~6~

{Ryoko POV}

Today was the day I guess. Today, we would start the exam for any age to perticipate in to aim to get to the next level of being a Chunin ninja for Konoha instead of being stuck as a genin till the next Chunin exam. Failure was not at any stage an option. The nerves were absent from my body, replaced with adrenaline cause I could finally go all out and get away with it.

Meditation was the beginning of my day like every other day, with an interest conversation as always that ended up making me nearly burst into laughter out loud. Chi Mun was still attempting to convince me to use e exam as an excuse to kill off all of the individuals of the leaf who annoyed the hell out of me. Aka Sasuke and Sakura. Possibly Kao and Hiro but they were enough that I could live with them around. Though, he did tell me to at least let him go wild once so he could slaughter a team like the old exams of the Mist he told me. Last man standing becomes a Chunin. An exam that was my kind of fun to an extent. My morning conversation with the demon went a little like this;

"Easier said to kill everyone than done Ci. I can't just walk into this exam and kill anyone and everyone. As much fun as it wouldn't be practical as it would ruin my purpose of returning to this hellhole of a village with all my hard work going down the drain. Now that is something I won't let happen at any cost."

"Then at least kill the banshee Mouse. She pissed me off with her fucking fangirling shit and actions. I was so tempted to take over your body and kill her yesterday, but noooooo. I have to be nice to my host. Even though the little mouse crazes power, you never use it. So at least scare me with your skills now. Stupid mouse. Baka!"

"Really Chi? I am trying to keep my cool and only kill when necessary. So it shouldn't be too hard to hold off on the bloodlust that is in the air between us both crazing a slaughter. In other words, just bloody behave Chi." Chi nodded at me after rolling his eyes before there was a knock on the black door in my mind scape.

"Warning, incoming assholes!" my darker half told me, making me roll my eyes this time as I pulled myself back into reality, listening to Chi's laughter as I did so.

"Ryoko chan! Kao let me in! Come on! It's morning and the exams are today so you need to get up!" Naruto yelled through the door, making me stroll to the door, open it, grab his collar and drag him inside before slamming the door behind me.

"I know Naruto. I don't sleep Baka. Now sit down cause I got to get ready as I'm still in my pyjamas. Even though they don't look it," I informed him as I walked into the bathroom, then my closet, looking through my clothes for what I want to wear.

"I'm looking around!" The blonde yelled out.

"Don't go into any rooms with closed doors!" I yelled back before sighing. Deciding to wear something basic but easy to move in, I redid all my bandages with black bandages so I was less noticeable, adding an extra two layers to my feet and hands as I didn't wear shoes. Once completely bandaged, I pulled a dark olive green shirt on, there being no sleeves on its shoulders but had arms that went from above the elbow to my wrists, the shirt itself ending right above my belly button, in which I had bandaged to cover the markings in my stomach. Next came the straight black pants, ending at my ankles. Around my left fist rested the leaf forehead protector in which I had made into a knuckle duster, having two of them due to having two protectors. On my back came the double knive holders, handing down my back with the black handled blades safely stored in them. Many different clan symbols hang off the end of them, showing a reminder to me about who I was. On my leg came a three pouch connector, holding medicine, bandages and a range of small weaponry. Finally, I added a fourth pouch, holding two scrolls that were vital to my plan for the exams. Never can be too prepared is my motto.

Heading to my door, I heard Naruto gasp.

"What the hell?" He exclaimed and in seconds I was next to him. He had fallen over against the door, pushing it open revealing the room I never went near. Red stains splashed the walls, the room being a mess and dots of dried up red was everywhere. All the memories came screaming back, of the blood, the bodies of my family, the blood splatters all over the house. In seconds I ended up run to the bathroom and vomit. Naruto and Kao were behind me in seconds.

"What? You okay Ryoko?" Naruto asks me.

"Fine. Just be more careful Naruto. That room is off limits for a reason. Too many memories," I told him, muttering the last bit. Naruto nodded before Kao offered me a hand. Pulling me to my feet, I stumbled and landed against Kao's chest. The boy went red in the cheeks as I quickly moved away from him.

"Your house is beautiful Ryoko chan," Naruto said, breaking the silence.

