2 months passed after that meeting in the Hokage office.
Max was now making his way towards the house he was staying at. Since morning, he had been in the intelligence division helping out Inoichi as he trained other ninjas to speak English.
Max didn't know why, but the intelligence division took a liking to Max. Since he had talent to be a Sensor type ninja, Inoichi took him under his wing and made him help him teach English to the rest. Since the language was new and no one could find it in records, having people in the village learn it could give them an edge in encryption.
Inoichi had been very glad to have Max in the intelligence division, so he thought presenting his daughter to Max since they were both close in age.
Sadly, for Inoichi, Ino took the hole situation differently which gave Max a headache.
'Those guys really have nothing better to do. They keep on using my days free to help around the office.'
Max had changed a lot since he join Konoha. He now uses a clean gray yukata everywhere he goes (Forced by the Hokage). He also had a new accessory in his left bicep that he was a little proud to wear.
"Let me go!"
As he walked in one of the roads, Max heard a kid screaming. He quickly sensed in the direction of the voice and felt group 9 people in that direction, 3 of them which he recognized.
As Max got closer to were the situation was happening, he saw that Sasuke had already dealt with the situation. Still, he saw that someone was too close to Sasuke.
'You are still such a zombie boy Sasuke.'
"Yo!" Max said which prompted everyone to look at his direction.
The blond girl was the first to turn around since Max was closer to her, after her the guy with weird face paint was next. The other only had to turn their head a little to see Max.
"Ah! Trash Devil!" Naruto screamed when he saw Max, which made him almost trip.
"You really need to stop calling me that. I am no trash." Max said as he walked pass the blond girl and the face painted one.
As he walked pass them, he noticed the headbands of them and saw the symbol that they had. Max quickly identified them as examinees for the chunin exam.
"Kankuro and Temari. Let's go." The guy that was close to Sasuke said as he joined the two and started to leave.
"Wait." Sakura interrupted them.
They were about to stop when Max interrupted. "Just let them go. They should have come a long way from the Sunagakure so they need to go back to rest."
Seen that they didn't need to stop they were about to continue, but someone else spoke.
"Hey, you with the gourd. Identify yourself." Sasuke came down from the tree and said.
"Gaara of the desert. I'm also curious about you. What is your name?" Gaara said and looked at Sasuke.
"I'm Uchiha Sasuke" Sasuke said as he looked at Gaara.
Both of them stared at each other for a while. Max looked at both of them weirdly but didn't say anything.
"Hey, you should be dying to know my name, right?" Naruto on the other hand interrumped the moment that both were having.
"Not at all." Gaara responded and turned around with the others.
"You can't read the mood that Gaara and zombie boy were having, right Naruto." Max couldn't help but to say.
"You are the one that doesn't know how to read the mood!" Sakura couldn't help to retort.
"You."
Out of the sudden, Gaara stopped and addressed Max. Sasuke was giving Max a death eye when he heard Max call him Zombie boy when he turned around as he saw that Gaara hadn't left.
"Yes?" Max got confused when he saw Gaara addressing him.
"Identify yourself." Gaara said as he looked at Max.
"Don't wanna." Max said as he rolled his eyes at Gaara.
"Hummp." Gaara ignored how Max reacted and left with the others.
"But why are people from Sunagakure here?" Sakura couldn't help but to ask.
"Well, the chunin exams are getting close so people from other villages should be arriving in the next couple of days to take it." Max told Sakura.
Naruto was sulking at the side when he heard about the chunin exam. After the little kid explained to him what the chunin exams were, he quickly recovered.
"Ha! Of course I'm going to take the chunin exams. This is just a step for me to be the Hokage." Naruto said.
"What are you guys doing here? Aren't you guys suppose to be preparing for the exams or anything?" Max said as he looked at the group.
"Hummp." Sasuke ignored Max and left. He wanted to test his skills again with Max, but he decided to better train than to fight someone that he couldn't learn nothing about with his Sharingan.
"There goes zombie boy. And you guys?" Max said after seen Sasuke leave.
"Wait a moment uncle, who are you?" the kid that was helping out Naruto said.
Max frowned when he heard the kid call him uncle, but he let it go. "Why don't you guys introduce yourselves. I already now team 7, but I don't know you guys."
"…" The kids flinched for a moment for some reason. Max was about to aske them what was wrong when they reacted.
"I'm Moegi. The sassiest kunoichi in preschool. Check me out!" Said the little girl.
"I love algebra. Call me Udon!" Said the other kid with a bugger in his nose.
"I'm the number 1 ninja in the village. Konohamaru!" Said the one that looked like the leader of the group.
"""And together we are. The Konohamaru Ninja Squad!""" Said the trio with a pose.
"…"
Max and Sakura looked weirdly at the kids. Naruto didn't react much since it appeared that he had seen the intro before.
"Now is your turn Uncle!" Konohamaru said as he pointed at Max.
"Well." Max thought of what to say and came up with an idea. "I'm the Devil hidden in the leaf. Blade Devil Max!" Max said as he posed in his fighting stance.
This time everyone else looked at Max weirdly. Max got out of his pose and looked confusedly at the trio of kids. "Wasn't I supposed to do something like that?"
"Mind your age uncle!" Moegi said as she got embarrassed.
"Well, I'm younger than Sakura and Naruto. Right guys?" Max said as he ask Sakura to confirm for him.
"I'll never accept that!" Sakura yelled as she gave Max her back.
Max could only sigh in defeat.
"Hey, you became a ninja!" Naruto noticed from his angle of Max that he had a headband strapped in his arm and pointed it out.
"Really?" Sakura turned around and looked at were Naruto was pointing at. Noticing the headband she congratulated Max.
"Thanks. It took me a while to master the techniques to pass the test. I even had to join the intelligence division after that to get missions in my record. Sadly, I don't have a team so I can't take mission outside the village for now." Max said.
Max was bothered by not getting real mission, since he was going solo for now. The Hokage couldn't make him join any other team since they all got organized not so long ago. The Hokage also couldn't give him an official sensei to train him since the other had other responsibilities.
"Hey Max. Congrats." Naruto suddenly got serious and stretched his hand towards Max. Max smiled seen this and shock it firmly.
'Huh.' Sakura noticed that Max and Naruto were having a moment for some reason. Since she didn't know what had happened in at the bridge, she couldn't understand the reason that Naruto was congratulating him that way.
Max and Naruto let go of the handshake and laughed. Max recovered quickly since he remember that he still needed to do things.
"You guys should go ahead and train to get ready for the test. I still have things to do so I'll leave you to it. Say hi to Kakashi for my part when you meet him!" Max said as he turned around and walked.
"See you Max." Sakura said her goodbyes as she started to leave.
"See you Trash Devil" Naruto and Konohamaru said.
Max suddenly got the urge to turn around and give them a piece of his mind, but he heard something that made him smile and continue in his way.
"You guys really are asking for it!" Sakura said as she proceeded to beat both of them.
'I knew that Naruto was going to spread that. Now Konohamaru is calling me that too.
Well, at least things are proceeding like the intelligence division thought. Well, close to it at least.'
Max suddenly looked up and saw a group in one of the power lines of the village.
The trio noticed Max looking at them, so they left their spot. At least Max was fast enough to catch a glimpse of the headband that they had.
'Otogakure, right.' Max thought as he continued walking.