LAST TIME!

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"ALRIGHT GAKI'S! I'M THE SECOND PROCTOR!" Anko said striking a pose. When she heard no applause she opened her eyes to see the genin just staring at her. Give a quick count she rounded on the first proctor, "Ibiki what the hell?! You let 26 teams pass? You're going soft in your old age."

Ibiki just gave a quiet chuckle, "That or this year's applicants are just that good." Ibiki countered.

"Pff" Anko said until her eyes came upon a face she had seen quite a few times. 'This is going to be fun, the gaki made it!' Anko thought to herself as her eyes gave off a mischievous gleam.

"It won't matter anyway, because when I'm done with them, they're numbers will cut in half at the very least." Anko said with a creepy smile on her face that sent a shiver up all the genin's spines. Alright meet at Training ground 44 at 9:00 in the morning tomorrow, if you fail to show up or are even a minute late you will disqualified!" Anko said, before she leapt out, breaking the other window.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

Naruto and Koko made their exit from the examination room using the opening made from Anko's 'dramatic' entrance. If the next part of the exam was in Training Ground 44, then it would most likely be a several day trip.

After a quick check of his supplies he realized he did not have enough for this part of the test. Scolding himself for not being better prepared, the blue-haired shinobi along with his companion quickly sped to the market district and bought what they needed. Naruto had finally found a shop that wouldn't over price him… Well they were more expensive than the others but it was for everyone, so he rather liked them.

After they quickly gathered their supplies, which consisted of two sets of kunai and four boxes of senbon they went back to their apartment to pack everything [A/N: A set of kunai is twenty kunai, and a box of senbon contains 100 needles, just encase anyone was wondering]. After they finished packing the rest of what they would need, as well as packing any other supplies they could think of for tests afterwards as well as writing a note about Kabuto, Naruto and Koko turned in for the night.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

It was a beautiful day in Konoha. The sun was shining brightly; a gentle and loving breeze was in the air. Standing in this beautiful weather were all of the chūnin hopefuls, as they stared past a gate into what could only be described as a dark forest. Most weren't intimidated by the forest until a sixteen foot tiger tried to leap the fence only be to swatted away like a bug by Anko.

Grabbing a nearby chūnin's arm to look at his watch, well actually she just dragged the man to her which a few of the other chūnin found funny, and she waited a few more moments for it to be 9:00. "Alright gaki's! Welcome to Training Ground 44, affectionately called 'The Forest of Death'!" Anko yelled to the young crowd when it struck 9:00.

Anko subtly winked at Naruto, signaling him to start something. Naruto had quickly found out about her love for pranks, as well as scaring the crap out of anyone she could. It was a great way to let off steam against the villagers without actually causing enough harm to get in trouble.

Taking only a second to think Naruto spoke up, "'Forest of Death' huh? Doesn't look all that tough to me!" Naruto said in an overly smug tone that drew everyone's attention to him. Anko, still playing along, took this opportunity to quickly throw a kunai at his head, being careful enough to only cut his cheek and draw a small amount of blood. Almost instantly she appeared behind him, and to scare everyone a little more she licked his cheek, making sure everyone saw the blood she licked up.

"Mmm, the lively ones always have the best blood. Tough guys like you tend to leave your blood painted all over the trees in this place." Anko whispered loud enough for everyone to hear, in a dark seductive tone. This only served to freak everyone out even more, and turning on quite a few others as well. One of Anko's many talents was pulling off the 'sexy seductress' and 'sadistically crazy as hell' all at the same time.

Before she could move, Naruto positioned his hand on the inside of her right thigh and pushed a note he had wrote before leaving his apartment that morning, into her fishnet leggings. Anko felt it and suppressed the urge to raise her eyebrow, though that didn't stop her from subtly forcing Naruto's hand into the apex over her groin which earned her a very red and blushing Naruto.

Suddenly both of them felt presence move behind them. Naruto, unable to move as he positioned the note, stood there. Anko however, whipped out another kunai so she could strike at whoever was stupid enough to sneak up behind her.

