaki!" she said amused more than anything.

"You caught us Boss!" said Konohamaru.

The three came out with a bang, and started coughing.

"Too much gunpowder, not enough awesome," said Naru.

"Aw man! I was hoping to get the boss seal of approval!" said Konohamaru.

"Keep trying. You'll get it right sooner or later. In any case, what do you kids want?"

"Play ninja with us!" they said in unison.

"Hmm..." said Naru, mock thinking, "In that case, today is about stamina!"

The kids didn't know what they were in for. Naru had them prank the women in the bath houses, and soon they were running for their lives from the hordes of angry kunoichi.

"Boss! I'm not too sure about this ninja game!" shouted Konohamaru.

"Are you kidding? This is what I did at your age!" laughed Naru.

(Unknown to them they had caused the Hokage to pass out from a massive nosebleed at the sight of all the naked women chasing them. Some didn't even have towels, let alone clothes. His secretary would come in and find a massive pile of blood all over the desk and a perverted grin on his face.)

When they finally ditched the angry kunoichi, Konohamaru took a breather...before he walked right into a foreign ninja there for the exams.

Naru looked at his headband.

"Huh. So the first foreign nin we run into is Suna. So where's your third?" asked Naru.

Temari was impressed with her. She looked like a serious kunoichi.

"I don't know," she admitted.

Naru sniffed the air. There was the heavy stench of old blood behind and above her. She looked at the branch.

"Oi! You really need to do something about that smell. It reeks!" she said.

A red haired boy with a tattoo for the word love in kanji appeared. He was impressed that she sensed him there, even if it was through her nose.

The other two had a more...strong...reaction to his appearance.

"Gaara!"

Naru looked at him amused.

"You guys hungry? After tormenting the Academy students I always work up an appetite," she said.

"Boss! You said it was what you did at our age!" complained Konohamaru.

"Ah, but what I neglected to mention was that I was already used to being chased. I actually started that training two years older than you guys. Look at it this way, at least now you guys will be able to outlast your classmates!" said Naru mischievously.

The kids groaned, but cheered up when Naru said she'd pay for their lunch too.

Gaara, interested in why she wasn't as afraid of him as his own family followed her.

"Meh. Why would I be afraid of Ichi when I have to deal with Kyu all day? Hearing him bitch is enough to give anyone a headache," she replied cheerfully when he asked.

"Ichi? Kyu?" said Temari.

"According to Kyu you (she looked at Gaara) have a giant sand raccoon in ya," she answered.

Temari nearly froze.

"Is this Kyu like Ichi?"

"He has eight more and ears the size of electrical pylons," she replied.

"Mother says you are like me," said Gaara.

"You mean aside from the fact I'm a girl? Yup."

Once they ate their ramen and talked a bit, they parted ways rather cheerfully. Naru was hard not to like once you knew her.

It was Artemis who found Mars. The only problem was that the girl in question happened to be from Kusa, which was another village. The girl had red hair, glasses, and a real fiery temper towards her team. It was clear she wouldn't hesitate to slap them.

The one thing that bugged Artemis the most was that Karin felt like Naru, only slightly different. Later he would learn about Naru's mother and the clan that had nearly been wiped out and make the connection.

Karin was an Uzumaki. Which made her part of Naru's family.

His next stop was to the Hokage's tower to inform the old man. Sarutobi later called Naru in to tell the girl about her mother Kushina...and that thanks to the bounty on the Demon Brothers (Zabuza and Haku were not all that sad to see them gone) she could legally buy her parent's old house.

Needless to say Naru was quick to sign the paperwork, using shadow clones to get through it faster. She had to stop for a moment when the old Hokage realized that using shadow clones to do his paperwork would have made things infinitely easier in the long run. The sight of the old Hokage banging his head on the desk for not thinking of it sooner cracked Naru up.

Luna felt like banging her head on something. The place they set up headquarters...was the house that belonged to Naru's parents. At least they could come and go to the computer connected to the moon without drawing any attention.

