AN: I don't own anything. Not Naruto, not Gears of War, not even the pencil next to me. Very saddening.

Sorry for the long wait, I got lost on the road of life. Now on with the story.

Chapter 7

"Welcome to training ground forty-four, otherwise known as the Forest of Death," said Anko. Most of the genin were filled with a sense of shock, awe, and fear. Shock and awe from the area being an actual forest and how big the trees were. Fear from the name. Nothing gets a name like that without a reason. "Okay listen up," continued Anko.

"You'll be going in here to make it to the tower located at the middle. You will have five days to avoid the wildlife and any opposing team. This is do or die people. Oh, and before I forget," she pauses to reach into her coat and retrieves two different scrolls. "These are your objectives. Each team will receive one and your goal is to get the other one and make it to the tower. The heaven and earth scrolls. Memorize them." She quickly stashed the scrolls away.

"be warned, you are not allowed to open the scroll(s) before you reach the tower. If you do, then…well it won't be pleasant. Now I need you to fill out a flier that states that should you die, the village and more importantly me won't be held accountable." She had the fliers passed out and signed in five minutes. "Alright, head to the booth and get your teams scroll and your gate number."

All teams complied to what she said. When all had their scrolls and stood before their respective gates the speakers went off. "Okay the exam will start momentarily. A word of advice, don't die." The alarm buzzed and the exam started. Everyone rushed into the forest, some having formulated their strategies, others having picked out specific targets and others having not a clue.

Team eleven were jumping along the branches at a slower than average pace per Naruto's orders. He figured with how ninja are in this time that most if not all take things at face value. The plan was simple, act weaker than normal. This was more difficult because of what was told of his slaughter. So he traveled at the front of the group at a large distance and make it obvious that one of the girls was carrying the scroll. Any opposing team will take the bait and attack the girls.

Sure enough, thirty minutes in, the girls were assaulted by a hail of kunai. Playing their parts well, they let themselves get cut a few times and acted startled and fearful. Three ninja from Kusa (Grass) appeared. "Well would you look at that," the apparent leader said. "Two weak tree-huggers lost without their leader. I bet he left you behind because you are so weak. Well it won't matter, because we'll be taking your scroll and your lives…after we've had our fun with you that is." The Kusa team laughed as the girls tried to hold back their anger. They had to wait for the right moment.

The enemy team approached with a confident gait, not noticing how Natsumi was reaching her hand back as she allowed Yakumo to move a bit in front of her. When they were three feet away. Yakumo quickly leaned to the left. Natsumi threw her kunai and caught each member either in the throat or left chest cavity. The three men died with shocked looks. Naruto immediately arrived afterwards. "Good job. You waited till they were close enough to not miss and allowed yourselves to act weaker than you are. Most people have to much pride to do such a thing and that will get them killed. Search the bodies for anything useful and the scroll."

The girls did as told, but the scroll was an earth scroll, the same scroll they already have. Naruto took the extra scroll and hid it in one of his many storage seals located on his armor. They continued on for the rest of the day, looking for another team that had a heaven scroll. That all changed when there was a massive spike of chakra about two clicks north by north-west of their position. "Follow me," Naruto said. He took off like a cannonball through the forest. The girls were startled by this and almost lost sight of him. They sprinted to catch up with him, but he kept a lengthy distance from them.

He stopped high up in the canopy of the forest and looked down. The girls appeared next to him slightly winded. "Why-why did you shoot off like that Naruto-kun?" asked Natsumi. He didn't say anything, just gestured for them to look down. They did so and came to a shocking sight. Team 7 was getting their asses handed to them by a kunoichi from Kusa. Sai was knocked out with his scroll that he carries around lied by his side torn to pieces. Sakura was on her knees with a scared shitless expression on her face as her body was wracked with tremors caused by her fear. Sayuri was the only one that wasn't lying useless. She was fighting, and failing, the Kusa kunoichi.

But that seemed to change when she activated her sharingan. "My, my. So this is the legendary bloodline of the Uchiha. The fabled Sharingan," the woman said. "Now," she licked her lips, "show me its power." She launched forward to deliver a strike to the sternum, but Sayuri smirked and seemed to vanish. She appeared underneath the woman and gave a rising kick to her stomach. She followed it up by jumping to meet the woman in the air and punched her in the jaw.