She came face to face with a kunoichi from Kusagkure. She was holding the kunai Anko threw with an extremely long and flexible tongue. Something about this girl reminded the eccentric proctor of someone she knew, but she couldn't put her finger on whom.

"Your kunai?" The Kusa kunoichi said in a creepy tone.

"Oh, why thank you Kusa-san. Next time though, try not to sneak up behind me, alright? It's a good way to get killed." Anko lightly scolded, though keeping the smile on her face for good measure.

"I'm so sorry. It's just the blood gets me excited, and your kunai cut my precious hair." The creepy kunoichi replied in an almost mournful tone yet still equally creepy tone.

While this exchange was going on, Naruto and Koko were wafted with the scent of snakes. Anko, while having a small undertone of snake, normally smelt of Dango and Red Bean soup. This other woman however was drenched in the scent of snake and blood. This put the two companions on edge immediately, as snakes didn't tend to keep friendly company.

Standing straight Anko walked gave a small cough as Naruto quickly retracted his hand to his side so no one saw what he was doing, "Anyway… Let's get the explanation for the test underway. First of all, every team will get one of these two scrolls," Anko said as she stood in front of the group of genin and held up two scrolls. One white with blue in the middle labeled Heaven, the other blue with white in the middle labeled Earth. "You will all be handed ONE of these scrolls and then be led by a chūnin to a gate. Your objective is to obtain another team's scroll that is the opposite of the scroll you have, and then make it to the tower in the middle of the forest. You will have five days to make it to the tower; anyone who isn't there is disqualified."

"Five days!? What are we supposed to be about food?!" Chōji yelled out. It was usually never a good idea to get between an Akamichi and their food; they tend to get... violent.

"The forest is a treasure trove of delicious goodies! Just make sure you don't become food yourselves in the process. This is where you are allowed to attack others, alright? You are not allowed to open the scrolls under any circumstance before you get to the tower." Anko said to the genin.

"What happens if you do?" a genin from Iwa asked.

"It's a special surprise!" Anko said with a creep grin bringing a shudder out of a good proportion of the crowd, "Now! Before anyone begins anything you all need to fill out these forms." Anko said pulling forms seemingly out of thin air from her trench coat, "These are just standard waivers stating that I can't get in trouble when you die in my forest because of your lack of skill to survive, since killing is allowed in this portion of the test."

"Don't you mean if?" Shino asked in his usual monotone voice as he was handed the stack.

Anko gave off an evil laugh, "Haha, no I mean when." That got a lot of people gulping in fear, "Now sign the waivers, those who don't sign the form will not move on. Your team will get their scroll when they trade in three forms; oh, and just a small piece of advice, JUST DON'T DIE!"

With that Anko departed to help set the scroll booth up and make sure everything was running smoothly. Some of the genin seemed nervous that killing was allowed in this portion of the test, but every team signed their waivers and picked up their scroll.

When it was Team 7's turn to get a scroll they happened to get a Heaven scroll, which Naruto quickly took and hid it in one of the many spots in his vest. To stop any outbursts from happening, he left the booth quickly. His teammates might be fuming, but at least they were smart enough not to point out that he had the scroll. As they were escorted to their gate, Naruto started to form a plan in his head on how they should go through with this. He had the most knowledge and experience with the forest, so he knew he had to use that knowledge to their advantage.

"Alright guys, I've got a plan…" Naruto started to say, only to be rudely interrupted.

"Ha, you have a plan? Oh this ought to be good." Sasuke said in a smug tone.

"Yeah, Naruto-baka, you should just let Sasuke-kun lead…" Sakura started to say only to stop after a growl was heard. Koko had just about enough of the insults towards her companion. She bared her fangs and made ready to attack.

"Koko, that's enough." Naruto said softly, and the vixen stopped immediately. The blue-haired shinobi turned back to his team, "Look, I've been in this forest before. Besides think about the test; there are too many variables to make a perfectly effective plan. We can only work with what we know, which I just so happen to have the most knowledge of the three of us on this forest. We know that everyone has a start point and an end point. We also know that by the time everyone gets to the end point, they'll most likely have the scrolls they need, or are attempting to set up traps to wait for those who have scrolls. If we wait by the tower not only are we not running around this forest, which could be dangerous as we could run into multiple groups at once or something we can't handle, we can lay traps and set the field to our advantage since EVERYONE has to go to the tower to complete the exam." Naruto said.