Even if Naru had to reset the seals on the gate. Currently the only ones allowed in were her team, Tenten, the Hokage, both cats and Haku. If Karin was open to coming to Konoha as Sailor Mars, then she would be added as well. Artemis didn't bother to hide any information from the girl he strongly suspected of being the Moon Princess.

The only real problem was that even though Luna was started to sense the same things, she had yet to give the girl the locket which would hold the silver crystal. According to his partner, she wanted real proof before she gave it up.

As it was, Artemis had the feeling it would take something drastic in order to make Luna give up the locket.

The first test...was a paper exam. If it wasn't for the fact Naru had been playing the teachers for years, she might have actually panicked. But if she only needed one answer in order to get through this part, she could handle that. She had a knack for decoding things after all.

An hour of waiting for the exam to be over, and finally Ibiki made his move. He tried to psych out the genin, make them fail despite having come this far. She noted Haruno was about to quit, and waited for her to give up.

Sakura was a poor excuse for a kunoichi, and she most certainly wasn't ready to become chunin, which meant even more dangerous missions. Perhaps once she had some real training she could retake the exam.

She most likely had been pressured by Harou and Sasuke into even coming.

"I give up! There is no way I'm ready to be chunin, and I don't want my team dead because of me!" said Sakura. The look Sasuke and Harou shot her could have melt boulders. They were pissed.

"Get out," said Ibiki. Sakura quickly fled and avoided the looks of Sasuke and Harou, heading straight to the hospital. She knew she needed work on her medical jutsu, and it was the safest place to hide from her now pissed teammates.

"Anyone else?" said Ibiki.

Looking all over the room, he saw Naru glaring at him with fierce determination...just like her father. He resisted the urge to grin as he said "You pass."

Naru felt relief. She had passed the first part, which wasn't nearly as hard as she had feared.

Now she just had to deal with being in Anko's favorite playground. The only reason she even knew the woman was because Anko happened to be the one to show her how to properly wrap her chest up to fool everyone into thinking she was a boy, and how to mask her voice.

As such, Anko had introduced her early on to Area 44, and it was their favorite playground.

She was creeped out by the Grass nin who practically slithered up to Anko with the kunai she used to scare Kiba. Something didn't feel right about that woman.

"Guys, we should stay away from that Grass chick...she doesn't seem right."

"Are you sure Naru?" said Chouji. Naru was the defacto leader of their team in the even Asuma was out of commission. This was because they all trusted her to get them out of anything they managed to get into.

"I don't think she's a genin. She feels too strong."

"Good point. Plus Artemis said to keep and eye out for Grass shinobi...he said that one of the girls from Grass is Mars."

"Keep an eye out for red haired girls from Grass is what he said," said Shikamaru. Normally he wouldn't care, but the cat had hinted that the possibility the girl he saw was part of Naru's family had kept his attention. If it meant helping his friend regain even a little family, then he would help out. It wasn't like Naru didn't deserve to have a family that was made up of more than a pair of talking cats.

"Either of you feel we're being followed?" asked Karin.

"No, and you're just being paranoid," said their 'leader'. He didn't like Karin and she couldn't stand him. Especially when he was trying to get into her pants.

The same could be said of the third teammate, who she had rejected rather strongly last week. Karin didn't plan on sleeping for the next few days, because she didn't trust either of the boys not to try something.

All that went up in flames when they were both eaten by something, leaving her the lone survivor. Her day was officially shot to hell.

Then a Konoha genin with long blond hair showed up, grabbed her mike, and called in reinforcements.

Scratch that, now her day was definitely shot to hell.

Naru looked at Karin, who was the very picture of misery at the moment.

"Alright, we have a few questions and then you can go," said Naru grinning. This was going to be funny.

"Question one: which scroll did you get?" asked Shikamaru. He needed that answer now so Naru could wind the girl up.

