The Eternal Chimera – Chapter 8

Once again, thanks to those who took the time out to review.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

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It had been two days since Naruto had arrived back home in Konoha. Two days since the group of rookies had all been told that they were being recommended to compete in the chuunin exams. Their jounin senseis had told the group that this was more for the experience than anything else; if anyone made chuunin it would be seen as an added bonus.

It had also been two days since Naruto and Shikamaru had stumbled across a team from the sand village.

FLASHBACK

"Come on Shikamaru. Surely you aren't so lazy to miss the chuunin exams?"

"Surely you have noticed that square rock that's following us."

"I have, I'm trying to ignore it and stop trying to change the subject."

Konohamaru, hearing that his rival in attaining the position of Hokage was trying to ignore him immediately got his panties in a twist and tried to make a flashy entrance.

BOOM.

The box had exploded and Konohamaru and his friends Moegi and Udon could be seen coughing in the clearing smoke.

"You can't ignore me; I'm your eternal rival." He brazenly declared.

Both Naruto and Shikamaru shuddered at his choice of words.

"Konohamaru, I'm kinda busy, trying to get the laziest person in this village to compete in the chuunin exams."

"You mean him? Why don't you get his girlfriend to try?"

"You have a girlfriend? How much changed while I was away?" Naruto asked incredulously.

"I don't have a girlfriend." Shikamaru snapped irritably. "Asuma-sensei was talking about how apparently we choose girls most like our mothers, which is why he said that Ino must be my perfect match."

"Shikamaru and Ino sitting in a kissing in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby."

Apparently this little chant was the last straw for Shikamaru, because he actually did something that involved energy and started to chase Konohamaru. Meanwhile Naruto started laughing; his laughter was to be short lived when Konohamaru ran straight into a boy wearing what appeared to be a black cat suit with purple face paint on.

"Ouch, you little brat! I'll teach you watch where you're going from now on."

The boy grabbed Konohamaru and lifted him clean off of the ground.

"What do you think you are doing?"

"Teaching this brat to watch his manners."

"Kankuro, let him go and let's leave." A girl with blond hair tied into four pony tails and a large metal object tied to her back tried to reason with him.

The boy, now identified as Kankuro appeared not to be even listening to the girl.

"Just so you know; you're holding the Hokage's grandson there. I don't think he'll be impressed if you lay into him."

"I'm the son of the Kazekage, so he should also respect me." Kankuro, countered with a mean smile about his face.

"So you're both related to kages, but you're a ninja. Attacking a Konoha citizen, a child no less, well I hate to think what our ANBU would like to do about protecting our citizens." Shikamaru added, gaining some true leverage over the situation.

That actually put some fear into him. No matter whom he was related to, attacking a citizen for something as trivial as this would guarantee a reprimand that would be no laughing matter. Just as he was filtering through the new argument a third person from the sand village joined the commotion.

He had flaming red hair and a gourd on his back.

"Kankuro, release him." Unlike the blonde girl, this boy was listened to immediately.

"Gaara, sorry, he start…"

"Shut up." Gaara interrupted; his voice like ice.

"I apologise for my teammate's idiocy. I am Subaku no Gaara. My teammates are Temari and Kankuro." The invitation was left for Naruto and Shikamaru to introduce themselves; something that Shikamaru did hesitantly.

"Shikamaru Nara and that is Naruto Uzumaki. I assume you are here for the chuunin exams."

"Correct. I look forward to seeing you in the exams." Gaara said as his farewell bidding before turning on his heel and heading away.

Naruto, for his part was having a score of different thoughts running through his head.

'He feels like Hiko-sensei. Does that mean he's a Dragon too? No he doesn't feel like Hiko-sensei, he just feels different from Shikamaru.'

'Naruto-kun.'

'Rei-san?'

'What you sense, I sense it too. It's familiar, but I can't quite place it. Use caution.' Rei advised.

'Thank you.' He paused for a second before asking 'Since when am I Naruto-kun? It was always Naruto-san.'

'Since I became Rei-chan.'

'I never called you that.'

'You did, when you summoned me in front of Jiraiya.'

"NARUTO!" Shikamaru was now yelling. "How the hell can you zone out when such a freaky guy is about? Sheesh."

FLASHBACK END

It was only a further two days until they were due to take the first exam of the three part exam. Naruto and Shikamaru had told the others about the encounter they had with the sound team and advised the rest to use caution around them, particularly the red head.

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Two days had come and gone rather quickly. The teams had been set out and the only thing left to do was to arrive at the exam room for the first exam.

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were all walking up to the designated room for the exam; room 301 of the ninja academy.

Having walked up only one set of stairs they immediately knew something was off when they saw a sign saying '301' one floor to early. A quick check showed them that a genjutsu was in place. There were two people standing either side of the supposed room '301' as though they were standing guard.

The three saw Neji, Tenten and Lee demanding that the guards be allow them into the room. Just as the group tried to walk past, they were stopped.

"You guys are way too green to be doing this exam. People have died doing this you know?" One of the pair started.

"You guys should just thank us for saving you and go home."

"We've spotted the genjutsu so just let us past and everything will be fine." Sakura said in as quite a voice as possible, trying not to alert any teams that might have been coming up the stairs to the trick, hoping to reduce the competition.

The pair gave a disbelieving look at each other before allowing the trio to pass. Neji and his team used this as their way past as well before stopping Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura.

"Do not think you are any better than the rest of us. By the end of these chuunin exams I will have put you and all your silly friends in their place. I will use this exam as a stage to prove my superiority to both Hiashi-sama and Gai-sensei."

"Neji, stop this. They haven't done anything so don't go looking for trouble before the exam starts." Tenten tried to reason with him. Neji sent them a parting glare before walking past them, taking care to brush against each of them in turn.

"I apologise for my teammate's unyouthful behaviour. We may be on different teams, but I will do my utmost to protect a fellow Konoha ninja.

When Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto walked into the exam room the immediately saw the rest of the rookie group.

"Hey Shikamaru, you decided to come after all?" Naruto greeted.

"Your one to talk, we thought you weren't going to show at all with how late you are." Kiba replied as he strolled up with the rest of the group.

"Were later than you, but still on time so what's the problem." Sasuke replied indifferently.

"You poor little things, you guys have no idea how things work around here. Maybe I should give you a hand."

"And who are you?" Ino questioned the bespectacled, silver haired teen that had abruptly started talking to them."

