Disclaimer: Yes, in the 2+ months I've been gone, I now own both Naruto AND Charmed! Mwahahahaha! *wakes up* Ah, poo…

A/N: Is it true? Is it really happening? Could this be possible?! YES! He's back, along with his story! Let's get this show on the road!

As they walked through the door, Team 7 discovered one crucial detail.

There were a lot of people taking this exam.

Headbands from the Villages of Leaf, Sound, Sand, Grass, Rain, Rock, and Cloud were all here. And currently, all of them were glaring at the four kids who had just walked through the door. Matthew went to say something clever at them, but before he could, something purple and blonde had attached itself to Sasuke.

"Sasuke! Oh how I've missed you!" the thing now identified as a girl said as she held him tighter. Seeing this, Sakura had a look of absolute fury.

"Back off you pig, he's mine!" she shouted. She would have jumped the girl had Matthew not caught her and held her back.

"Well look at you Billboard-Brow," she said in a taunting manner, "I can't believe they actually let you in here."

"Why you!" Sakura shouted as she tried to claw at Ino. Naruto now had to assist his guardian in holding her back, or they were pretty sure there would be bloodshed.

"Oh great, this just got a whole lot more troublesome," said a kid with black hair, a pony-tail, and a short grey shirt with mesh underneath. He walked over to them and was followed by a kid who Matthew would say was… not starved.

"Well lookie here," said another boy who walked over with a cocky grin, "looks like the gang's all here."

He was wearing grey pants along with a grey hoodie with the hood up. Oh, and there was a small dog on his head. The one next to him was wearing a grey coat that covered everything except his eyes, which were covered by a pair of sunglasses. And finally, there was a girl next to them that was wearing a white winter jacket and blue pants. But the most peculiar thing about her was her pupil-less and lavender tinted eyes.

"Ok, names please?" Matthew asked, looking at Naruto for help. Naruto just pointed to each of them as he said their name.

"Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akimichi, Ino Yamanaka, Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame, and Hinata Hyuga."

"Got it," Matthew said with a nod. Glancing at Hinata, he saw that she was looking at Naruto while blushing, and a quick scan of her thoughts confirmed his suspicions.

She likes him. He thought to himself. Of course, he can't see it even though it's RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIS FACE!

At this point, however, the other genin noticed Matthew standing there and stared at him confusedly.

"Who the hell are you?" Kiba asked rudely, speaking what was pretty much on the other rookies' minds.

"Well with that attitude, I'm not gonna tell you," Matthew replied, turning away from Kiba. Said Inuzuka just looked at him incredulously before a look of anger replaced it.

"Don't get smart with me pal!" he yelled before a confident smirk appeared on his face, "Or I might have to kick your sorry ass."

Matthew just yawned and looked at him before speaking, "You're not very bright, are you?"

"Matthew knock it off," Sakura warned, "don't provoke him."

"Fine," Matthew sighed before looking up and addressing the assembled rookies, "My name is Matthew Halliwell, and I'm the newest member of Team 7. Pleasure to meet you, blah blah blah."

"I've never seen you in the Academy before," Shikamaru said, giving Matthew a careful look, "or in the village for that matter."

"You wouldn't have, seeing as I just moved here," Matthew replied evenly.

"Wait," Ino said, still looking confused, "Why are you here? Can't teams only have three members?"

"None of you business blondie," Matthew replied, causing her to scream and yell at him almost as loud as Sakura.

"You guys might wanna cool down a bit," said another newcomer as he walked over to them, "You're attracting un-needed attention to yourselves."

"And this is?" Matthew asked, looking around at the other genin.

"No idea," Shikamaru responded, wary of the silver-haired man.

"I'm Kabuto Yakushi," he said, looking at them seriously, "and you might want to look around."

The Rookie 9 and the witch looked at each other nervously before turning around. What they saw caused some of them to gasp. Everyone in the room was staring at them, and a significant amount of Killer Intent was being directed at them.

"These exams make everyone tense," Kabuto explains, "and you don't want to rub people the wrong way. But of course, how would you know that? You're just rookies. Actually, you guys remind me of myself awhile back."

"Wait, so you've taken this exam before?" Sakura asked.

"Uh-huh," Kabuto replied, adjusting his glasses, "this is actually my 7th time taking it. I may not have passed yet, but I might be able to help you out with my ninja info cards."

"What the heck are those?" Naruto asked, looking confused. Instead of answering, Kabuto pulled out a deck of orange cards and selected one. Channeling chakra into it, he revealed a map of the shinobi countries. He explained how the Chunin Exams were a way for the nations to maintain the balance of power and also to maintain friendship among the countries.