"Okasan would say thanks if she was here now. Did all the colours and rooms herself. I love them," I said quietly before heading out the of room and placing my eyepatch in the table, deciding not to use it. Having my eye on show would make people be careful.

"Your mother would be proud of you Ryoko. I can say that much. Now we should go. Exams start shortly," Kao told me, my eyes snapping up him, noting the slight red on his cheeks and the smile on his lips.

"Come on over Hiro. I know you are outside the door," I called out, Hiro walking around to the room with a bashful smile. "Hands on my shoulders. Apologises if you get wet," I instructed, everyone doing it but looking at me in confusion about the water bit. Sighing I threw a bottle of water in the air before we appeared at the based of the academy and I once more stumbled into Kao's chest, his arms touching my waist to stabilise me before I backed away quickly.

"That is cool. How come you don't do it a lot?" Naruto asked me as we started walking up the stairs.

"Takes a lot of chakra in which to do such a thing. It's rare I do it cause of the chakra usage required. I have chakra levels that rival yours Naruto, but I have to limit my usage so I don't lose control," I stated before my demon chipped in.

"And so I don't kill everyone in sight by giving you my abilties,"

"Can it Chi. Don't need to let them in on my secret just yet," I mentally told my demon before sighing as we walked of the flights of stairs to the room in which we need to go.

"Just don't screw up little mouse. You never know whom you will run into or whom might be watching," chi told me, making me sigh in annoyance. His tone was different and he had obviously found a familiar chakra signal. Meaning I need to be extra careful.

I observed as Sasuke, Salura and Naruto talked of the genjustu on the floor before both teams headed upstairs to which the noise went to a whole another level. Groaning at the loudness, I settled myself against a wall, watching team 7 and my two idiotic teammates walk over to where some other leaf ninja's were. Though, I constantly had eyes flickering in my direction along with comments on myself from both leaf ninja's and other ninja's. With the eyepatch gone from my face, the scars in my forehead and eye were on show, making people move away from me, in which Chi grinned about.

My interest was sparked when I found a familiar grey haired ninja talking to the leaf genin. I knew him. Kabuto. Sneaky little bastard. That intrigued me and revolted me at the same time, but I acted upon my instincts and strolled over to the leaf nin, grinning under my mask at the reactions I got. Appearing behind a bewildered Kabuto, I could in,y grin evilly.

"Oh look. It's Kabuto. Didn't know you were a leaf nin. Interesting facts you learn every day," I stated with an amused tone. Watching the panic in his eyes, I knew there was more to him being here than I thought.

"Ah. Ryoko was it? Thanks for healing me back in that trip," Kabuto casually said, looking very nervous behind his blank figure.

"You know him Ryoko?" Naruto chimed in.

"Met on a mission a few years back. This girl has wicked healing skills and helped save my ass when I was injured, " the boy explained, Chi laughing his ass off at how he easily covered up how we met.

"Kabuto, find any information in Ryoko Morimoto," The boy with the dog in his head asks Kabuto, who chuckled, eyeing me before looking back to his cards. Whilst my photo came up, information did not. Only the words, Screw you.

"Oh yeah. I can change those sorts of things dog boy. Special trick I learnt a while back. You want information, just ask. But whether I tell you nor not is the real question," I told the boy before walking off, residing back against e wall as I observed everyone, looking for easy targets and threats. I heard Naruto yell something followed by the banshee yelling at him. What grabbed my attention was when Kabuto moved back as he dodged two kunai then a few swings taken at him, dodging them with ease. But surprise filled the room and my eyes narrowed when his glasses broke. This was an interesting development. Sound nin just attacked him. Why? No fighting was a rule of the exams unless told otherwise.

From a smoke of cloud appear a bold man, his narrow eyes looking all over the room before landing in Kabuto who had just vomitted.

"Thanks for waiting. I am Ibiki Morino, the examiner for the first test of the Chunin exams," the tall pale man told us, his face holding a claw like scarring from left to right in a diagonal fashion. "Now hidden Sound guys. Stop doing as you please or do you want to get failed already?"

