A/N: Can you believe that I got two chapters out in a week? Don't expect it to happen often, though. Sorry it's been so long. Things happen. Life happens. Well, enjoy the chapter, I'll try to not take six months to get the next one out.
The first part of the Chūnin Exams went rather well for Team 8. It was a written test designed to evaluate one's skills in information gathering. In other words, you had to cheat to pass the test. They were seated in a random way, so none of them were with a teammate. Kiba, sitting about halfway back, had Akamaru on his head quietly barking the answers to him from the people around him. Hinata, sitting at the very top of the room, used her Byakugan to read the answers. Kimaru dozed lightly at her feet. Naruto, sitting at the very front of the room, right in front of the proctor did… nothing. He didn't even put his name on the test. He just sat there calmly staring at the proctor. Tsumi, curled up under the desk at his feet, laughed quietly the whole time.
Fifty minutes into the hour, Ibiki broke the rather tense silence. "Pencils down. It is now time for the final question." He gazed across the room meeting the eyes of all of those who hadn't been caught cheating. "Now, before I give you the question, there will be a slight change in the rules. You can choose whether or not to take this question." He then paused for the confusion that filled the room. After a moment, he quieted the room with a shout. "Shut up, maggots! If you choose to not take this question, your score will be dropped to zero and you and your team will be ejected from the Exams. However, if you choose to take the question and fail, you will never be able to take the Chūnin exams again." He then watched the panic begin to mount in the group of genin. "If you wish to leave now, raise your hand."
After a tense moment, a single hand was raised by a nondescript genin at the edge of the room. He was then called out by one of the assistant proctors and he and his team stood up and left, two of the three grumbling in the third's direction. This opened up a floodgate and in several minutes, only twenty-one teams, sixty-three chūnin hopeful, remained. "Would anyone else like to leave?" Ibiki asked in a rather sadistic fashion. "No one? Well then, I hope you're ready for this." He began chuckling, unnerving the group of genin, before he broke into a bright smile that looked slightly out of place on his scarred face. "Congratulations, you all pass."
After several moments of stunned silence, Kiba barked out, "What!" leading the rest of the genin to make similar exclamations and for Naruto to turn around a glare at Kiba slightly, who shrugged sheepishly.
"Alright, alright, settle down." Ibiki then looked around at the expectant genin. He then went on to explain the importance of information gathering for chūnin and how the tenth question was a leap of faith; you can't back out of a mission just because it's dangerous or has less information than you would like. "Congratulations, once again," he began to end his speech, only to be interrupted by one of the windows in the front of the room shattering with a crash.
A black ball flew through the room, spreading out slightly when it reached the center of the room. The cloth was pinned to the ceiling using thrown kunai. It spread out to reveal a banner and a, rather scantily clad, woman. The banner introduced the woman as 'The Second Exam Proctor, Anko Mitarashi'.
"Follow me," she began, "to the site of the Second Exam!"
The jonin sensei of all the participating genin were gathered in a lounge in the next building, waiting for word of how their students did. They were also betting on how well their students did.
The sensei weren't told of the parts of the Exams in order to keep things fair. Some sensei, particularly those of the rookie genin, would place bets on how far their teams would get, how well their teams would do in each phase, how many would make it through each phase, etc.
The results of the first phase came in shortly after it was over, and the sensei whose teams had been ejected, and didn't have any outstanding bets, left to go comfort their genin, while those that had a vested interest in the upcoming competition were taken to the finish line of the next phase. Kurenai sat with Asuma, Guy, and Kakashi, making small talk while trying to find details about their genin. They overheard two of the assistant proctors talking amongst themselves about the first exam.
"Man," began the first. "I would hate to have been one of those genin under Ibiki's glare that whole time."
"I know," replied the second. "Did you notice that blond kid up front? He just stared Ibiki down the whole time. I don't even think he wrote down a single thing!"
"Yeah, that had to take some balls."
"I can't believe Anko acted like that either. I wonder if she's gonna sober up explaining the scroll battle."
His friend scoffed. "Anko? Act sane? Yeah, right."
After that, Kurenai tuned them out, focusing her thoughts inward. After a moment, she got up and walked over to the bookie. "I'd like to change my bet."
"I'm sorry," the bookie said. "You can't get your money back unless you win."
"Oh, no, you misunderstand," Kurenai replied. "I want to raise my bet." That got the attention of all the jonin in the room, and a slight nod from the bookie. "I'd like to raise my bet on Team 8 being one of the first five teams through the second phase to 2,000,000 ryō." All conversation in the room died. The bookie nodded and Kurenai wrote out a check for the difference. She returned to the table she was sitting at to her fellows' incredulous looks. At that moment, a loud howl echoed out from the surrounding Forest, quickly joined by five others, forming an unnerving discord. The sound visibly unnerved all but the most battle-hardened shinobi.
And Kurenai.