When Naruto finished his explanation, his teammates gave him stupefied looks and the same thing was going through their heads, 'Is this really Naruto?'

Naruto waited for one of them to voice their displeasure with the plan, but when neither of them said anything he just nodded and readied himself for a fast run while Koko made sure that she wouldn't fall from his shoulders. 'We'll need to move quickly to get there so we can set up traps before anyone else gets there. Most likely others will think to do this as well, so we might be able to hit one of them while they're busy setting up their traps. If we're lucky, we'll be able to finish this off before the end of the day!' Naruto thought to himself enthusiastically.

As time clicked off, Naruto was ready to make to fast journey. Looking over to his teammates, he saw that they too were ready. The chūnin guarding their gate looked at his watch before he undid the padlocks that held the gate shut. After that was removed he stood looking at his watch to make sure he had the correct time.

"Alright gaki's," Anko's voice came through a loudspeaker system, "You know your mission, all chūnin are to open the gates in one minute! Remember, good luck and don't die!"

"Well that's reassuring…" Naruto muttered loud enough for his teammates to hear. The chūnin also heard it and chuckled a little before composing himself. Naruto's team stood still, almost statues, as they waited for the seconds to click by and the gates to be opened.

*Tick*

*Tick*

*Tick*

*BEEEEEP!*

A loud bell rang through the area and all the gates were thrown open. Each team that was taking the exam rushed off into the forest, each hoping to gain the upper hand over the others. Naruto's team was no different; they sped off towards the tower, Naruto taking lead with Koko jumping from branch to branch beside him. Both were alert for any danger, as they knew the forest held dangerous things it, things that were only waiting for you drop your guard so it could kill you.

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Anko stood on the top of the barbwire fence for a few minutes waiting for all the teams to take off. A few went at a slow pace, but they all made it into the forest. As the chūnin helpers all started to trickle in and report that the gates had been securely locked again, she couldn't help but think back to the Kusa-nin who had given back her kunai.

The kunoichi's presence seemed so damn familiar, and it was bugging her not knowing who it was that she was reminded of.

"Mitarashi-san,"

Anko turned her head to see a chūnin standing by the fence, "Report." Anko ordered. She wanted these checks to be over so she could go get some dango and think.

"All gates have been secured; all teams are in the training ground. Everything is running as expected." The chūnin said. Anko knew that she knew this guy, but she just didn't care to remember his name right now.

"Good," Anko said as she dropped down only to feel something scratch the inside of her thigh. Then she remembered Naruto putting something inside her fishnet legging. Reaching down, and still in front of the chūnin, she pulled the note out and ignored the blushing and looks of confusion on the faces around her as she read it.

'Anko-chan,

Hope I got this to you alright. I just wanted to let you know of a possible spy in the Chūnin Exam. His name is Yakushi Kabuto. He knows way too much about me, specifically things that weren't publicized, as well as the fact that he smells of blood and snakes though not sure if that means anything to you. Just felt you should know.

Sincerely, The Annoying Gaki!

Anko would have chuckled at the title she normally called him at the end. It wasn't that he was all that annoying really, in fact he was a welcome anomaly in her life. It was nice to be able to not only interact with someone who didn't exactly hate her, but also knew somewhat what it was like to be treated horribly by the village. To her they were kin in spirit.

Back to the note though, how this kid, this Yakushi Kabuto, smelled put her on edge. There were only two people in the world who were allowed the Hebi summoning contract. Hell she was the current owner of it after she was able to have her own summons steal it away from her old sensei Orochimaru after he ended up creating another contract after the division of the snakes.

For him to smell so strongly of snakes and blood only meant that this Kabuto had to be either in league with Orochimaru, or somehow gained the summoning contract. She was going for the prior simply because she knew the contract hadn't been accessed at all.