The sound nin responded, saying something along the lines of getting carried away. Carried away my ass. They wanted to show of. Through the rest of his monologue, I surveyed the room, noting multiple people as targets of potential dangers. Next in I knew, I was stuck with Sasuke behind me, a mist ninja to my right, a leaf in my leaf and a piece of paper in front of me. Sighing in irritation, I figured out I would have Sasuke attempting to make me squirm under his gaze. Not that it would ever happen in a million years. Naruto was in front of me so it was something I guess.

"Alright. There are many important rules I have to tell you , so listen carefully as I will write them on the board and no questions will be allowed," Ibiki instructed after the papers were handed out upside down. He turned to face the blackboard, beginning to write the rules up.

"This test uses a subtraction system. So if you get all 10 questions right, you keep the points. Say you missed 3 of them. You would only end up with 7 points. " He paused as he wrote the second rule.

"Second, this is a team test. You pass depending on your teams overall score," I thought of my teammates. They better not screw this up or I would personally kill them. Sakura tried to ask a question, but was shot down by Ibiki. I was already starting to like this guy.

"The most important rule is that anyone who is caught by the testing officers doing any sneaky activity, mainly cheating, will have two points subtracted for every offense. Anyone who loses all the points will have to leave the exam," Silence, but panic level rose in the room. "Realize that pathetic ones getting caught cheating will be destroying themselves. As shinobis trying to achieve the level of Chūnin, be proud ninjas." There was silence once more so I thought he was done.

"Final rule is that anyone that loses their initial points during the test and don't answer any questions correctly, will be failed along with their two teammates." Right there and then, everything nearly hit the fan. I had faith in Naruto and my teammates, but Sasuke and Sakura were glaring at him. Little did they know how hard Naruto had been study with me through books to expand his knowledge. Bloody baka's. "You have one hour. Begin!"

Everyone flipped their pages over, reading through the questions and trying to answer them. Personally, I was pretty sure I could nail this, but aI needed to be able to check my answers somehow. Grinning, I opened a channel between Kao, Hiro, Naruto and I.

"Hey. Aim of the testis to cheat. Good luck suckers," Was all I told them before the link disappeared. Sighing, I scanned the room before tipping a bit of water on the table and putting my hand through it, touching Ibiki, who spun around and saw an arm that gave him the middle finger before disappearing. Grinning, I began to search through Ibiki's head, trying not to exclaim in disbelief at the amount of stuff he had gone through. Some people really do stun me. Ibiki's eyes scanned the whole room until they landed on me.

"Number 84. Out," I heard a chunin called out and Kao and Hiro looked at me in horror.

"Please tell me how I cheated and I'll leave," I said with a sigh as I put my feet on the table.

"You copied others work," one said.

"How?" I quizzed.

"I don't know," The chunin with bandages on his face muttered before I chuckled.

"I used a justu and touched Ibiki. That was all I did," I told him with a grin before Naruto started laughing. He knew exactly what I did.

"Leave it. Morimoto, I'm watching you carefully now," Ibiki told me, making me grin as every chunin in the room and Ibiki's head began to pound.

"Threats aren't a good move," I growled back before closing my eyes for a moment, then reopening them to look at the questions again.

Once more, I raked through his mind, it taking a while, but I eventually and slowly found the answers, writing his personal answer for each question down. The advantage of doing this was that when he looked over the test, he would be in for a surprise. By the time I got down to question 10, I found a surprise myself waiting for me. It simply read;

'This question will be revealed 45 minutes after the test begins. Listen to the examiner closely before answering.'

What? That made no sense at all, especially seeing as there was no other question in his mind. Damn it, there went that thing. Who else had I come into contact with in his room? I thought to myself as I scanned the room by searching for familiar chakra signals. I found Gaara and knew I had hit the jackpot. I paid attention to the chakra rates. Gaara was using a justu. So, the aim really was to cheat. And I could sense people trying to copy me. Sadly, I had already written them down. A kunai hit the table on my left. The leaf ninja jumped up demanding to know what it was for.