This sent the woman flying into a nearby tree. She slumped to the branch beneath her. As she started to rise, Sayuri appeared in a flourish and launched some shuriken at her. The woman jumped through the middle of the shuriken barrage and stood up with a confident smirk. It was wiped off her face when the shuriken came back and circled her. She came to the realization that they had ninja wire in the holes in the middle. They quickly snapped together and bound her where she stood.

She struggled a bit causing Sayuri to smirk. She went through a set of hand signs. "Katon: Housenka (Mythical Fire Phoenix)," she called. Flames erupted from her mouth and landed on the wires. They quickly traveled down the length and lit aflame the struggling woman. The woman let out a howl of pain as the fire consumed her. Slowly she slumped to the ground as the fire continued its work. Sayuri breathed a sigh of relief. Natsumi and Yakumo went to ask Naruto why he dragged them here if there wasn't anything big, but stopped when the area was filled with a mad chuckle.

Slowly, a figure seemed to melt from the tree. It was the Kusa woman. She laughed madly as she sees Sayuri's shocked expression. "Kukuku, marvelous. You have such potential," here her voice dropped a few octaves and became smooth as silk and as vile as a black widows bite. "Just like your brother." This change in voice and demeanor set Sayuri and their silent spectators on edge. But the comment about her brother drove everything from her mind. "What's wrong? Did I strike a nerve?" the 'person' taunted. Sayuri let out a yell and charged with a kunai raised.

This person chucled, grabbed her arm, and threw her at the tree where she hit with a resounding thud. She trembled from the pain that it invoked as she struggled to stand. "Such resolve," the person continued. "But you're no where near the level Itachi is." This drove her further over the edge. Ignoring the pain, she stood as straight as she could. She went through the Uchiha signature jutsu's hand signs.

"Katon: Gokakyu (Great Fireball)," she yelled. The fire raced towards her target with above chunin level speed. The person just swatted it away as if it were a fly. "Who are you?! How do you know Itachi?!" she all but screamed.

"Kukuku, I guess I've had my fill for now." The person reached up and grabbed the damaged skin of their face and peeled it back to reveal stark white skin, yellow, snake-like eyes with what looked like purple eye shadow that stretched past the tear duct down the nose, long black hair, and two earrings of some kind of symbol. "I am Orochimaru of the Densetsu no Sannin." The girls were shocked at this revelation, but Naruto narrowed his eyes. Yes, he knew all about the infamous traitor of the leaf. He also knew of his experiments. What he wanted to know was why the man was here.

"Alas, our time grows short. I can already feel my failure of an apprentice making her way here. But before I go…" he trailed off. He flashed through some unique hand signs that elongated his neck to unbelievable proportions. His head shot forward and he bit into the stunned Sayuri's neck. She gave a howl of pain as what appeared to be three tomoe in a circular formation appeared. "When you realize that your power and hate are insufficient, you will find me. Enjoy my little present. That is, if you survive. Kukuku." With those final words, he sank into the foliage and disappeared.

Team eleven jumped down to the fallen team seven. "Naruto-kun, why didn't we help?" asked Natsumi. She was confused because as Orochimaru had started his jutsu, she went to attack, but Naruto held her back.

"You are not ready to deal with someone of his caliber. If I had allowed you to continue with your preemptive assault, you'd have alerted him to our position. And although I may be able to beat him, it wouldn't be that simple. He's an S-rank missing-nin for a reason. Our battle would have been wide spread, dealt with deadly attacks, and would have put you, Yakumo, and team seven in danger. I would be to focused on your safety and the results would be the same. He would have accomplished what he set out to do and still gotten away," he said.

Natsumi looked down at what he said. She knew it was true, but that doesn't mean she has to like it. "Now, Natsumi, pick up Sai, Yakumo pick up Sakura, and I'll carry Sayuri. I don't know what the mark means or does and I will not risk your safety. We'll head to the tower and ambush any teams along the way for our needed scroll."

"But Naruto-kun," started Yakumo, "what about team seven? Do we help them get their scroll?"