Ignoring everyone else Anko quickly took the note, as well as her own thoughts, and made her way as fast as she could to the Hokage. He needed to know that Orochimaru could possibly be in Konoha, and if he was then they had one of his spies and they needed to capture him.

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Nothing had really changed since Naruto was last in the forest. Trees were all still in the same place, not like they could be moved anyway. The river was still flowing, nothing new there. Of course the blood thirsty, man-eating animals were always still there.

"DEAR KAMI! KILL THEM WITH FIRE!" Sakura screamed out as giant leeches fell from the trees in an attempt to get at them.

Yep, there was no place like the forest and Naruto had come to love being here. With a quick swing of his sword he cut five of the leeches in half while Sasuke used a quick Katon jutsu to roast four others and thrown kunai to pierce three more. Sakura was shaking and desperately trying to hide behind her two teammates.

"What the fuck were those?!" Sakura asked in her usual screech. Naruto winced a little and Koko actually tried to cover her ears from atop his head.

Naruto sighed, "Those would be giant leeches, and Sakura," Naruto said gaining her attention, "Can you please be quiet? I'd rather not have every team find us right now when we're less than five hours from the tower." Sakura had the decency to blush to at the comment and quickly apologized for being overly loud when she didn't need to be.

Sasuke stood back watching the exchange. He couldn't fathom how much Naruto had changed, and in such a short amount of time.

People could change, he knew that all too well if his brother's actions against the Uchiha clan were anything to go by, but normally it took longer than just a couple short months for changes to become immediately noticeable. It's not as if Team seven trained a whole lot together, but on a few of the rare occasions when Sasuke wanted a sparring partner he would always look for Naruto. Not so much because Sasuke thought Naruto was strong or anything, but he would admit that Naruto had the endurance and chakra to keep going when most couldn't. Naruto gave him a challenge that others just couldn't.

Now however Sasuke wasn't too sure. Naruto was wielding his giant blade without any visible difficulty, his speed was greatly increased, and although he hadn't used any jutsu Sasuke couldn't help but question if he was greater in that area as well. If he was honest with himself, this Naruto almost frightened him. He was more controlled, precise – almost to a lethal level - and couple that with his stamina, chakra and skills… well Sasuke knew any fight with the bluenette would be insanely difficult unless you could clearly over power him and end it right away.

Naruto heaved a sigh, "Alright lets quickly, I'd rather not be here if anyone heard all of that." Getting nods from his teammates, they once again took off to the trees.

"Someone's following us." Koko said from her place on Naruto's shoulder. Naruto made no move to show that he heard her; however she knew she had his attention. "Whoever it is has been following us for some time. They've stayed just outside of our range, I only know someone's there since the wind in here blows everywhere because the giant trees mess with the air currents, so I was able to catch their scent for a moment."

Naruto slowly nodded, turning his head slightly to show a raised eyebrow. Koko understood the silent question.

"I smell blood and snakes."

The eye that Koko could see widened for a moment before returning back to its normal size as Naruto faced forward again. 'Shit, knew that Kusa-nin was bad news! Hopefully she won't think to attack us if we're close enough to the tower. Now the question is can we make it there before she strikes, or are we going to be fighting before we have a chance to get there safely?' Naruto thought to himself.

Turning his head to look back forward he called behind him, "Come on, let's hurry up. We should get there soon. Once all our traps are in place, then we can rest." Naruto heard a mumbled acknowledgment from Sakura, and Sasuke's classic 'Hn' of agreement.

All three genin quickly put on a burst of speed with a help of chakra, and Naruto knew that they would be at the tower in less than an hour depending on if they have to stop for Sakura, who Naruto could hear breathing heavily. Hell he'd carry her so long as they make it there. If nothing else the tower would offer a security they needed. No one would be stupid enough to attack that close to the tower so openly because it would draw EVERYONES attention, they'd have to fight close to every team in the exam and every team would come in hopes of getting an easy scroll.

They traveled for another forty five minutes, before they slowed down to get a little rest. Sakura had sat down, and was sipping at her canteen. Sasuke was leaning against a tree with his eyes closed, but Naruto could tell that he was trying to control his breathing, probably not wanting to show that he needed rest just like everyone.