"Do those cards have any information on individual people?" Sasuke asked suddenly, stepping forward.

"Sure," Kabuto answered smugly, "my data might not be complete, but I've got something on pretty much everyone."

"Show me Gaara of the Desert, and Rock Lee of the Leaf village," Sasuke demanded, before looking at Matthew, "as well as Matthew Halliwell."

Kabuto frowned at the last name, but nonetheless pulled three cards from his pile. Channeling chakra into the first one he spoke up.

"First up is Rock Lee," Kabuto said, studying the card, "he's a year older than you guys, but this is his first time taking the exam, so he's also a rookie. He excels in taijutsu, but his other skills are shaky at best. His team-mates are Tenten and Neji Hyuga."

Pulling out the second card he spoke again, "Next is Gaara of the Desert. He's completed 8 C-rank missions and, whoa, a B-rank. Not much else is on here except this. He survived all of his missions without a single scratch."

This got surprised gasps from all of the genin. Someone their age had done a B-rank mission and not been injured? No way.

"And finally," Kabuto said, pumping chakra into his last card, "there's Matthew Halliwell. I don't have much. All that's here is that he has average skill in taijutsu, but his nin and genjutsu are off the charts. He doesn't even use hand-signs for his jutsu."

All of the genin except for Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto looked at Matthew in suprise. The witch, however, was just chuckling softly.

So that's what they call my magic here. He thought to himself before glancing at Kabuto. This guy knows his stuff. Maybe just a peek…

However, when Matthew tried to enter his mind, he immediately slammed into Kabuto's mental shields. Pulling back quickly before he was noticed, Matthew thought about this.

Not many people can keep me out, and certainly not someone who's the lowest ninja rank. Unless there's something he's not telling us. Matthew thought. His musings were cut off however, when he noticed everyone was still staring at them, and it was making his charge shaking like a leaf in the fall.

Uh-oh. The whitelighter thought. He's gonna lose it. He was about to walk over and encourage Naruto when suddenly the blonde's head shot up.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki," he yelled, pure confidence showing in his eyes, "and I'm gonna beat all of you! Believe it!"

Matthew and Sasuke just smirked at his antics while Sakura started screaming at Ino when she said something about her "idiot boyfriend". Unnoticed by the rookies, three blurs were speeding toward Kabuto. They were the three ninja from the Sound village, angry at Kabuto when he said that they were a small village as he explained the countries and balance of power. One of them threw kunai at Kabuto, but he leapt backwards in time to avoid them. Another was about to punch him, but the four-eyed ninja dodged it. However, a second later, his glasses shattered and he began to vomit.

"What the- Kabuto!" Naruto shouted as he and Sakura ran over to help him. The three Sound genin were about to continue, but were sent flying backward when Matthew squinted at them.

"What just happened?" one of them asked.

"I don't know," the other replied.

The rookies were also confused by what happened. What sent those Sound jerks flying? Team 7 looked at Matthew who just winked at them. Suddenly, a large plume of smoke erupted at the front of the room.

"Listen up degenerates!" a voice yelled from the smoke. It cleared to reveal numerous chunin and a man with numerous scars covering his face, who was the one talking, "I am Ibiki Morino, your proctor. And from this moment forward, your worst enemy."

He glared at the three downed Sound genin before speaking again, "First off, there is to be no fighting without permission from your proctor. You break this, or any of my rules, you will be disqualified. Now then, turn in your paperwork and sit in your assigned seats. The written test will begin shortly."

After all of the genin were seated, Ibiki began to explain the rules.

"Listen up, 'cause I'm not repeating myself or answering any questions," he warned, "First of all, you will all start with a perfect score of 10 points. Every question wrong will cost you a point. Anyone caught cheating will lose two points. If one of your team-mates loses all their points, the entire team will be disqualified. You will have one hour for this test, and the last question will be given out fifteen minutes beforehand."

Naruto stiffened at the part about if one person fails the whole team does as he felt Sasuke and Sakura glare at him. Man he hated written tests… What should he do?!

"Would you calm down?" a deep voice echoed in his head.

Nine-Tails? He thought back.

"You got anyone else living in your head?" the beast asked sarcastically.

Wait, you can help me? The genin thought, hope flowing through him.

"Of course," Nine-Tails answered, "I've lived on this planet for thousands of years. I'm pretty sure I can help on one simple test."

"Ready?" Ibiki called out, "Begin!"

The sound of paper rustling filled the air as everyone flipped over their papers. Naruto's eyes turned red for a second as the fox looked at the test.