"Forgive me, my name is Kabuto Yakushi. You guys are making a fair bit of noise so I thought I'd do the friendly thing and just warn you that you are making yourselves a walking target."

The group turned to the rest of the examination room to see practically every pair of eyes trained on them giving heated glares.

"The hell with them. If they really wanna piece then they can form a line and I'LL TAKE 'EM ALL DOWN ONE BY ONE." Naruto declared raising his voice for the last part to ensure that the whole room heard.

"You're not quite all there are you? No never mind." Kabuto gave Naruto a funny look before turning to the rest of the group.

"So is there anything you wanna know, I can tell you a fair bit."

"Have you done these exams before?" Hinata asked.

"Six times before, I'm what you'd call a veteran."

"I'm not so sure we should be taking advice from people that fail that many times." Misao piped up.

"I have information on competitors if you'd rather that then." Kabuto offered.

"What countries are competing this year?" Shikamaru asked. If he asked the question he had in mind, about Gaara's abilities, he would undoubtedly draw unwanted attention from the boy.

"Well there are thirteen teams from sand, ten teams from Rain, five from grass, four from waterfall, one each from sound and lightning and twenty seven from fire."

"What do you have on the teams from sand, sound and lightning?"

"There isn't anything exceedingly special about either sound or lightning, but there is one standout team from Suna. The team consisting of the Kazekage's children. The real mystery of that team is Subaku no Gaara. He's done eleven C rank missions and a B rank, all without ever being injured."

"The hell?" Kiba voiced. A C rank without damage, well that was possible, though not probable, though a B rank and no damage, something was awry.

The rest of the rookies took in the information and decided that avoidance as Shikamaru and Naruto had suggested was the best course of action.

Just as Kabuto had said this last part he was attacked by several ninja wearing hitai-ates bearing a musical note; evidently from the sound village. One drew back his sleeve and swung a roundhouse punch at Kabuto. Kabuto dodged rather nimbly and appeared to be fine, till his glasses shattered; he lost his balance then fell to the floor and vomited.

"Still think that there isn't anything special about the team from hidden sound?" The girl of their team sneered at him while Sakura ran a diagnostic jutsu before healing his perforated eardrum.

There was a large poof of smoke and before them stood twelve people in grey uniforms along with a tall man in a bandana wearing a black trench coat.

"Alright you sick, baby faced degenerates, that's more than enough. There will be no fighting in these exams without the proctor's clearance. Understood? Anyone going against that can leave now."

"Sorry, we have some extra energy from all the excitement." A boy that had more of a resemblance to a mummy than a human tried to justify.

The man just ignored him and continued.

"My name is Ibiki Morino; I'm the proctor for the first exam. Get to a seat, no sitting next to teammates. Well? Stop staring and get to it!"

Everybody scrambled to a desk at his command after momentarily being dumbfounded.

"Right this exam is a written test."

'Are you kidding? I suck at these.' Naruto though dejectedly.

"Listen up, I have to tell you the rules for this exam, and I won't be repeating myself so listen properly. The rules are as follows. You start out on full marks when you get your paper. For each of the questions you get wrong you lose a mark. If you are caught cheating you lose two marks."

'Great! Any other ways for me to fail?'

"Furthermore, if you get caught cheating five times or don't get any questions right and score a zero, then you along with your teammates will be disqualified.'

'Oh…crap!'

"Right, you all have your tests, so begin."

'Right, let's just see what the questions are like before I completely thro in the towel…these are freaking impossible. Even Sakura and Shikamaru would have trouble with these. Still, not s bad as Iruka-sensei's tests, if you're caught cheating in one of those it's an instant fail.'

After looking at the questions he realised what he had just run through in his head.

'Wait, I don't fail immediately for cheating and I only have to get one question right so I don't fail. Basically, I have five shots to get one question right. May as well have some fun doing it.'

It was about fifteen minutes into the exam when the apparently clam Naruto requested to go to the toilet. He went accompanied by one of the male chuunin. Ten minutes later he came back looking rather relieved, the chuunin chaperone came back looking rather disgusted, and it became apparent to everyone in the exam room why. Naruto stank, as he took his seat somewhere near the middle those that he passed by recoiled in disgust at the vile smell that assaulted their nostrils. Kiba and Akamaru could be seen desperately trying to cover their noses. Ibiki gave him a stern look before continuing watching the rest.

Naruto sat there for the next five minutes looking as calm as he had for the whole exam when all of a sudden there was a massive wind from outside. The wind shattered the windows, blew papers everywhere and even sent some people flying.

It was absolute mayhem and inside it all many of the Suna nin had been grilled about disrupting the exam, after all, the wind responsible could only have been a jutsu, and what better village for wind jutsu than the wind village itself.

When the commotion was over and every one had their tests back there were four people that noticed that their test were still absent.

"You will be re-issued tests." Ibiki told them.

"But we had questions answered." One of the examinees whined.

"That's your problem, not mine."

Naruto, still looking calm started filling out his test.

"Pencils down! Times up! I have one more question to give. Listen well, because there are rules that are specific to this question."

He surveyed the group, noting that he had their attention he continued.

"Rule one, you may choose whether or not to take this question."

"Wait, if there is a choice, why bother taking the extra risk? If we have our questions answered correctly then why risk it?" a random genin from Konoha asked.

"Shut up and listen, I'm not done yet. If you choose not to take it then you and your teammates are disqualified."

"Then of course we'll take it!" The same genin yelled out.

"I SAID SHUT UP! If you take the question and get it wrong then you not only fail, but you will be barred from ever taking the exams again."

"Wait, what? That's crap! There are people that have taken the test before and are taking it again."

"You're just unlucky I'm making the rules." Ibiki replied with a smile that looked as though he was the cat that ate the canary.

"That's it, I'm out, it's too much to risk." One genin yelled out, he walked out with the rest of his teammates.

Following this there were many calls from other teams that they too would not take the risk.

Naruto out of the corner of his eye saw Sakura raising her hand, he wasn't sure what the hell she was doing but surely she wouldn't say that she too couldn't handle it.

It really did seem as though Sakura was going to try again next year, he had to do something.

"You know that has to be the stupidest rule in history!" Naruto cried out. "And still I'm gonna sit through it. So what if I can't become a chuunin, I'll just jump from genin straight to Hokage, and then when I am Hokage, I'll make sure that you do nothing but retrieve Tora missions for the rest of your career!"