Naruto was just standing looking at his team wondering what to do about the person still following them. Though they had seemed to have stopped with them, they were still there and still a threat. A soft fluffy paw suddenly tapped him on his cheek.

"I found another team. They're over that way," Koko said, pointing with her paw to a clump of trees, "They're up high, seems their trying to stick to the top branches, about a twenty five meters up and a hundred meters in that direction."

Naruto nodded, "Hey," Naruto said quietly to get Sakura and Sasuke's attention, "There's a team nearby, probably had the same idea as us. About a hundred meters and in the trees." Naruto reported. Sasuke smirked, probably relishing a challenge. Sakura looked a little frightened, though she was trying to hide it.

"So what's the plan dobe?" Sasuke asked, still leaning on the tree. That gained shocked expressions from the blue and pink haired genin. "What?" Sasuke asked upon seeing their expressions with a raised eyebrow, "This has been Naruto's plan from the start. Might as well let him lead since he does have more knowledge on this stupid forest."

Naruto couldn't help the chuckle that left his mouth. Sasuke was actually going to let someone else lead, oh how the surprises of the day wouldn't end!

Naruto closed his eyes for a moment while he thought on a plan before opening them to address his team, "Alright, we know their position, and hopefully they don't know ours though that's probably a stupid assumption. So here's what we should do, Sasuke and I will climb the trees right away, using the branches as cover. Sakura, you stick with Koko, and if any make a run for it you eliminate them quickly, however you should keep your medkit handy just encase. Koko will be able to keep you safe for the most part. Sasuke we're going to need to keep an eye out for traps got it?" Naruto finished saying looking to his teammate who just nodded.

Without another word they all took off in the direction, Naruto leading the way with Koko on his head giving him directions to the enemy team. As they reached the trees that Koko had pointed out they had already had to bypass several traps. Mind you they were amateur trap verses the traps that Naruto used for his pranks, so they were easy to get around for the team.

Naruto was able to pick up the enemies scent, and used hand signs to tell his team that the other team wasn't moving. Naruto thought they seemed rather cocky, which would work perfectly for them. Naruto and Sasuke dropped their packs silently and quickly ascended the tree, making sure that they had a branch covering them at all times.

As they made it close to the enemy, Naruto was able to see that it was an Ame squad. Neither Naruto nor Sasuke could make out what they looked like because they had their faces covered. Sending a quick signal to Sasuke to start his attack, Naruto readied senbon. He was going to just take them out quickly and leave them in the trees. With any luck they'd have the scroll they needed and they could be on their merry way.

Sasuke jumped onto the branch with the Ame team and quickly addressed them, "Well, well, seems you all got rather cocky." Sasuke said in a smug tone, a smirk on his face and his arms behind his head in the universal 'I'm an asshole and think I'm better than you' stance.

The three Ame shinobi quickly stood up only to face plant. Sasuke raised an eyebrow in confusion of what happened. As he got closer he saw senbon in their necks.

"What are you waiting for?" a voice came out, and all of a sudden Naruto dropped down in the middle of the three downed shinobi. Naruto quickly began to search the bodies of the Ame-nin while Sasuke just stared wide-eyed at his teammate.

'How the hell did he do that?! He used to have difficulty hitting with kunai, now he'd doing what that stupid fake hunter-nin did in Nami?!' Sasuke thought to himself as he had a small panic attack over his teammate''s abilities.

While Sasuke was in his own little world, Naruto had finally found what he was looking for.

An Earth Scroll!

Naruto quickly grabbed it and then removed the senbon from the Ame-nin. He figured that if nothing else, they'll be long gone by the time they wake up and if they choose to attack any other groups to try to get back in, well that's more of the competition out. Naruto turned to Sasuke after he had collected his senbon, and saw him just standing there.

"Sasuke!" Naruto yelled out and succeeded in snapping him out of his daze. He pulled out their teams Heaven Scroll and tossed it and the Earth scroll to Sasuke, "I want you to go back down to Sakura. I'll cover from the shadows to make sure our team can make it to the tower."