"You messed up 5 times. You fail. The two on his team, get out of here. Right now," The chunin with the bandage on his face says as he stood up. I tsked, mentally laughing. Who would get caught? And I leaf ninja at that. Sasuke's chakra had heightened. And for a while at that, so I guessed he was using his sharingan. As time continued on, more of the 51 teams were disqualified. More people got upset and were shown how little we were in comparison to them. I mean, way to scare them. Please proceed to continue doing that as it will make the, nervous. Sighing, I felt a very familiar chakra signal again, making my darker side growl in anger. Damn it. I put my hands up in front of my face before touching my covered eye.

Activating it, I scanned the room before I once more found all the answers. Ibiki was watching me in interest I believe seeing as he smiled slightly. Someone complained about dust in their eye. I knew who it was. Stupid kid, but Gaara was being smart about his actions. I noticed about two of the chūnin were watching me with my hand still up in front of me and my eyes moving and writing down something. I changed my hand position and made their heads pound. I heard a responsive grunt, before I did another hand sign, making the two get rid of the marks against my name. Then, I sighed in relief as I put my hand down.

"We will know begin the 10th question," Ibiki announces to the room, making us all look up at him in anticipation. "I'd like to go over the added rules for this question." Panic once more heightened in the room, making my head hurt. Stupid emotional genin. I was silent as I raked Ibiki's mind once more in search of the mystery of this question. And I found an answer, so I leaned back slightly, sighing to myself in relief. Then I decided I would check in on Kakashi.

{Through link to Kazuma's mind}

"It sure is boring without my team. The missions will have to wait," He says to the four other jonin sensei's in a small room.

"Don't worry. You'll be busy again soon," One of the sensei's, the other male, says in reply before continuing on. "I heard that examiner for the first test is Ibiki Morino."

Kakashi sighed in reply to this. "Not that sadist."

"Sadist?" The girl says.

"Oh. Kurenai, you're a new jonin so you probably didn't know but he is a pro," Kazuma says.

"In what?" the woman commented again.

"Torture and Interrogation," The male sensei says. Kazuma was silent, but did think to himself,

'Lead assassination squad, torture and interrogation captain is who Special Jonin Ibiki Morino is.'

{Back in Reality aka Ryoko's POV}

By the time I tuned back in, I heard Naruto exclaim that he doesn't back down as it is his ninja way. The panic and worries in the room vanished within seconds of Naruto's speech. That boy really did have a way with words at times.

"Well, good decision. Now to the 78 still remaining, I congratulate you on passing the first test."

There was a mixed reaction to this. Sakura just had to ask about it of course. This made me annoyed, more so when Temari joined in questioning it. Couldn't they just accept it and move on without questioning everything to do with it. And it got more interesting when Ibiki took off his head scarf, revealing horrible burns, screw holes and scars.

"After effects of torture," I muttered to myself. He really must be extremely strong to have gone through that and still survived. Though, it does explain why he has the positions he holds currently and why he is so respected.

"I wish you luck," Ibiki says as he finished answering questions.

"Yes! Wish us luck!" Naruto says in confidence after passing. It was now that something came rolling through the now smashed window, a banner covering up where Ibiki had been standing and a woman was standing in front of us.

"Now isn't the time to be celebrating!" She says, the room falling silent once more. "I am the examiner for the second test, Anko Mitarashi. Now let's go!" We all just looked at her in a mixture of confusion and surprise.

"81? You left 29 teams Ibiki. The test was easy this time," She exclaimed.

"This time, there are a lot of outstanding ones," Ibiki replied.

"Bah, That is fine. I'll cut them in half in the second test," She declared as she looked us back over. "I'll explain once we have had a change of scenery. Move it Maggots!"

Slowly but surely, individuals from all around the room got up, moving back into their teams and discussing what the next test might be. Over came Kao and Hiro, looking at me in relief.

"I seriously thought you were out Ryoko," Hiro stated.

"Nah. They just picked me cause they were curious as to what would happen. Ibiki knows I didn't cheat on anyone else. That is why he made them leave it. But it was close never the less," I replied with a sigh as I made sure I wasn't wearing an eyepatch and chuckled to myself as I opened my eye, revealing a black iris with a dark red scar through it. Hiro and Kao exchanged a look before talking to me.

"What's with your eye?" Hiro asked of me once more in pure curiosity.