The outburst had two effects. The first was to make every Konoha ninja shudder at the thought of nothing but rescuing tora for the rest of their life. The other was to put some backbone behind the rest of the genin, Sakura had lowered her hand and nobody else was quitting.

"You're quite sure? This decision will affect the rest of your life." Ibiki tried to just get a few more to quit.

"I gave you my word, and I'll never go back on it, that's my nindo." Naruto replied, full of confidence.

"Very well then, the only thing left for me to do it to inform you that YOU PASS."

'Wait what about the tenth question." The blond girl, Temari, asked.

"There wasn't one, or more accurately it was the decision between two impossible choices. Let me give you a hypothetical, you are asked to retrieve the plans invasion force from enemy an enemy camp. It is likely that they know you are coming and have prepared accordingly. Do you (A) not accept the mission because of the risk and try to do it when there is no risk of failure, or do you (B) continue one, trying to gain the information that could save your village. Those that choose the soft option and chose to save their own necks over their comrades or simply choose not to run the mission because of the risk of death have no right to call themselves chuunin."

"So the first nine questions were a waste of time?"Temari asked.

"Hardly, that was a test to see your information gathering skills in the most adverse of situations. You will find that throughout your career that information can be the most precious thing on the field of battle." He said as he took off his bandana revealing a horribly disfigured scalp, the remnants of having being tortured for information.

"However, bad information is better than no information. In this example, if the enemy discovers you, they can change their plans and set a trap. Your information gathering skills must be flawless."

At that he decided to actually find out who the outrageous person that wrecked havoc earlier.

"Speaking of information gathering, who was it that actually pulled that stunt earlier? I have my suspicions."

All eyes around the room focussed on the nearest Suna ninja, expecting an explanation. What many did not expect was for Naruto to raise his hand and take responsibility.

"Well, I knew I had no real techniques for information gathering, at least not in this situation. So I went to the toilet. While I was in there the chaperone may remember me making a lot of noises pretending to try and do a number two."

"Please keep the details to a minimum; that is something I'd rather forget." The chuunin in question responded with a grimace.

"Well after making noises like I was constipated, I dropped a kunai in the water, making the splashing sound. The smell came from one of my unused stink pellets from my prankster days." Many of the other chuunin smiled each remembering a prank he pulled and the chase that ensued.

"Well the smell was bad enough for you to need to vomit, so I used that chance to create kage bunshins. Once we left the toilets they left and went outside after assuming different forms under a henge. From there they used daitoppa to create the disturbance and then stole some papers. They read them through, dispelled and the information they absorbed came to me."

"Well, not too bad kid. Not only did you manage to get the info you needed you managed to pin it on someone else. Everyone was looking at the Suna nin as the culprits."

Just as he finished another man wearing a bandana walked in, this one was wearing a pair of round sunglasses, and blue long sleeve shirt, pants and shinobi sandals. It was Konohamaru's personal tutor Ebisu.

"Ibiki-san, you left far too many of them."

"They are an exceptional bunch this year, Ebisu."

"Well I will judge for myself." Ebisu snorted, while turning his nose up at the genin.

"You are all dismissed for the day, you are to meet at training ground forty four tomorrow at seven am."

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The next came all too quickly, many of the genin had spent the day resting, in fact there was only one exception and that was Lee. He decided that it was necessary to have a victory run of 100 laps around Konoha in celebration of his success of the first exam.

The chuunin hopefuls gathered around the designated area.

"Welcome to the forty fourth training ground, affectionately known to Konoha as the forest of death." Naruto inwardly smirked.

'Heh, couldn't be that bad, I've been going there for ages.'

'Calm down Naruto-kun, don't get arrogant. After all, pride comes before a fall.' Rei's voice sounded in his head.

'Right sorry.' He replied sheepishly before tuning back in.

"…be given a heaven or an earth scroll. You must try to obtain the scroll you do not have and then make your way to the centre tower, positioned five kilometres from any entrance. You will have five days to complete this, in which time you must also avoid the creatures in the forest and any dangerous plants you come across."

"What about food?" Chouji piped up.

"The forest will provide, if you know how to look, if not then you'll die of poisoning." Chouji paled slightly.

"Now then, to pass you must reach the centre tower within five days with both scrolls. There will be no quitting in the middle, so the easiest way out, besides death, is to complete the exam. You must also have all teammates present at the time of completion and no teammate may be injured that will prevent their continuing participation in these exams. That means they must be alive an able to fight. Finally as you are forbidden to look inside the scroll till you get to the tower. As chuunin you will be trusted with sensitive information, this is a test of that trust that you will not look."

"And if we do?" one of the rain ninja tested.

"Well if you're really that interested then by all means open them and find out." Ebisu leered.

"Now I need you to sign these death waver forms. There will most likely be deaths in this exam and I don't want your villages to hold it to the Hidden Leaf if you do. No signed form, no competing." Ebisu stated.

A short while later as the forms and then the scroll were handed out teams took their positions at one of the 44 entrances place around the perimeter of the training ground, waiting for the starting signal. A kunai flashed in the air and all teams rushed into the area, immediately starting on some sort of plan that they had worked out together.

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"There is a stream slightly north of this gate. If we head there we can stop worrying about a source of food and water." Naruto shared his knowledge with the rest.

"How did you know that?"

"I used to train in here from time to time. I don't know every area, but I do know parts of it."

"Well it's a good idea and if there are other teams that wander into the area then it would be an ideal place to set up traps for an ambush." Sakura pointed out.

"Fine, the stream it is, but we have to be careful that we don't fall into a trap just like Sakura said." Sasuke confirmed.

It was twenty minute of travelling when Sakura noticed that something was completely off about this section of the forest; it was dead silent. There wasn't a sound to be heard, they also had the strange suspicion that they were being followed.

Two men and a woman appeared before them, another Konoha team. The team's members appeared to be in their forties, Naruto couldn't believe that there were people this old that were still genin. Sasuke and Sakura each drew out a kunai preparing for anything, while Naruto simply made some shadow clones to add more numbers.

The three elder ninja said nothing, not even asking for a truce before rushing in to quickly close the gap between themselves and Naruto.

It really was fortunate that Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke had prepared before hand, otherwise they may not have been prepared to react. They enemy team had formed an arrow point formation, meaning that Naruto could not use his Reikoku Ken-ryuu to its full potential by rotating around the enemy and then countering. It simply meant that he was on the defensive. As he was rotating around attacks, he had to change the direction of his rotation multiple times in rapid succession due to the well co-ordinated attacks that they were using.