Sasuke caught both of the scrolls on reflex, but went to argue with Naruto on his plan only to find the 'dobe' gone. Cursing he quickly jumped from branch to branch down the tall-as-shit tree. As he hit the ground Sakura came running up to him to make sure he was okay.

"Are you hurt? You're not bleeding are you? Did we get the scroll?" Sakura shot off the questions in rapid succession. Sasuke just put his hand over her mouth to shut her up, hell he was half tempted to put tape over the giant loud speaker she calls a mouth.

"No, I'm fine. We have both scroll, Naruto is going to cover us from the shadows so we won't run into any trouble. We're making a bee line to the tower; we're not stopping for anything got it?" Sasuke said in a commanding tone. Sakura just nodded and grabbed her bag while Sasuke grabbed his. Sasuke questioned where Naruto's bag was, but Sakura just said the fox took it with her when she ran off.

Without further delay, both genin took off as fast as they could towards the tower.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

Naruto stood in the trees watching his team run towards their objective. He made sure to keep his presence hidden and stayed to the shadows. He chose to do this for two reasons.

The first reason being that he'd be able to catch anyone before they were able to get to his team. He may not like them a whole lot, it isn't as if they were his favorite people in the world, but they were his team. If there was anything that Kakashi had taught them, it was that teammates keep each other safe.

The second reason was the more important to Naruto. Someone had been tailing them for the longest time, and Naruto wanted to make sure said person wasn't able to get up on his team without them being able to fight back; and he wanted to see who was skilled enough to evade them for so long without even giving themselves away.

As Naruto kept to the shadows, he was able to stay far enough back to now pick up the trailers scent and sound. Naruto had to admit, this guy was good, he was just barely able to pick up his sound, and his scent, thanks to the damn giant trees, was everywhere.

His team was about five minutes away from the tower, when Naruto finally decided to make a stand and slow the person down.

"Kage Bushin no Jutsu" Naruto muttered, creating fifteen bushin with the single hand seal. They quickly fanned out in a line between the person trailing them and his team, while he took off at his fastest speed to get to his team.

As Naruto made it to them, they were just standing at the stone doors waiting for him.

"Get inside!" Naruto yelled at them. They didn't even seem to try to argue as they quickly threw the doors open and Naruto and Koko were not even a second behind them. They quickly closed the doors and moved into the big room they had just entered.

"What? Was something after you?" Sakura asked, wondering why her teammate had seemingly panicked for no reason.

"We had someone tailing us the whole time. I didn't want to alert them by tell you guys, or we might have forced a conflict. The problem was I could barely get a fix on him. So I used a few Kage Bushin to keep him busy. I'm sure they were able to stall him long enough, I just wanted to make sure we were able to get in here quickly. Now we have a little over four days to rest!" Naruto explained cheerfully.

Sakura began to wonder his teammate was, as he was acting more and more like a seasoned shinobi than the rookie everyone knew.

Sasuke just stopped caring about all the changes Naruto had made, and chose to focus on just getting strong so he wasn't left behind by the 'dobe'.

Sakura noticed a message hung on the wall and pointed it out to the rest of the group, "What do you make of that? 'If qualities of Heaven are your desire, acquire wisdom to take your mind higher. If Earthly qualities are what you lack, train your body and prepare to attack. When Heaven and Earth are opened together, the perilous path will become righteous forever. This secret… something… is the secret something that will guide us from this place today.'" Sakura read out loud

"Hmm…." Naruto mussed to himself.

Sasuke closed his eyes in contemplation until an idea came to him. Pulling out both scrolls in front of him, he opened them up completely ignoring the warning cries of him teammates. Smoke started to sizzle out of them and he quickly threw them away from himself. When they hit the concrete ground they went up in a poof of smoke.

Each member of the team was on their guard. Sakura had a kunai out and at the ready, though she seemed nervous. Sasuke had his hands ready to run through hand seals for jutsu, and Naruto had his had his hand on his blade.

As the most cleared, all three genin relaxed as the face before them was a friendly one.

"Long time no see,"

"Iruka-sensei!"