"Might as well. But it is a secondary objective. If we get their needed scroll, good, if not oh well. It is not our concern if they pass. What is, is that we do and that we get this mark on Sayuri-san checked out." The girls nodded at his reasoning and they continued their journey to the tower. Along the way, they ran into a few teams. One from Kumo, two from Kusa, one from Iwa, and three Konoha teams that thought they were easy pickings. When asked why he had taken out all those teams, Naruto responded that it would mean less opponents further on.

After one and a half days of travel like this, they reached the tower. They entered and dropped team seven on the floor. They had yet to awaken this entire time and Natsumi and Yakumo were tired from carrying them. Sakura shot up immediately. "Hey! Why'd you drop me. Next time you better put me down carefully or else." The team stared at her for a second before Natsumi growled in anger.

"Why you little self-centered, egotistic, bitch! You were awake this whole time, weren't you?" she questioned.

Sakura scoffed. "Of course. I can't travel in a place like this. My make-up would get ruined and my dress might have gotten torn and given some sick pervert like Naruto-baka here a free peep show," she said as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

"I wouldn't dream of touching you in that way," Naruto said, "just like any normal man." That caused his teammates to bust a gut. Sakura fumed at him, but couldn't retaliate because he had turned away. "Now what does this mean?" he asked no one. The others that were still conscious neared him and looked at the board.

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 open together, the pair less path will become righteous forever. This *blank* is the secret way that guides us from this place today.

"What does the blank mean?" asked Natsumi. The others shrugged in confusion.

"Maybe we're supposed to open the scrolls now," said Yakumo. Natsumi shrugged while Sakura was unsure, but she wasn't on their team. The girls opened the scrolls to reveal the kanji for human on it. Suddenly, the scrolls started to bulge. This shocked the two, making them release the scrolls that criss-crossed when they landed in an X formation. A puff of smoke, a random breeze that had no reason to be there in a closed building, and what was left was Iruka Umino.

"Hey there. Long time no see," he said.

"Iruka-sensei," shouted Natsumi as she launched forward and gave the man a flying tackle. He stumbled back a few steps from the unexpected hug, but started to laugh. "How? Why? Where?" she rambled off to the amusement of her teammates and Iruka.

"Now, now, calm down. I'm actually surprised you made it here so quickly. Especially you Sakura. Seeing as your team is unconscious makes me wonder on how you're here at all," he said.

She puffed up her chest and was about to say something about herself when natsumi beat her to the punch. "Oh that's easy. We carried them here. Naruto-kun thought it would be good because he said that as Leaf shinobi we are to look out and have the backs of our comrades. Or something like that."

Iruka nodded in approval. "Okay, well that's one thing down. Now onto the reason I'm here. I was assigned to greet you and tell you the secret behind the message on the wall. If qualities of heaven are your desire, acquire wisdom to take your mind higher. That means, if you lack knowledge then buckle down and study, Natsumi. If earthly qualities are what you lack, train your body and prepare to attack. That means if you lack in the physical aspect, Sakura, then train your body."

"When heaven and earth are open together, the pair less path will become righteous forever. This means when your body and mind are in synch then even a dangerous mission can become an easy one. Get it?" Natsumi, Yakumo, and even Sakura seemed that they understood. Naruto gave a nod knowing what he said was true.

"What about the blank spot sensei?" asked Sakura.

"That is for you to fill in. See that symbol on the scroll? It's the character for person, a reference to you chunin. You see these days of survival were to test your abilities as chunin and to see if you'd be any good at it. And I got to say, you guys really did magnificently. A chunin is a leader, a guide. It's a chunins responsibility to be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of those serving under him. And to know what skills and training those men will need to succeed in a mission. And all of you passed. Well, that's it. That's all I'm supposed to say to you."

Before anyone could continue on this touching moment between sensei and student, Naruto stepped towards Iruka. "Thank you for explaining, but there is something I need to ask. While in the forest we came across the downed team seven with only Sayuri still standing against their opponent. It was Orochimaru of the sannin in disguise. He placed a mark on Sayuri's neck then left. That is the main reason why we helped team seven, but Natsumi is still correct. Do you know of what the mark is?"

Iruka stiffened as Naruto said this. "Not good. Crap, this can't be happening," Iruka said quickly. "Thank you Naruto for bringing this up. I need to get her to the medical bay and report this to Hokage-sama. The rest of you relax for the next few days till the end of the exam." Saying this, he picked up Sayuri and shunshined away. Naruto narrowed his eyes at this. He swore that he'll get the answers he wants before the third exam.