Sasuke and Sakura in the mean time had managed to find an opening and managed to knock the two flanking opponents down to give Naruto a chance to counter properly.

Sasuke exploited the opening first, stopping a left handed back slash of a kunai with his own left hand while attacking the person's ribs with his other free hand while they could not defend properly. This caused them to recoil slightly in pain, it was all the opening he needed and sent them flying with a right legged roundhouse kick.

With that person momentarily out of the way I left the second person in the arrow formation wide open as the other was not there to cover her. Sakura used the butt of her kunai and slammed it against the base of her neck, whipping her head forwards and leaving her head at a perfect height for a knee to the temple. The opening was not left unused and Sakura managed to get from behind her to her side faster than she knew she could move and slammed her knee into the woman's head.

This left the third person, the head of the arrow almost completely vulnerable as there were four clones around plus Naruto himself. Naruto swatted the fist that came at his gut aside and simply pushed the man back. While the man was momentarily stunned two clones came in; one from the front the other from behind. The clone in front elbowed the man in the solar plexus, the clone behind did the same to the same point on the back. The man lost use of his legs and dropped to the floor.

"What the hell do you think you're doing? We're all Konoha shinobi. You shouldn't be trying to kill us for the sake of an exam." Sakura growled at the adults.

"Stupid girl…this isn't about some stupid exam." The man that Sasuke defeated choked out as he tried to regain his senses.

"Then what is this about?" Sasuke demanded.

He wasn't given an answer; instead the trio renewed their attack with more fervour than before. The two that could move re-engaged in taijutsu again, while this time the third that had lost use of his legs was going through hand seals. The other two had once again engaged Naruto, keeping him occupied as the third prepared his jutsu.

'They really are trying to kill him.' Sakura thought wildly.

As she moved to once again take out the woman of the team once again she made her decision, if they were going to try and kill her teammate she would return the favour.

She activated the chakra scalpel that she had learned. While it was not fine enough to be used as a scalpel, it was more than enough to cleanly slice through flesh and bone better than any kunai. There was no more thought involved, she got inside the wild swings the woman was using to try and get to Naruto and ran her hand from one side of her neck to the other, cleanly cutting across her trachea as well as jugular vein and carotid artery. Blood spayed everywhere, but Sakura payed it no mind, she had been to surgery rooms and seen just how bloody they could get.

Sasuke saw the man going through seals while Naruto was preoccupied trying to dodge the remaining able bodied person. He recognised to jutsu almost immediately and sprung into action, forming the seals even faster than the man who had already started performing hand seals.

"Katon: gokakyu no jutsu." He screamed.

A great fireball erupted out of Sasuke's mouth, incinerating their enemy.

Naruto this time opted to sweep the man's legs from under him, then thrust an open palm against the man's wind pipe as he fell, eventually nearly crushing it between his hand and the ground.

"Feels just like the good old days, right Kyuubi?" The man spat at Naruto.

He had been considering letting the man keep his life, but he had just broken a law punishable by death, before the man could blink he had a kunai lodged in his throat. He turned to his friends.

"You know you could have just let them kill me and then get burned up in the fire that followed. You would have had plenty of time to get out of range."

"That's beside the point. You don't expect Konoha nin to do that to one of their own. And why did he call you Kyuubi?"

Naruto visibly stiffened.

"It's nothing you need to worry about, Sakura." Naruto replied tersely.

"Yes it is, you were attacked because of it. Don't think that we don't see the looks people give you on the streets. Every time we ask, you play it off as nothing. When we ask Kakashi-sensei, he says it's for you to tell, not him. Aren't we your friend? Can't we know?"

Naruto drew a deep breath before responding.

"I'll tell you after we finish this exam. We need to concentrate." Naruto said as he went and searched the dead bodies, plucking out an earth scroll.

"Damn, we already have that one." Sasuke muttered.

"We can still use if for trading if another team has an extra heaven scroll."

"Right, well let's he…ARGH!"

Sasuke had been cut off midsentence, a powerful gust of wind had blown the three apart.

"Sasuke? Naruto? Where are you?" Sakura called out, keeping a kunai draw to protect herself.

'That wasn't any ordinary wind, that had to be a ninjutsu, perhaps daitoppa.' Sakura surmised in her head.

"Sakura, I'm here. Where's Naruto?" Sasuke called back, joining his female teammate.

Sakura only shook her head to indicate that she didn't know.

"Your other teammate is a little…preoccupied at the moment." The voice came from a pale looking man, though at a quick glance you could have mistaken him for a woman. He was wearing am off white tunic, with a purple belt around his waist and a loose black body suit underneath.

"Who are you?" Sasuke demanded.

"Just an interested observer. I didn't get to observe you a great deal Sasuke; perhaps you would like a second showing. If you do well enough I might give you a little gift." While the man spoke he seemed to be doing something with his eyes.

'Like a snake does to its prey, and were the unlucky rodent, I can't move. I'm stuck here just from my fear of the man.' Sasuke thought frantically.

'COME ON…MOVE!" Sasuke roared as he jammed a kunai into his leg to get his body into gear and out of the trance like state.

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Naruto was just coming to when he heard the sound of the undergrowth being crushed by something very large. He whipped his head around to see the open maw of a gigantic snake bearing down on him. Naruto started moving through the trees trying to escape the snake. If he could just get a free second he could use a jutsu to destroy it, but it was relentless.

Just as Naruto thought he had a break, a second snake burst from underneath him, he only just managed to avoid being swallowed, but could not avoid the writhing tail as it rose into the air. The two snakes eyed him for a full five seconds before they once again started their pursuit of their pray.

Try as he may, Naruto could not do anything, he was always using his hands to grasp onto branches and the one kunai he did manage to get off bounce harmlessly off of the snakes scales. At the back of his mind he could feel a dull tug, but he couldn't quite grasp onto the feeling and couldn't identify it so he refocussed on avoiding the snake, but it was too late, that one moment of inattention had cost him.

No sooner had his feet touched the branch he was aiming for, a snake had used its tail to smash into splinters as another snake came up from underneath opening its mouth and swallowing him whole.

A moment later the snake seemed distended, before the snake burst open, Naruto clones spilling out. The clones then rushed the remaining snake, positioning all along its body.

"Bunshin daibakuha." Naruto called, as all of his clones positioned on the snake exploded.