"Ok, ready?" he asked lazily. Naruto mentally nodded and scrambled to write down his answers as the fox read them off in explicit detail.

Sakura had used her intelligence to figure out the answers for the test, and was getting ready to rest for a bit when she suddenly heard a voice in her head.

"Sakura!" Matthew's voice called in her mind, "Don't react! I have no idea what the answers to these questions are, but I know you do."

"What do you want Matthew?" she asked him, and suddenly felt her vision go a bit unfocused.

"I just need to see your answers," the boy explained before he suddenly felt another presence trying to invade Sakura's mind. He quickly forced it out, and followed it back to Ino, who was now frowning at Sakura. He said a quick thank you to Sakura, left her mind, and wrote down his answers.

Sasuke by this point had also figured out the meaning of the test, and had used his Sharingan to copy people's answers. The other members of the Rookie 9 had figured it out as well, and were now waiting for the final question.

At long last the minutes passed, and Ibiki shouted, "All right! Time for the final question!"

Everyone immediately sat up and put their pencils down. The jonin had their un-divided attention.

"However," he began, "there are some special rules I must give you first. First thing is that the tenth question is optional."

"Hang on, what's up with that?" Temari demanded, "What happens if we choose not to take it?"

"If you choose not to answer the tenth question, you automatically fail," Ibiki answered her with a creepy smile on his face. There were some confused murmurs, but they stopped when he started to speak again.

"You didn't let me finish," the man continued, "If you accept the tenth question and fail, not only will you fail, you will not be allowed to take the chunin exams ever again!"

There were some outraged cries of protest, and Kiba pointed a finger at Ibiki.

"Bullshit!" the dog-lover yelled, "There are lots of people here who have taken the exams before!"

"Too bad kid," Ibiki told him calmly, "I wasn't making the rules then. However, I am now. So, will you try it and risk being stuck as a genin forever, or take the easy way out and leave?"

Everyone paused for a second before people started raising their hands left and right. Soon enough most of the room was empty. Matthew, Sakura, and Sasuke all tensed when they saw Naruto's hand go up, but were shocked when he slammed it into the table.

"Don't underestimate me!" he declared, staring the T&I leader right in the eyes, "I don't quit and I don't run! You can act as tough as you want, you're not gonna scare me off! I don't care if I get stuck as a genin forever, I'll still be Hokage someday!"

Upon hearing his words, the few genin still thinking about whether to leave or not were inspired and decided to stay, surprising Ibiki.

Amazing. His little rant convinced the other kids to grow a backbone. He thought, smiling to himself.

"Alright," he said, looking at their determined faces, "I admire your determination, if nothing else, and I have only one thing left to say to you."

All of the remaining participants leaned in, eagerly awaiting his next words.

Ibiki paused for effect before exclaiming, "Congratulations! You've passed the first test!"

There was a stunned silence for a second before someone shouted, "What do you mean? What about the tenth question?"

"There never was one," Ibiki chuckled, "It was merely a test to see what you would do when faced with an impossible choice. The type of choices chunin make every single day. Would you risk yourself for your teammates, or play it the safe way and put them in danger? To those of you that chose the former, you have earned the right to continue."

Whatever else he was going to say was cut off when a black bundle hurtled through the window, shattering it and unrolling to reveal a banner with the words "Here comes the Second Proctor: Anko Mitarashi!" and a woman in front of it. She was wearing a fishnet bodysuit with a tan trench coat over it.

"Listen up kiddies, this is no time to be celebrating!" the woman declared, "I am Anko Mitarashi, your next proctor."

"You're early," Ibiki deadpanned from behind the banner. Anko's face fell, but she grew serious as she counted the genin in the room.

"You let all of these brats pass?" she teased him, "Why Ibiki, I do believe you're going soft. No matter. By the time I'm done, half of them will be eliminated."

Several genin gulped at her words, clearly intimidated by the woman. They got up and followed her as she led them to a training ground that was fenced off. Its trees were humongous, and they could hear several loud roars and screams from inside. Matthew got a strange reading off this place. It seemed dark and sinister, but at the same time he felt drawn to it, as if he would be safe there.

"This is training field number 44," Anko explained, smiling broadly, "Or as everyone who's ever been inside calls it, the Forest of Death."

A/N: I think we'll end it here. Next chapter will feature the second exam, and it should be out soon now that I've got my creativity flowing again. See you all next time! Oh, and have a merry Christmas and Happy Holidays if I don't post before then. Bye!

A/N 2: I know this was a short chapter, but I promise the next one will be a lot longer! Think of it as a super-chapter for the holidays. Should be done somewhere around there...