A Few Days Later

All the gather chunin hopefuls were gathered in a rectangular arena in the middle of the tower. In front of them at a higher tier of the arena, in front of a statue of two hands in the traditional ram sign, stood the Hokage and various jonin sensei's. They were all listening to the Hokage's speech about how the chunin exams were a medium for war and to promote peace between the nations. It also serves the purpose of boosting a countries clientele. Naruto frowned heavily at this. He understood promoting peace between nations, but this wasn't the way to it. He also snorted at how the exams are a representation for war. He fought in the first war and this had nothing on it.

He turned his attention back to the proceedings when they announced that there will be a preliminary round to cut down the number of combatants. When asked if anyone wanted to quit, he became suspicious when Kabuto quit. He watched as he talked with his teammates in a hushed tone. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to hear anything because at that moment Sayuri came through the doors from the med bay. This had caused the chunin hopefuls to let out 'joyous' greetings, gossip, or gasp at how she seemed to stagger with each step.

She finally stood at attention amongst her fellow chunin hopefuls. Sakura came up to her and tried to convince her to actually do the sensible thing and go back to the med bay. Sayuri started to argue back, till she finally got Sakura to stop. Naruto could see the proctor for the second exam, Anko if he remembered correctly, arguing with the other jonin. From what little he was able to hear, again thanks to all the chatter around him, Anko was saying that Sayuri shouldn't be allowed to fight, due to the mark placed on her by Orochimaru.

It seemed she lost once Hiruzen spoke up because she visibly deflated. When the proctor for the next exams showed, a rather sickly man by the name Hayate Gekko, he announced that the preliminary round was about to begin and only those whose names show up on the screen that was revealed when a wooden panel was lifted are to remain in the arena. The first match: Sayuri Uchiha vs. Yoroi Akado.

Everyone but the two moved up to the stands to watch the fight. Sayuri's opponent wasn't someone that really stuck out in a crowd. But perhaps that's what he wanted. The only unusual thing about him was that he had two dark lenses in front of his eyes. He had a cloth that covered the lower half of his face. Other than that, he was plain. The two stood across from each other with Sayuri holding her neck where she was bitten and occasionally grimacing from pain.

The match started out as most expected, Sayuri dominating her opponent. She eventually had him lying on his back, her feet on his shoulder and side, and pulling on his arm. He chuckled, catching everyone's attention. His hand glowed a faint blue that was missed by most everybody and suddenly Sayuri's grip slackened. He raised his arm and brought it down hard on her stomach. He jumped up and away from her then launched forward when she sat up.

There was a faint cry of her name from Sakura and the next thing Sayuri knew was her opponents hand attached to her head. She screamed out in shock and a bit of pain. "W-what's happening? My chakra. What are you doing?" she asked as her arms slackened.

"Hahaha. You're only noticing it now?! Hahaha," he continued to laugh as he affected her chakra. "It's an ability of mine. I can suck out the chakra of my opponent and add it to mine. Hahaha!" Up in the stands, everyone was shocked at this news. Except Naruto who shook his head.

"Idiot," he muttered lowly. No one heard. Back at the arena, Sayuri had enough of this. She managed to muster up some strength and knocked Yoroi's hand away. She got back to her feet and had tried to make the Uchiha traditional jutsu. "Katon: Goka-," she had to stop when her mark activated. She clutched her neck in pain and it allowed her opponent to recover from his surprise. He chuckled as he approached her.

"So you're actually are as strong as they say. But that won't save you." He reached towards her again, but Sayuri was counting on this. She grabbed his hand and judo threw him away. He landed on his back with a surprised grunt. Sayuri attempted to use her jutsu this time and managed to succeed. "Katon: Gokakyu (Great Fireball)," she spewed forth the flames. This caught the surprise of the various jonin sensei's knowing how painful it must be with curse mark. The sound jonin smirked as the curse mark slowly started to spread.