The explosion was enormous, it was seen for miles away. It was taken as a clear warning for many teams not to approach. One team however, had seen the explosion but were split between going and simply walking into the tower. It was the sand team consisting of Kankuro, Temari and Gaara. Gaara wish to fight the person responsible, but Temari and Kankuro were delicately trying to dissuade him from the idea. Saying the wrong thing to their mentally unstable brother could mean their deaths. In the end Gaara's older siblings managed to convince him to complete the exam by simply walking into the tower with their heaven and earth scrolls in hand.

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Sasuke and Sakura were being pummelled by the man that had confronted them. He was yet to identify himself, but they could easily see that he was in a completely different league. Sakura for her part was trying to place genjutsu on the man, or else simply just throw weapons when she found an opening, but he seemed impervious to it all. Sasuke was engaging in ninjutsu and taijutsu, while he would land one or two sound hits on the man they were nothing truly significant.

'If we both keep fighting then we're both going to die. If all he really wants is me; then I can just give him what he wants and Sakura can life another day.' He thought frantically, desperately going through his options.

"Wait, all you want is me right?" It wasn't something the man was expecting to her, but he stopped to show that he was listening none-the-less.

"Go on." The man allowed.

"If I let you do what you want with me, if you kill me, will you leave Sakura alone?" A predatory grin came across the man's face.

"You have my wor…"

"Don't listen to him Sasuke!" A voice called out.

"Naruto?" Sakura called out.

"Don't listen to him."

"You haven't been here you don't know what we're dealing with. He's too powerful."

"And when you're gone who's gonna help me protect Sakura when he goes back on his word. If he kills you, you can't rematch your brother. Everything that we've been doing will be for nothing if you die here."

"Annoying brat, he was so close to giving in, if you had just stayed out." The man almost hissed.

Naruto turned to the man.

"You, I don't know who you are, but for doing this, we're of us are gonna kill you." Naruto declared as he was going through hand signs. Sasuke recognised the signs and started to prepare his own jutsu.

"Fuuton: daitoppa."

"Katon: Dai endan." The boys cried out at the same time, Naruto using a wind based attack and Sasuke using Naruto's attack to power up his own fire jutsu.

"Very impressive. That might have killed me if I was an idiot and let something so obvious hit me." The man goaded as he rushed in for a taijutsu match.

Naruto and Sasuke were switching between high and low attacks; no matter what they tried they couldn't seem to catch the man off balance. Sakura was firing kunai and shuriken in to keep the man on the defensive when he would have been otherwise attacking in the gaps in the boys' offence.

'This boy's eyes. They're slitted. Ahh…this must be the kyuubi's container. Drawing on the fox's power I see. That might explain why he has been slowly getting faster.' In a sudden burst of speed, Sasuke and Naruto were both knocked aside momentarily. Dashing over to Naruto, the man picked him up by the neck using his tongue and formes hand seals. His hand was surrounded by a purple fire before he plunged the hand into the seal on Naruto's gut.

Casting Naruto aside he summoned another large snake. The snake the moment it was summoned took after Sakura, trying to remove the thorn in its aster's side.

Naruto was in pain, the strange tug in the back of his mind was even stronger now. A sudden wave of pain washed over his body, his whole body felt like it was on fire.

He tried to scream; what came out was an ear splitting earth shattering roar.

The roar made the snake stop in fear as it abandoned Sakura in favour of seeing the origin of the sound. The pale man and Sasuke had also stopped their fighting to see what was going on.

When their gaze all ended up Naruto they were amazed at what was happening. His body was growing, his eyes were no longer their piercing blue but a brilliant gold. As they watched they saw his skin harden and change to a golden colour as well. Eventually a pair of wings sprouted out of his back and a tail from the base of his spine. When everything seemed to be finished, Naruto was no longer in front of them; instead a five meter long golden dragon was staring at their enemy.

The dragon rushed in, crashing through the undergrowth, the trees in its way were left as splinters. The man they were fighting stared at it calmly as the snake he summoned bit into the dragon's torso. They could hear a slight creaking, and then a massive SNAP and the snake's fangs broke off and went flying.

The dragon bit into the snake's neck. By now the snake was severely wounded, but the dragon wasn't finished; it released the neck and used its claws to rend the flesh all down one side, before sending a torrent of fire into the open wound. The acrid smell of burning flesh filled the air. The snake was well and truly defeated and dispelled in a puff of smoke.

The dragon once again turned its attention to the pale man causing all of its irritation. It charged the man, having no regard for its surroundings and crashing straight through anything in its way.

Sasuke and Sakura were both watching in fear and awe of the powerful beast before them. They watched as the dragon was now using its razor sharp claws to slash at their enemy, taking large chunks out of the trees and leaving mighty gouges in the earth.

'What the hell happened? I'm going to have to look further into this.' the pale man thought as he dodged the strikes dished out by the gigantic reptile.

He had just leaped from one tree to the next after the branch he had been standing on was reduced to splinters, only to have the dragon quickly follow up with a strike from a thick tail, sending the man flying. He came to an abrupt halt as he was smashed into a tree, only to see the dragon rear its head back open its mouth and unleash a torrent of scorching flames.

The attack was simply too large to be avoided by conventional means, so the man had no choice but to use a quick kawarimi jutsu to avoid the intense burst of flames. The dragon, however, did not relent and as soon as it caught sight of him again started attacking once more.

This time, with a flap of its wings, the man was sent flying; the gust produced had been short but intense, proving stronger than the daitoppa. The dragon used the man's air born moment to launch itself at its opponent and cleanly slice the man in half, only to have the man dissolve into mud.

'This is truly enjoyable. Having this as a pet would be quite…beneficial. If I could find a way of getting him on my side, or perhaps even his children. Oh…the possibilities.' The man fantasised in his own head.

The dragon had renewed its attack on the man, only to find that it was getting far slower. It had launched itself completely at the paled adversary, only to find that by the time it got to him, it had reverted back into the form of Naruto. The man had caught him midflight and was now inspecting him closely, as though it may provide him with some clues. Naruto was far too exhausted to even pout up a fight.

"Well Sasuke, both you and your little friend here have piqued my interest. I think I will give you a little gift. You should be grateful; it's not often that one of the sannin gives you something so precious." He said to Sasuke as his neck extended beyond what should have been humanly possible and bit him on the neck. Sasuke felt like he had just had molten lead injected into his neck. The burning was so intense that he only managed to scream once before passing out in agony.