"It's a secret. I told you that," I said with a twisted grin beneath my mask as we followed this 'Anko' individual out to the training grounds.

The trees were a lot higher up in the training ground we stopped in front of, as well as the fence surrounding it being quite high. A Forest filled of colour and opportunity stood in front of us and it made adrenaline fill my body. Anko was a slightly tall woman who wore very little clothing. Her hair was like that of a pineapple, reminding me of that Nara kid with the pineapple head. Her hair was short and black, with her eyes watching us all, picking out the weeds and strong ones. When her eyes landed on me, she smirked.

"Welcome to stage two. The forest of death or training ground 44 in other words. You will fin out very soon why it's called the Forest of Death," Added to the introduction did Anko give us. She grinned and licked her lips before Naruto spoke up.

"Forest of Death? You think that will scare me?!" Naruto exclaimed before a kunai got thrown and in seconds, I moved to grab the kunai, cutting my hand in the process. I let go of it and swung it around on my hand before throwing it back at her, the woman catching it before weirdly licking the blood off of it.

"your kunai," I hissed, the woman smirking.

"Thank you," she said, watching me and looking me up and down.

"Now, I will hand out these forms for which you need to sign in order to participate. There will be death in this test and if you dont sign, I get held respnsible. So basically, sign away and check in as a team at the booth behind me. But first, I'll explain the test." Anko stated before continuing. " Around this training ground are 44 locked gates. Forest, river and a tower in the centre. From the gate to the tower is about 10km. During this survival test, you have to complete one task. Using your many weapons and justus you are to complete in a scroll battle. No rules. You will fight over these two scrolls," She pulled out a black and white scroll. "These are the scrolls of heaven and earth. There are 26 teams, so half will get heaven and half will get earth. To pass the test, you must have both."Silence fell through the air once more.

"So some of you will fail if you lose your scroll and others will die due to the harsh conditions. So, I'll tell you how to get disqualified. First, there is a time limit, so if you lose your scroll, you have till then to get both and get to the tower. Second, those who lose a teammate or those who have a teammate killed will be disqualified. There also is no quitting midway. You will be in there for five days. Lastly, you must not look inside the scroll until you make it to the tower. Otherwise you will meet a surprise. That is the explanation. You will get a scroll in exchange for 3 forms, then chose a gate to start at. Off you go!" Anko directs and we all got into our teams. Anko looked to me and motioned for me to come over to her.

"I see you're here Ryoko. That will make it troublesome," Anko says as everyone was busy.

"Why is that?" I asked her as my eye changed colors again, making her reach for he pouch of kunai. I tsked and swapped it back.

"Don't go killing everyone will you?" Anko muttered to me.

"But that's no fun. And you know what my mother would say? Listen to Chi. And Chi wants to kill. Simple," I stated before walking off with a form in hand and receiving a heaven scroll. Sighing, i looked over the gate numbers before y team and I picked number 8 to start. It would be fun to see how exactly this would work. Turning to Kao and Hiro I looked at them.

"I'm keeping a clone with you. I am going off by myself. You need me, tell my clone and we will swap places," I told the two before walking off to the next gate, ignoring their protests before I summoned my two summons, but in their human forms.

"Milady. What exactly is the aim?" Messor, who was a short, white haired girl with tanned skin and dark grey eyes, asked of me. She pulled on her shirt as she looked at what she was wearing, which consisted of a white top and black pants, a katana colored black on her side. She had nothing on her feet, two sets of studs in her ears and also had a marking of a faded white star on her face, which in my eyes showed she was my summon.

"The aim is to get a black and a white scroll. One is earth, the other is heaven. In the meantime, we head towards the centre of the training grounds to where the end of the test, the tower, is. Questions?" I explained quickly.

"Sorry Milady, but why are we in our human forms?" Nox, who had hard short, spikey black hair, tanned skin also and grey eyes. He had on a black top and pants, nothing on his feet, but had a white handled katana on his side. He too had a marking of a faded black star on his face, showing he too was my summon. In his ears was three sets of earrings for whatever reason he liked them.