Reinvigorated from the power the curse mark gave her, Sayuri attacked Yoroi. She did the same moves as someone known as Rock Lee had used on her earlier, before the exams. Naruto only knew this because he heard it from the horses mouth, aka. Lee complaing on the 'unyouthfulness' of the sharing an and Sayuri for using it to copy his hard earned work. Sayuri finished with what she dubbed as 'Lions Barrage' and knocked out her opponent. The proctor called it in her favor and Kazumi appeared behind her and shunshined away. Everyone turned to the screen to find out who would face off next.

Throughout the entire preliminaries, Naruto was staring at the fights with nothing but disgust. 'These genin think that they're ready for chunin? Pitiful. None of them, not one of them, except Natsumi and Yakumo, are ready for a promotion. If this is what the standards are today, then it's a wonder how any hidden village is still standing. Maintain the peace, prepare for war. Attack only if attacked. Words of conduct by tou-san and kaa-san. I may have to take the hat if just to bring us back to standards, my standards.'

What made him think as such was the pitiful performance by the others. The next fight was between Zaku Abumi and Hotaru Aburame. It was one of the few fights that showed at least some promise. Zaku had air tubes implanted in his arms that allowed him to blow out concentrated air waves. Deadly if trained properly and up close. Hotaru had used her logical mind and was able to plug the airways with her insects, Kikaichu, and this had the rather gory side effect of air popping holes in one arm to escape and completely blowing off the other.

Then was the fight between Misumi Tsurugi and Kankurou. Misumi had a jutsu that enabled him to use his body as if he didn't have any bones. When he snapped the neck of Kankurou, it was revealed that he was a puppet. Which should have been obvious because Suna has always been known for its puppeteers. Kakurou won the match when he had his puppet, dubbed Crow, snap the bones in his opponents body.

Now this next particular match got Naruto's blood boiling. It was Sakura vs. Ino. They were so pathetic that it wasn't even funny. They ended up knocking each other with a single blow. He had to grit his teeth because he was ashamed at this. He knew that every shinobi and kunoichi represents their village and fellow ninja. For them to be this pathetic really put Konoha in a bad light.

The fight between Temari and Tenten made him sneer. When it was revealed that her opponent was a wind user, a type disadvantage to Tenten, she stuck with throwing weapons. It was a no brainer. Her defeat was expected and he showed no remorse over it, going so far as giving a nod of slight respect to the Suna kunoichi, which caused her to blush and hurry along and earned him disapproving looks.

The sixth match actually made him pay attention. It wasn't filled with flashy jutsu, fancy moves, or a lot of taunting. No, this was an actual match. At least to him. It was Shika Nara vs. Kin Tsuchi. Kin had thrown senbon around her opponent into the opposing wall. Nothing happened at first till a faint bell ringing was heard. Shika had become disoriented and threw up some bile. Unfortunately, Kin ruined it by revealing her technique to everyone. Shika, using her clans infamous intelligence, had come up with a counter plan. She entrapped Kin in her shadow and made her bend back fast enough for Kin to hit her head on a wall and knock herself out.

Now that we are back up to speed, let's continue the story. The screen selected the next combatants. Natsumi Uzumaki vs. Kiba Inuzuka. "Arooohhh," howled the Inuzuka. "Yeah boy, we got an easy victory." He jumped down to the aren as if to prove something. Natsumi scowled, but then changed it to a grin. This was her chance to beat to a bloody pulp one her academy bullies that also tried to sexually harass her on more than one occasion. "Hey Natsumi-chan," said Kiba, "Don't worry, I'll go easy on you. Then after I show you that I really am the alpha, you'll have no choice but to be mine."

Did she say beat to a bloody pulp? She meant a cruel, slow, agonizing death by castration. Or she lets him live as a woman. The match started with Kiba trying to goad her. But he ended up going on about himself. This allowed Natsumi to rush him and punch him in the nose, knocking him flat on his ass. As Kiba tired to recover, Natsumi descended on him with a flurry of punches and kicks, at least a fifth of them hitting him in the crotch. The proctor called the match when Kiba declared in high pitched voice, his surrender.

The eighth match is to be Yakumo vs. Neji Hyuuga. The jonin started to mutter about how they pity the girl. Naruto snorted. They weren't even close to knowing how skilled Yakumo is. Still, he was slightly worried for her. Neji had a track record of having a high amount of hatred for the main family in the Hyuugas and was prone to release it on the closest individual. He also was known to beat his opponents to the point that he ended several genins careers before they had even begun. He will step in if he saw it come to that.