The man retracted his head and performed the same to Naruto; both boys developed a seal that was shaped much like the three tomoes in the sharingan, just with the tail of one tomoe facing the head of the next, almost in a chain of three.

"Who are you? What did you do to them?" Sakura demanded.

Tell them that Orochimaru gave them a little gift. When the time is right the will seek me for more power."

Sakura knew of the traitor Orochimaru, how could you not. Not only was he Konoha's most notorious nuke-nin, he was also one of the sannin. It was little wonder that the three of them had stood little chance against the man. The only thing she could do was gather her now unconscious comrades and take them to rest.

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It was early morning and Lee was about scouting. He was supposed to be looking for any teams within the vicinity, what he found was a squirrel with an exploding tag attached to its back.

"Who would be so unyouthful to do that to you, my furry friend?" Lee said as he looked sadly at the squirrel.

Little did Lee just know that Sakura had just warded the same squirrel away from the site where she was watching over the boys. She had been watching them all night. Sasuke seemed fine, but it was Naruto who seemed in real trouble. His body looked as though it was trying to purge whatever was put into him by Orochimaru. He was running a fever and his body was pitching through the night.

What Sakura didn't know that Naruto's phoenicisian qualities were desperately trying to fight off the tainted chakra that Orochimaru had injected into his body.

Three people were cursing when Sakura had sent the squirrel away. They thought that she had spotted the explosion tag attached to its back and sent it away before the trap could be sprung. In reality, the creature was just about to spring one of her own, more carefully laid traps and she scared it away before it could.

Deciding to take their chances the three came out front he shadows to confront Sakura. Sakura immediately noticed the sound village head bands and remembered their little scuffle with Kabuto in the first exam.

"Such carelessly laid traps." The one that looked like a mummy said, taking care to step over the obvious trip wire, only to step on a more inconspicuous wire laid down under dense layers of dirt and leaves.

A log came swinging down from a tree from their left, only for the sound ninja to dodge that by simply jumping over it. What they didn't realise was that at the same time a hail of kunai came in from behind them and to their right. This only left one direction; forwards.

They realised their folly too late, the girl received a kunai straight into her calf muscle, effectively ending her movement. Her male teammate with spiky hair had received a kunai to the shoulder and another to the elbow in his left arm.

The last, the mummy, had managed to quickly relace himself with a log, being more skilled than either of his two teammates.

He was now bearing down on Sakura with a metal gauntlet like weapon showing on his arm. Before he even reached Sakura he was sent reeling by a kick to the face courtesy of Lee's dainamikko entori.

"Lee!" Sakura exclaimed, honestly surprised to see the green clad boy there.

"I said that I would always help a fellow Konoha nin, even in the middle of these exams, did I not?"

"You did. Thank you, Lee."

"I would like to know who I am about to fight, but politeness dictates that I must give my name first. My name is Rock Lee."

The mummy man regarded him cautiously before answering.

"I am Dosu Kinuta, my teammates are Kin Tsuchi and Zaku Abumi."

Lee took his ready stance, only to be stopped by Sakura.

"These are my teammates. Let me defend them." She said to Lee with a steely look in her eyes.

"Before we start, why are you here? If you're after an earth scroll then we have a spare."

"We have no interest in this exam or even becoming chuunin. We are acting on the orders of our kage, Lord Orochimaru. And when he orders us to kill your two teammates, we have no choice but to comply."

Sakura didn't like the answer she got but didn't say anything further. She had already made her decision when the Konoha nin attacked Naruto, she would defend her teammates, even if it mean killing for them. If all these three wanted was to kill her teammates, the she would simply return the favour.

There was no preamble; she activated the chakra scalpel, before racing in to meet Dosu in a taijutsu match. Sakura didn't have any formal training in using a chakra scalpel as a weapon, but her normal physical attacks were not all that powerful, so she decided to enhance them by adding chakra and being able to cut to the bone.

She started out with a standard slash at his torso. Dosu, not wanting to test how sharp her scalpel actually was dodged the blow before trying to land a quick punch as a counter. The punch was brushed aside with a small clang of the gauntlet, putting Dosu in a poor position to either defend or counter. Sakura used the opportunity to send a haymaker at him, only to stop midstrike. She had an over whelming sense of nausea and her balance seemed shot.

"Like the effect of my melody arm? When it creates sound I can use my chakra to channel it directly into your inner ear, interfering with your balance among other things."

Sakura was regaining her composure when Dosu sent a vicious swipe at her head, connecting with her cheek bone using his metal melody arm.

As she staggered back from the strike, Dosu charged in for a follow up, only for Sakura to jump out of range. She was still unsteady, though better than before. She hid herself in the trees, as she jumped to safety, observing her foe.

"Come out and fight or I'll just simply kill your teammates without any resistance." He called to her. Dosu smirked when she took the bait.

He flicked his gauntlet as she drew closer, making a clear ringing sound. Using his chakra he directed it at Sakura. The pitch of the sound directed at her would be enough to completely lose her balance. Dosu's visible eye widened when Sakura continued on though the attack. He brought his hands up to defend himself, gauntlet first, hoping that she would at least damage her hand when she punched the melody arm.

His eye widened further when he felt no pressure against his arm and realised that he had been tricked by one of the most basic of ninja techniques; a bunshin. Sakura came out from her hiding place and charged at Dosu, her chakra scalpel active.

She made her attack, only to have it fall slightly short. She was aiming for Dosu's neck from the side, but the ground around her had suddenly softened, making her loose her footing slightly. The attack was still close enough to do serious harm, but it had been negated by Dosu shifting his body position slightly.

CLANG

Sakura had landed her blow in such a way that the melody arm used to defend Dosu was not only damaged, but impossible to wear again. As the gauntlet fell to the ground it was possible to see that the chakra scalpel had passed through a number of the holes on the weapon; meaning it was practically useless for the rest of the exam.

A thin trail of blood was dripping down from Dosu's arm, but he paid it no mind as he turned to his teammate, Zaku.

"Thank you for that, I would have completely lost the use of my arm if that had connected properly."

Zaku just smirked as he took his arm out of the soft ground.

'So he used the holes in his arms to force air into the ground and restrict my movement for a second.' Sakura groused in her head.

Dosu and Sakura readied themselves for another round, just as they were about to begin a foul chakra blasted from the tree in which Sakura had used to keep Sasuke and Naruto overnight.

"AAARRRGGGHHH!"

