Days later, back at their usual restaurant, Team 0 meet again at Kurenai’s request.

“You already know why I called you here.” She said as she took four pieces of paper and handed them each one.

“This is the application to the Chunin exam, five days from now get to school by 3PM, go in room 301, that is all.” She said.

Sango remembered how the Chunin exam developed in the anime so he was rather curious to see how it will change taking in consideration his existence and the influence he had on the world until now.

“I can’t wait to tell my parents!” Sakura exclaimed happily.

“But what will the exam contain?” Ino curiously asked.

“I can’t tell you that, but you just have to do your best and passing is almost a certainty.” Kurenai answered her query.

Hinata just stared at her own application while sometimes taking sneak peeks at Sango. She also was happy about the chance of advancement, but she felt rather bad that Sango would have to be on his own as it would be that much harder.

Sango, on the other hand was very happy about that, more than advancing in rank he had another aim much more important, Kankuro’s chakra strings technique for controlling puppets. With that knowledge he could finally reach a breakthrough in his own combat style that relies on strings.

The only problem was how to go about getting the technique out of Kankuro without attracting attention to himself, not to forget that it would be hard to do all that without Gaara getting suspicious. That said, it was only bothersome and not impossible, Sango believed that the opportunity would come in the second stage taking place in the Forest of Death, that was if the exam was the same as he remembered, although the information he gathered indicated so.

If need be, Sango was prepared to capture him and slowly extract the information needed, but that would surely put Gaara on his tracks, effectively making him an enemy. That wasn’t the best course of action he knew, but the last desirable approach for a clean outcome.

For a quick and traceless plan, he needed to quickly upgrade the technique he used to interrogate the subordinates of Zabuza, it was far from ideal and it did too much damage to whoever was used on.

That is what he did for the next week before the Chunin exam began, but the lack of test subjects made his work just a theoretical success, not a practical one. Yet, he chose to use it, even if the outcome was less than desirable, it could work.

It wasn’t that Sango didn’t believe he could make Chakra Strings on his own, but that would require time, more time than he would need by just stealing it from Kankuro.

On the day of the exam, all the team members were making their way towards the indicated classroom at the academy, Sango knew what events to expect so he looked forward to witnessing how exactly it would play out now.

Once they arrived in front of the supposed classroom number 301, they had already seen a crowd of genin gathered there as two genin blocked the way inside the classroom trying to discourage others from participating. Sango knew, of course, that they were instead Izumo Kamizuki and Kotetsu Hagane, chunin and partners disguised as genin tasked with discouraging the aspiring Chunin.

“What is happening?” Asked Sakura beside Sango. “Hmm, you should know, why don’t you watch the guys by the door more carefully?” He said intending not just for Sakura to do that, but for Ino and Hinata to do the same.

“That’s…Ah, I understand now!” Ino exclaimed rather loudly. “Shh, lets not attract attention for now, just watch the show.” He said and the girls listened to him, curious about what Sango expected to see.

The scene was similar at the core to the one he had seen but in the form of an anime episode. The two disguised chunin blocked the people trying to enter the room and no one could force their way in, but once Naruto, Sasuke and Shino entered the scene, things ended quickly as they exposed the trick. Room 301 is on the third floor, but the room they were blocking access to is on the second floor, after they explained it, Rock Lee’s team come into play and the two genin team meet each other, but then things changed.

“Ah! Sakura-chan!” Came Rock Lee running like he had just seen a super star. “Be my girlfriend! I’ll protect you until I die!” He boldly and bluntly said. “No thanks.” But he was shut down even faster by Sakura.

“I-Impossible!” He said rather shocked. Then he looked at Sango as if nothing happened, “Yo, long time no see.” He said. Sango wasn’t bothered by his behavior despite him just having made a move on Sakura, but he wasn’t a bad guy, he would shortly give up on her.

“Yea, how has your training been going?” He asked, this was Rock Lee’s favorite topic, a good way to get his good will.

“Hahaha! It has been going better than ever, hard work always pays off!” He said confidently.

“Good, we will see by the end of the Chunin Exams, don’t let me down.” Sango said rather boldly, but Rock Lee wasn’t at all angry, he had long acknowledged that Sango was a rival that he had to work 1000 times harder to beat, but he believed that by working hard one could achieve anything, even beating Sango. The reason they could speak so familiarly to each other was because they get to meet by coincidence at the training grounds. It wasn’t hard to meet Rock Lee there as he was always training, Sango gave him some advice from time to time, not much, but still good advice that helped him become stronger than otherwise.

“I will show you the result of all my hard work! You better be prepared!” He said before he left with Neiji and Tenten.

“Well, it is time for us to go or we’ll be late.” Said Sango to the girls after watching Rock Lee leave. He knew Rock Lee was stronger than he was in the original work, all thanks to his book and rare advice when they meet at the training grounds.

The first test would be the so called “written test” although it was much more than that. Sango wasn’t interested in that, it would pose no threat whatsoever but to make it more interesting he decided to copy the results from others without answering them himself, or it would be too boring.