The two stood across from each other. "Surrender Yakumo-san, for fate has decreed that I will win," said Neji. Yakumo didn't say anything, just took out her pad and drawing pencil. "Very well, then. You have made your choice," he said as he slid into the Jyuuken (Gentle Fist) stance. The match started as Neji raced at her with mid-chunin speeds. He struck at her tenketsu (chakra points) disabling her swift and fast. The proctor was about to call the match when the sound of glass breaking was heard.

Yakumo shattered into many fragments that then became dust. Everyone blinked or gasped. Neji stood there dumbfounded. Yakumo rose from the ground like a certain plant man. Then another Yakumo melded from the wall. Another and another showed up till he was completely surrounded. "W-what?" He cursed himself for stuttering.

"You don't understand?" questioned one Yakumo. "Then I will explain," another continued. "You are trapped in my world Neji-san," the first one said. "I control what happens."

"I will torture you till you give."

"You will not win."

"For now, I am Kami."

At A Random Location

Itachi Uchiha suddenly looked up from his nail polishing, making it run on his hands. 'I feel as though someone has stolen my thing,' he thought. He then noticed what he just did. A twitch formed in his eyebrow. 'Whoever you are, I will find you, and I will kill you for this'. His eyes transformed to their Mangekyo state.

"Itachi!" came the voice of his partner, Kisame Hoshigaki, the Monster of the Hidden Mist. "We're out of food and the pocky is all gone."

"Kisame, we have a vital mission that we need to accomplish. We. Cannot. Fail." he said with the utmost seriousness.

"What is it? A bandit camp we need to take care of? Some missing nin?"

"More important. We need to make a trip to the store." Kisame face vaulted. "I will write a list of what we need. We leave in twenty minutes." "I will deal with whoever ripped me off later. For now, I must retrieve my precious pocky.'

Back To The Exams

Neji panicked and it showed on his face. He had tried activating his Byakuugan (White Eye), but nothing happened. He started to spin and release chakra from all his tenketsu. Kaiten (Palms Revolving Heaven)," he yelled. A dome of chakra erupted out and caught Yakumo flat footed. She was caught in it and flung against one of the walls and slumped to the floor.

Neji panted from the waste of chakra. Then he realized his mistake. He quickly became enraged and moved in on the struggling to rise Yakumo. "You bitch! You caused me to reveal one of my aces. For that you will suffer," he yelled as he made to attack her. He was stopped when a hand clamped on his wrist. He looked to the side to see it was Naruto. Surprised, he wasn't prepared for when Naruto flung him across the room. The proctor called the match in Neji's favor for Naruto's interference. Naruto paid it no mind and just focused on helping Yakumo. He may be a one cold son of a bitch to his enemies and those he dislikes, but Yakumo wasn't one of either category and she actually grew on him.

Everyone waited for the two to get back up to the stands before turning back to the monitor. Naruto Senju vs. Hinata Hyuuga. Naruto walked calmly down as Hinata hesitated for a few seconds, took a glance at Natsumi, then followed. As they stood across from each other, Hinata was taking multiple glances up to the balconies where Natsumi and her team were. "Focus on me, not the balcony," Naruto said. Hinata 'eeped' at being caught, though she wasn't exactly stealthy.

The match began but neither competitor moved. "What are you doing here?" asked Naruto. Before she could ask to further explain, he continued. "You obviously lack what it takes to be a kunoichi. Your eyes tell me everything I need to know. You lack the will to deal bodily harm on anyone, yet you are here. It leads me to wonder, why are you here? Why are you actually here?"

"I-I'm here t-to prove th-that I am n-not weak," she said hesitantly.

Naruto sighed at her answer. "No, you are not." His response caused everyone to either question what he meant or, in the case of close friends, mainly women, to glower at him. "Your answer just proved that. You hesitated in your answer. You yourself don't believe it. Yet you believe everyone here to believe it. You are not here through any choice of your own. Tell me now, why did you really come here?"

Hinata seemed conflicted. Eventually, she seemed to cave in on herself. "I-I came b-because t-the el-ders said th-they would…they would…" she trailed off, not being able to say whatever it was she needed to say.