As the sound faded, a good majority of the room turned to stare questioningly at a slightly grinning Kurenai, an expression out of place on the Ice Queen of the Leaf Village. After a moment, she shrugged. "What?"
The hunt was on.
Team 8 had very quickly realized what the second phase of the Exams entailed. The explanation began with the proctor leading the genin to stand in front of the Forty-Fourth Training Ground, a large fenced-in area filled with the largest trees most of the genin had ever seen. Then, they were told that they would be fighting the other teams in an attempt to gain a pair of scrolls. Each team were given one of two scrolls and were tasked with bringing one of each scroll to the tower in the center of the area.
The best part, in Team 8's opinion? They had five days in the Forest of Death, as Anko was quick to tell them it was called, to terrorize the rest of the genin with their new collaboration technique.
They named their technique the Terror of the Wolves Jutsu, although they usually just called it Howling. They realized, after working together for a while that they could communicate over long distances by howling, and for the next week or two, experimented with distance, channeling chakra into their voice to extend their range. Naruto first came up with an offensive use for it while listening to Kurenai explain to Hinata that the most devastating genjutsu were the subtle ones, the ones that didn't have the appearance of a technique.
Naruto paused in his spar with Kiba to ponder this, only to be hit in the face. They had already discussed howling as a battle cry to unnerve their opponents. Naruto, creative genius that he was, decided to use genjutsu to amplify the psychological effect that the howling already produced, an instinctual fear of a predator. After Kurenai palmed her face for a few minutes, they began working on the new technique immediately.
They spent the time it took to get their scroll growling out a discussion of their game plan, and then spent the remaining thirty minutes preparing for their biggest Howl to date.
As Anko's voice drifted through speakers mounted on the fence counting down to the beginning of the test, the six drew in a large breath, Naruto beginning the call, as the Alpha, the instant the gate they were standing at snapped open. The other five soon added their voices, intentionally producing a dissonant cacophony that echoed around the Forest and beyond. The skulk trailed off as they ran out of breath, before dropping to all fours and darting into the Forest of Death.
The hunt was on.
A genin paused in its confident stride through the forest to listen to the piercing howl. "Interesting," the genin mumbled, light glinting off of its Grass Village headband as it turned to watch effect the sound had on the other two Grass genin at its flanks. "Very interesting, indeed."
In another part of the Forest, a genin with a single musical note on her headband froze as she felt a strong sound-based genjutsu wash over her, the howl carrying it echoing around her. She quickly dispelled it before glancing at her two teammates and smirking at the fact that they hadn't noticed it. 'Serves them right, treating me like a servant.'
A red-haired kunoichi, sitting in a clearing outside the Leaf Village with her team waiting for word from their leader, turned her gaze towards the faint sound of a howl, quickly breaking the genjutsu it placed on her. "Interesting," she murmured, catching the rest of the group's attention.
"What's up?" one asked her, and she just shrugged.
"Nothing, thought I heard something." The other three had varying reactions, but all three turned back to what they were doing before.
Elsewhere in the world, a certain kunoichi paused in her attempt to claw a much larger shinobi for his so-called 'rap' to turn and hiss towards the southwest.
"Yo," the large shinobi began in a rhythmic way. "What's goin' on, lil' miss two?
"This kinda thing really ain't like you.
"You don't get distracted easy,
"So what's gotcha feeling queasy?"
The blonde kunoichi turned back to him with a glare and a quick scratch across his face before going back to hissing into the distance, a bleeding and screaming 'rapper' running around behind her.
A trio of genin from the Village Hidden in the Rain were settling down for their first night in the Forest of Death, and none of them could sleep. There was an air of fear in the clearing and all three glancing around behind them, on edge because of the feeling that they were being watched.
A crack broke the tense silence, drawing their attention to one side of the clearing. A flash of orange darted across behind one of the three, not drawing any attention away from the edge of the clearing, before darting away again.
After a few minutes of staring at trees, the three genin from Rain settled back down into a circle of unease, jumping at every little sound, for a night of very little sleep.
Six blurs landed in front of the tower in the center of the Forest. After a moment, a Howl echoed from the area, putting all of the occupants of the Forest on edge. After the last remnants faded, Team 8 entered the tower, pulling out a pair of scrolls as they did so. After a moment of inspection, two of the six unrolled the two scrolls at the same time, which began smoking in unison. They threw them both to the floor, where they landed together and exploded, filling the room with smoke.
As it cleared, the skulk recognized their sensei, Kurenai looking over the group with pride. "Congratulations, Team 8, you're the second team here. I'm really proud of you." After a few moments her proud smile morphed into one that was slightly creepier. "Plus, you made me a lot of money!" After several moments of cackling, Kurenai caught herself. "Right, well, you six have to stay in this tower until after the second phase is over. There are rooms on the second floor for the teams; pick one. There's a cafeteria and some training rooms on the third. You can relax for the next four and a half days." She smiled proudly once again. "And good job. I knew you had it in you."