"We have a Heaven scroll. I swiped it before either of those bastards did," snarked Karin.

"Question two: do you know your family name?" asked Ino.

"I'm an Uzumaki, if that's what your getting at... Fricken clan just had to have recognizable red hair..." muttered Karin.

"Here's our last question then... Did you know that there is another Uzumaki in Konoha?" asked Naru grinning.

"Uzushiogakure was wiped out during the last war. If there were any Uzumaki left, I would have heard about it by now! Seal masters that good don't just disappear!" said Karin.

"I find that funny, because Naru here happens to be a Uzumaki," said Shikamaru.

"Bullshit. Most, if not all Uzumaki have trademark bright red hair. And I seriously doubt they would dye it blond, because it was a mark of pride for us," said Karin.

"According to the Hokage, I inherited my dad's looks more than my mom's, and she was the Uzumaki. However I got all my personality from her," said Naru.

"...That makes more sense. Who was your mother?"

"Kushina Uzumaki, the Red Habenaro," said Naru.

Karin's eyes were wide.

"Kushina was the princess of Whirlpool! She was sent to Konoha after she took on Mito-sama's burden!"

"Which makes us cousins, doesn't it?" said Naru.

"But I'm from Kusa. The higher ups would never let me join Konoha, even if we are allies," said Karin.

"Yes, but from what I can see your team got eaten by the bigger animals, didn't they? Who's to say you didn't too? You could start fresh and no one would know," said Shikamaru.

"Where would I hide though?"

"I have a house and a cat that can tell you where things are. Besides, Artemis was the one to tell us to keep an eye out for you in the first place," said Ino.

"Plus since Ino's dad is the former head of the T and I division, he can clear you at the same time! It's a win-win!" said Naru.

"Where can I hide until I can leave the forest?" she asked.

"Stick with us until we get to the center. Knowing the old man, he'll be hiding from his paperwork in there until this part is over."

Naru had the team (plus Karin) pause, as she sensed something bad was close by. Suddenly there was a wind that blew her away from her team. She heard Karin and Ino cry out in shock.

Naru crashed into the cold forest floor in the middle of the biggest snake den. Naturally she wasn't happy about this.

Her displeasure only grew when she realized she was surrounded by at least ten elemental summons, all of them ready to eat/kill/maim her.

Things looked bad for the girl. Even with her shadow clones and limited wind jutsu, she wouldn't be able to handle this many snakes. She had trouble with five summoned by Anko whenever she was horsing around.

Right as she was about to be eaten alive, something inside her snapped into place. Words that she had never heard of before came to her mind and having nothing to lose, she said them.

"Moon Prism Power, Make Up!"

Armor she had only seen on Haku and Ino appeared on her, only her coloring was orange and white. On her head was the same tiara Ino and Haku had, only the jewel was a deep sapphire blue. Her usual twin pony tails now had accessories to them, and she had bows all over. Namely her chest, and her back side. She could feel a power inside her that settled, and it was too pure to be the Kyuubi.

Outside the forest, Luna and Artemis looked at each other before sharing a nod.

Sailor Moon, the reincarnation of their princess, had finally woken up. The only question was if they could find the crystal before all hell broke loose. With her awakening, the Negaverse would hone in on the Village Hidden in the Leaves, which meant they would be in for a real battle ahead.

Good thing it was a village of trained fighters. The chances of things going down the same way as the Moon Kingdom was very remote.

Naru slashed and killed the summons snakes with her odd chakra sword, which she had created purely out of whatever energy she had flowing through her at the moment. Thanks to the transformation, she was able to handle the snakes without any problem. And to add to this new power, her voice had hypersonic abilities. She screamed, and she could uproot trees!

She already had a dozen prank ideas that came from that weird attack that she couldn't wait to try out.

When the last snake fell, she used her new senses to locate Ino and Karin. The two were like beacons to her.

She ran like hell, because she was afraid for her team and her newly discovered family.