"Because this is the only way to be able to participate where you can go wild. I can change you back later though. In addition, we can kill, harm, torture and anything else to anyone else," I replied, watching as my two 'panthers' smirked in delight, showing off their very triangular sharp teeth. I took off the eyepatch on my eye and changed the way I looked. My green eyes were now a dark blue, one of them was black and white though. I had long black and white hair now. My choice of clothes changed to that of solely black, including the bandages. At least I could mess with them now. The twin blades on my legs changed to a silver colouring, hiding the real look beneath a genjutsu. Now the disguise was complete.

"Alright! BEGIN!" Anko yelled out before the gates were opened to us, my team sprinting into the forest. I sensed around for chakra signals, finding that Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke as well as my own personal team and clone were nearby. So, I changed the way I looked for the sake of going crazy without getting caught or giving myself away. Even though I hated them, they were going to be useful later on, so someone had to look out for them. I was up in the middle treetops, watching around as ninja's ignored everyone and headed towards the centre.

Dropping to lean against a tree, my summons landing n person next to me and nodding. I pulled a piece of paper out and ink, easily drawing up what I remembered of the map Anko had shown us so we had an estimate amount of a map set up.

"So we are going this way. The river is a fair bit away so finding scrolls than heading back to the idiots on our team," Nox stated, Messor and I nodding.

"Well, that should work. I have found a team that is following Naruto. Should we head over there mistress?" Messor chimed in with a bowed head.

"Yes. That would be good. Don't harm them, just...scare the leaf nin. Anyone else, go for your life. Like now!" I exclaimed before Messor pushed me upwards into the air, all three of us pulling out weapons, slicing the opponents before my eyes scanned them for a weakness before noticing one of them was already limping.

"The back one has an injured leg. Occupy the other two for me ," I instructed before racing to a nearby tree, pushing of it with a use of chakra in my feet whilst throwing a bottle in the air appearing in front fo the injured boy, wrapping my legs around his neck then flipping him over and onto the ground before his teammate froze after hearing a crack from their teammate whom I released and dropped to the ground as I stood up.

"I'm going to kill you!" They yelled in sync but I turned away as I heard the sickening sound of their screams thanks to my summons going crazy. Finding where Naruto's team was, I found the chakra not too far from where I was currently standing.

"Nox. Messor. Come on. Let's go bail people out of trouble again," I stated in annoyance, the two summons bowing slightly before racing of along side myself. The team tagging along behind the Leaf nin was a stone team. And the leader seemed to notice us very quickly as he immediately started to move at a very fast rate, my eyes changing to something I didn't want to use yet.

"Guys! Run! You can't have that!" The leader yelled at me, but I moved around him and got him through the stomach with my short blades, pulling them out before kicking the lifeless body, which sohappened to fall from the tree tops to the ground, screams of a familiar voice being heard from below. After flipping from the top of the trees, I landed on the ground with a loud thump thanks to the chakra used to make sure I landed and stayed standing.

Strolling forward, Naruto and Sasuke moved in front of Sakura, kunai's drawn as I flicked my blade, the blood splatting off it onto the ground before sheathing it.

"The pinky looks like she could be taste," Messor says before she appeared next to Sakura, moving her leg to trip Sasuke, but he and Naruto dodged, landing with ease.

"Can I kill this one?" Nox added in, moving his hand over Naruto's cheek, scaring the hell out of the boy who started yelling about how creepy it was.

"Not even worth it. Wont be a challenge. So let's go hunt someone else," I added before heading towards a tree, ready to walk up it. "Oh wait. You. Watch yourself Uchiha. Or you will find more people dead around you. But pass on a message to a friend of yours. Tell Morimoto to watch her back cause she is mine now," I added, Messor and Nox trying not to laugh as I threatened myself.

"Nox. Messor. Let's go. Twelve o'clock in the trees," I spoke before the three of us disappeared from sight, heading to where we had found Kao and Hiro along with my clone.

"Why did you threaten yourself mistress?" Nox asked of me as he fell in step next to me.

"I can't be suspected so it was the easiest idea," I replied before pulling out my short blades with a grin as we found enemies closing in on our position. Seems this test was warming up and the smell of blood was one my nose would be noticing a lot of in the next few days.