Naruto's scream pierced the air as his body came into view, gripping his neck. A vile black chakra was pouring out of the place where he had been bitten by Orochimaru.

Dosu and Kin broke out into a cold sweat as they recognised the black chakra and the trouble it meant. Zaku, having never encountered a person with the seal that Naruto and Sasuke both bore, didn't realise the danger. He stood up and raised his hand at Naruto.

"Zankuha" he uttered as a blast of air rushed towards Naruto and the place where Sasuke was resting. While the attack was still heading towards Naruto, a second and far more potent blast of the chakra was felt, a moment later Naruto had disappeared.

Sasuke appeared carrying Naruto over his shoulder. It was then that Dosu saw both the seals present on their necks. Sasuke's looked like a typical seal; Naruto's on the other hand was slightly different. Where Sasuke's had the normal three tomoe in a chain, Naruto's seal was missing one of the tomoe, almost as though a link in the chain was missing. He wasn't given much longer to contemplate the issue as he saw Sasuke flicker out of sight, only to feel himself be lifted entirely off the ground.

Dosu watched in horror as he saw black flame like markings spread across Sasuke's skin.

'The first level of the seal has activated.' Dosu thought to himself as he desperately struggled to free himself from Sasuke's iron grip.

"Why are you attacking us? Do you want our scroll?" It was uttered in something barely above a whisper, but the threat carried with it was immense.

"We…ordered to attack…Lord Orochimaru." Dosu gasped out as he tried to breathe through Sasuke's crushing grip.

"Why?" Sasuke's eyes seemed to bore into Dosu's very head as he stared at him emotionlessly.

"Seal…cursed heaven…develops when…fighting." Dosu manages to gasp out.

Sasuke threw him back a small way, trying calming himself down. Slowly the markings across his body receded back into the seal and the pressure of the vile chakra emanating from him dissipated.

Zaku thought he was completely out of the picture and forgotten. He raised his hand again and was about to fire anther zankuha when his hand was redirected skyward. The blast shredded the tree branches in the way, but otherwise was completely harmless.

"Zaku that's enough! We're outnumbered and none of us can fight at maximum. We'll leave them be." He said as he started to leave.

"Not so fast. Leave your scroll behind." Sasuke called to them.

As he motioned to leave the scroll behind his teammates urged him not to listen to Sasuke.

"He's already said it; you're outnumbered and can't fight at maximum. There isn't anything stopping us from killing you and just taking it." Naruto added.

The arguments were ceased instantly. The scroll was collected by Naruto as the other three were ready to strike if their enemy tried anything.

"Lee, what are you doing? Helping the enemy?" A voice called to Lee, it was Neji.

"I was assisting Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun and Sakura-chan."

"So you were aiding the enemy." Neji stated.

"Allies, Neji-kun. They are Konoha ninja first."

"Let's leave. If they can't survive here then it will just prove that they were too weak to participate in these exams."

Lee shook his head and left with Neji after noticing that the sound nin had also left, perhaps using Neji's interruption as a distraction and leaving silently.

Naruto took a look at the scroll in his hand; it was a heaven scroll, the one they needed to complete the exam.

They set out for the tower at the centre of the forest in order to complete the exam.

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They had arrived in the tower by the end of the second day. There they opened the scrolls at the same time as was permitted. In a plume of smoke their academy teacher, Iruka was standing before them.

"Well, this is a coincidence. Congratulations on passing you three."

"Iruka-sensei? What are you doing here?" Sakura asked.

"Right. I'm supposed to tell you that you are to wait here for the exam to complete. The tower has everything you will need, including beds and medic facilities. You may train, though I would suggest resting. You are strictly forbidden from re-entering the forest. Doing so will result in disqualification."

"If possible, could we meet with Kakashi sensei?" Naruto asked.

"Sure I can arrange that." Iruka said before shunshining out of the room.

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"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down and one at a time."

The three genin each took a deep breath before starting over, this time with Sakura as the spokes person for the trio.

"Well first we were attacked by some Konoha nin. They were close to their forties or fifties. They only seemed interested in Naruto. Well we managed to kill them." Sakura stopped with a slight glaze in her eyes; as though this was the first chance she had to think about her actions.

"Are you all right? The first kill is always the hardest. You should know that it's normal to feel guilt. It's okay to hate that part of our job, but it is part of it none-the-less. If you do hate it, it doesn't mean you're a bad ninja, but you should always remember to kill for the right reasons."

"The right reasons?" Sasuke asked.

"To protect. Sometimes you will meet others that are protecting something for themselves. Those are often the hardest battles, because each of you is fighting desperately to protect those precious to you as well as your ideals and beliefs. Anyway, please continue."

"Right, so after we defeated them we were attacked again. This time by a man on his own, but he was insanely powerful."

Sakura described the fight that she and Sasuke had, right up until Naruto appeared. Naruto took this time to describe the fight that he had with the giant snakes. By this stage Kakashi was getting very worried. To his knowledge, there were only two people that could summon snakes, Anko and Orochimaru.

Naruto was at a loss for what happened next, that is where Sasuke and Sakura mentioned that he used some sort of strange jutsu on his stomach. After that Kakashi got a detailed account of the dragon transformation Naruto went through, that culminated in a strange seal being put on both Naruto and Sasuke.

By the end of the description of the fight with the sound genin cell Kakashi was pacing in the room, listening very carefully. He had seen the strange formation of the seal on Naruto's neck and said that both would have to be sealed, something that neither boy objected to.

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Jiraiya had been called to an emergency meeting in the Hokage's tower. When he got there he saw a full room consisting of virtually every jounin in Konoha.

"Good now that you are here we can start." The Hokage announced noticing that his student had just walked through entered.

"I have gathered you all here today to inform you that Orochimaru of the sannin is interfering in the chuunin exams. There was a rise in the noise level of the room as many people asked questions in alarm.

"I will hand over to Kakashi Hatake to explain the specifics as it involves his team specifically."

Kakashi then retold the event of Orochimaru's battle with his genin, changing facts in the story, to cover for Naruto and his abilities. At the conclusion of the story there were calls to end the chuunin exams.

"No, to end them now is to seem weak in the face the other nations. If we cancel, then it will be virtually impossible to get missions again. Without missions we would have no money coming into the village and we would end up being destroyed from the inside out. It would play right into Orochimaru's hands." Sarutobi rejected the idea almost immediately.

"But what of the feudal lords that come to watch the final rounds? We won't be able to protect them adequately." A jounin in the crowd asked.