"What? What would the elders do if you didn't attend?" Naruto asked. "Say it. Don't hesitate."

"They said they would brand me and put me in the branch house!" Hinata shouted in a rush. She breathed heavily, then gasped not believing she actually said it. Most of the genin gasped as well. Not only at her explanation, but that Hinata actually shouted.

"Surrender," Naruto said.

"W-what?" Hinata asked.

"I said surrender. It is clear that you were forced to come, meaning that you don't believe that you should be here. If you don't believe that you should be here, then leave," he said. Hinata was struggling with herself now. She debated on whether or not to agree with him. "You have no chance as a ninja with your current mindset. What you need to do," here he pauses to look at the balconies, "what you all need to do is ask yourself, now, is this what I want to be? Is this the life I want? Do I believe it is? Why am I here? These are the questions that you all need to answer. Not your family, not your village, not your peers, you."

This had earned him the respect of the older generation of ninja. He has blatantly demanded that all genin ask the hard questions. But the younger generation were having a hard time coming to grips with what he said without trying to retaliate in one form or another. As in, some snorted and turned away, others scoffed with a cocky smirk, some even flipped him off. But Naruto was only paying attention to Hinata and his teammates.

Natsumi seemed to take his questions to heart as did Yakumo and both were asking themselves the questions he stated with bowed heads, their lips moving imperceptibly. After a few moments, they raised their heads with a defiant gaze and steeled eyes. He nodded in satisfaction. 'Good, they have shown that they do belong here. Only those that can ask and answer the questions will remain in the long run. Everyone has to answer them eventually. Even those that don't believe they do. But now it is time to see if the Hyuuga shall answer.'

Hinata shakily raised her arm and forfeited. This elicited many sighs of relief or disappointment. Naruto shook his head and walked away. Hinata followed up to the stands to stand by her team with tears in her eyes. Her teammates and sensei gave her sympathetic looks, a comforting hug/pat on the back, or words of encouragement.

The final match was between Subaku no Gaea and Rock Lee. Lee was an interesting fellow for his choice of clothing, his exuberance, and the fact he mentioned something about youth every other ten words. When the match started, Lee shot off at surprising speed, taking the use of surprise to his advantage by leveling a heavy kick to her side. She hit the opposing wall and got back up with cracks along her skin.

As it turns out, she had a layer of sand that covered her skin for extra protection. Unfortunately, this had awoken her bloodlust as she tried everything in her power to kill him. Lee ended up being forced to remove his weights, then reveal his final trump card, the hidden gates. Lee had her on the ropes, but his body couldn't withstand the sheer power that flooded it with the activated gates. He ended up being caught and having his left limbs crushed. He was saved by the timely arrival of his sensei. Gaea was announced the winner.

The last fight was between Choji Akimichi, heir to the Akimichi clan, and the last sound nin, Dosu Kinuta. Naruto was slightly embaressed that Choji only went down to fight because he was promised food. Then he starts off with what was probably his trump card, the Nikudan Sensha(Human Bullet Tank). Obviously, his opponent was prepared for this technique. Dosu used the metal gauntlet on his arm to use sound waves against the Akimichi heir. Most thought Choji was unaffected by it, but Naruto knew better. The Nikudan Sensha inflated the body of the user to epic proportions and sucked the limbs into itself. What this did was create a ballooning effect. With the body now being mostly chakra and air, the sound waves would bounce back and forth inside Choji's body making it even worse for him. It showed when Choji rolled into a wall and came out unconcious. After said fight, all winners of the matches were called down to the arena floor to find out who will be their opponent for the finals.

They each drew a number from a box carried by Anko. The number would signify who they would fight in the third exams. The matches are as follows: Natsumi Uzumaki vs. Neji Hyuuga, Subaku no Gaea vs. Sayuri Uchiha, Hotaru Aburame vs. Subaku no Kankurou, Shika Nara vs. Subaku no Temari, Naruto vs. Dosu Kinuta. Everyone was told to train for the last exam in one month. As they left, everyone knew that in one month, possibly everything will change.

AN: So how'd you like it. Sorry for not a lot of fights, I jut saw it as redundent when most of the matches are the same.

Review!