"That is exactly my point. If we say that we can't protect them, we will never get any high profile missions again, particularly body guard mission. Our village thrives off of body guard and transport missions while many others survive on assassinations. Make no mistake; we do assassinations, though the bulk of our income is directed from guarding missions. If we say that we can't do it then those missions dry up; we will be left in a very difficult position."

There was a general murmur of consensus from the crowd.

"We will continue with our current course of action for the time being. I urge you to be vigilant and to take notice of absolutely anything out of the ordinary. Well that is all you are dismissed."

The room emptied rather quickly, leaving only Jiraiya, Kakashi, Anko and the Hokage.

"So Kakashi, you should go t your students. I will be preparing to address them within a day or two. Get them to relax. Work through them as they get over their first kill, I doubt the short debriefing you gave them will be enough."

"And the sealings?"

"I'll send Jiraiya along to check on the cursed heaven seals as well as the Shiki Fuin on Naruto." Sarutobi replied while looking at Jiraiya, who gave a nod of confirmation that he would do it as soon as possible.

"Anko, I trust that you will not do anything rash?"

"I want…"

"That was both a request and an order, Anko. Actually it might benefit the boys if you talk to them at some point about the seal. Tell them how it works, what to expect you know the deal."

When both Kakashi and Anko had left the room Sarutobi looked at his student before speaking his mind.

"Jiraiya, I'm getting too old for this."

***********************************************************************************************************

Jiraiya had stayed true to his word and sealed both Naruto and Sasuke's seals, and in Naruto's case, rectified the Shiki Fuin.

FLASHBACK

"I'm not gonna lie to you boys, this is gonna hurt."

Naruto and Sasuke both looked determined to see this through. They had prepared a room to perform the sealing; Sasuke was due to go first. Naruto waited outside as he heard his teammate scream in agony, the sealing process being too much for him to bear, he passed out at its conclusion to be carried out by Kakashi.

It was another hour before the room was ready once again and Naruto entered. He saw kanji going in every direction from a centre point in the room with two concentric circles on the outside.

"Naruto, strip to your boxers and sit in the centre of the circle at the point where the kanji originates." Jiraiya instructed.

Naruto took his place in the room and Jiraiya went through a long chain of hand seals. At the conclusion the kanji written around the room receded to for a circle around the two remaining tomoe of the seal. The pain was intense as the seal ran its course. When it was done, Naruto was conscious, though barely.

"I know it's a lot to do in one hit, but it's better that I fix the seal on your stomach as well." Jiraiya said Naruto, who could only nod tiredly back in response.

Jiraiya formed the necessary hand seals then plunges a hand covered in purple fire into the seal on Naruto's belly.

"Gogyo Kaiin." Jiraiya intoned as he performed the technique.

Naruto gritted his teeth in pain as the seal was rectified. Everything seemed normal until his body started radiating the vile chakra that was place into him by Orochimaru. He grabbed his neck where the seal was and started screaming again. The chakra started to pour out of his body until it slowly dissipated into nothing.

When he let go Jiraiya took a look at the seal on his neck. It had changed once again. There was only one tomoe visible now and the seal Jiraiya had placed was completely removed.

'I unsealed the extra seal on Rei's chakra. As soon as that happened it one more of the tomoe is destroyed. Perhaps she used her demonic chakra to force more of the tainted chakra out of his body. In any case, I can't perform the sealing again today. It will have to wait for a while, when he gets his strength back up. Otherwise he'll be unfit to finish the rest of the exams.' Jiraiya thought to himself.

He had just had a major breakthrough with the cursed heaven seal, albeit with some assistance.

'If it can be completely removed I think Anko would be the first in line to have it removed, despite the apparent pain. I just need to find what caused the first tomoe to be removed.'

FLASHBACK END

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"I congratulate you all on making it this far. Before we go any further through these exams I feel it is necessary for you to know the true meaning of these exams." Sarutobi greeted the chuunin exam competitors.

"You mean a meaning besides advancement to chuunin?" The blonde girl from Suna, Temari asked.

"That is correct. These exams are designed to foster friendship between the nations. They are also used as a replacement for war. After the shinobi wars it was agreed by the kages of each elemental nation that the cost of war was far too high, so these exams were set up as a method for still playing out that battle, while minimising casualties and deaths. Make no mistake that while you may be here for personal reasons, your villages' pride and honour is on the line."

Sarutobi surveyed each of the genin, satisfied that they understood what was happening he proceeded with the next stage of the explanation.

"Before we continue to the next round…"

"Sorry for interrupting Hokage-sama, but would you mind if I did this part?"

"Not at all." The Hokage said, deferring to a man chewing on a senbon with a bandana on his head and a standard jounin vest on top of blue pants and long sleeved blue shirt.

"My name is Genma Shiranui, the proctor for the third exam. As it stands we have too many people that can enter the final round, so we have to cull numbers by holding an elimination round. Normally at this stage we would only need a one on one, nothing barred round to determine the people that pass on. However, due to the sheer number of participants, we have decided to run a series of battle royals."

"That's not fair. We all passed the exam so we should all go through." A random genin called out.

"The rules state that we may run a supplementary exam to cull numbers at any point through the exam. If you really feel that it is unfair, then make my job easier and quit. Actually I extend that offer to everybody. Is there any one that would like to quit?"

"I don't think I can compete any further." People looked to see where the voice came from; many of the rookies were surprised to see Kabuto as the owner of that voice.

"You may leave then." Genma said to Kabuto, who escorted himself out.

"The battles will be nine matches of 4 person battle royal, with the tenth match being a five person battle royal. The conditions are to be the last person standing at the battle's conclusion to win, nothing is barred, even killing though if I call a match, stop immediately or risk disqualification. Finally don't rely on my decision, if you feel you are outclassed, forfeit and live to see another day."

He turned to look at a screen that would decide the first four contestants' names. As he was waiting Kiba whispered to the rest.

"Is it me or does this village have something going for proctors with bandanas?"

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END CHAPTER

Right a few notes to dispense. The first is that I'm gonna take a break from writing for a while. The main reason is that Uni starts in less than nine hours and I can't afford to screw around this year so I will only be writing while on holidays.

Another reason is that with recent events in the manga (no I haven't read them, only heard about them) I lost some of my desire to write. I will of course continue this fic, though the updates will be very infrequent.

Finally a question…how long does a fic need to be before it can be classed as epic?