This fic is still alive. Now you get to see our heroes beginning the second stage. More characters are introduced. Old characters come back. The implied love line gets even more twisted. Enjoy!

Chapter Ten: Forest of Death! Start!

"Shun-kun! Ryuu-kun! Did you know Temari-sensei was going to be a proctor?" Kinako huddled near her teammates as they continued walking out of their first exam.

Many of the previous proctors were gone. They could only see Temari and a few others waiting in a bunch of tents. One of them was Ryuu's brother, Takeru the player, much to his aggravation. There were some others the genin could recognize. Sakura Uchiha, the second best healer in all of Konoha and the only woman with guts to fall in love and marry a former criminal. Hinata Hyuuga, heiress to the famous Hyuuga clan and rumored girlfriend of Naruto Uzumaki. Her teammates were also there, Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame. Ino Yamanaka was also present next to Sakura.

"Yo Temari! Did you talk to Shikamaru yet? Choji didn't tell me much." Kiba ran up to her only to have his head smacked in by the kunoichi's fist.

"Are you seriously playing around right now? We're on the job! Get back to your station!"

"Kiba-kun…" Hinata tried to pull him back, but her efforts proved useless.

"Oh! His kids are here!" Kiba sped up to the trio. "So these are the troublesome kids the laze keeps complaining about? He even told me his team was just another version of Naruto's team."

Ryuu stared at this man for a second before the thought finally hit him. "Oh! You're Kiba Inuzuka! You and Akamaru and your pack of dogs wiped out a whole army during the war. I'm such a big fan!"

Shun merely scoffed. Did Ryuu just have an encyclopedia of famous people in the war? He recognized them all…except for Shikamaru, who was the proxy general of the Fourth Division and the chief strategist. Shun did his research on his sensei quite thoroughly. Ryuu must have been focused on the people who actually fought. While Ryuu was busy fawning over his idols, Shun noticed that Kinako had a different reaction. She suddenly turned scarlet red and quietly hid her face.

"Is that Shun Tetsuya?" Kiba waved. "Your brother is here."

Shun flatly replied, "I know."

"Who else is there…? Hey! It's the bakery girl selling the best dango in Konoha. Kinako right? I didn't know you were training to be a ninja." Kiba chuckled and ruffled her chestnut head. "Do your best!"

Kinako looked like she could pass out. But when Kiba leaned to her ear, her whole face turned red and everything grew hot. She could feel his presence cover over her, like a blanket over a child, where she was unable to move. Her palms suddenly grew sweaty and she clutched onto her white dress.

"And if you pass, I get free samples. Okay? Deal?" He winked.

And she died right then and there. "S-sure! Inuzuka-san…" she stammered.

Ryuu smirked. Ha! So Kinako was crushing on an older man! He sometimes found it surprising that Kinako would not recognize or choose to ignore Kenji's obvious crush on her. Or that she never recognized Shun's raging jealousy whenever he saw her with another guy. Kind of like now, where Shun was fuming on the inside when he saw Kiba play around with Kinako. Why his best friend was so protective over this weird girl, he had no idea. Did he also have a crush on her? Impossible. Shun would have done something by now.

"Inuzuka!" Temari barked and this time, she whacked her giant fan over his head. "Keep acting like this and I'll remove you from the committee. Your sister wouldn't like that now, would she?"

"Yeah. Yeah." Kiba stood up and trudged back into his line. "I'm just catching up. I haven't had any of her dango since I've been out on missions a lot. Don't get so riled up, Temari."

"Inuzuka…" Temari growled.

"Kiba", Shino spoke. His voice was laced with mystery as always. "Get back in line or all of us will be punished."

"Kiba-kun! Hurry! We're about to start." Hinata gently pulled him back to his spot and she held onto his arm so he wouldn't act up again.

Ryuu reached over and snapped his fingers. "Hey Kinako-chan! Stop spacing out! We have to group up with the rest of the genin."

And on cue, Shun dragged her away from the proctors and into the new batch of waiting genin.

"One, two, three…twenty one, twenty two…twenty five. Sakura! You sure your husband got rid of a lot of teams?" Temari shouted over to the medic.

"Does it matter? We're going to half the amount anyways." Sakura shrugged. "We raised the stakes this year so it's twice as dangerous."

"Oh well…I guess it can't helped." Temari slowly raised her fan before slamming it onto the ground. The deafening crack was enough to scare all the genins into immediately listening. "Line up by your teams!"

Everyone scrambled.

"Listen up! You're about to begin the second stage of the Chunin Exams: The Forest of Death. This is a ten kilometer enclosure with only 44 gates. Inside, you will encounter deadly poisons, creatures, plants, etc. Most of them are man-eating so don't get eaten. You will have five days and four nights to locate a tower in the center of the forest. But before you reach the tower, you must have both a heaven and earth scroll. Half will be given an earth scroll and the other half will be given a heaven scroll." Temari held up a blue scroll and a green scroll. "If you only have one of the two scrolls, you fail. If another team takes your scroll, you fail. If you don't make it in time, you fail."

So this was a survival test... Shun glanced over Temari to observe the forest. It was dark with looming trees and near dead branches. How perfect for a test. They might as well put in a volcano and stimulation for earthquakes if they wanted to kill the applicants. He and Ryuu used to hang around the wilderness to get away from people, Shun from his annoying brothers and Ryuu from the people in the village. They would stay out for up to three days at most, just chilling and training. It was good practice for this test. He worriedly glanced at Kinako. She was something different. In his youth, he remembered her as a baker who never seemed to exit her store. She might not be as experienced.

"One thing I must stress," Temari continued, "You must not open your scrolls until you get to the temple. Any questions?"

Ryuu raised his hand, "So what happens if you open the scrolls?"

Shun face-palled while Kinako shook her head. Obviously, he would ask a dumb question like that.

Temari chuckled, albeit neither a funny or serious one. "You'll find out."

Ryuu gulped and put his hand down.

Takeru finally stepped out of line with a bunch of papers. "This is a waiver form saying that we are not responsible if you get killed. Everyone must sign this form in order to proceed with the exam. Turn this form into the tent over there where you and your team will be handed a scroll." He said and began to pass them out. But when he got to his little brother's team, he played a little keep-away game with Shun, much to the younger brother's contempt.

Shun growled at him and snatched his paper.

Kinako began to scan the first page. It basically listed the rules, what the Konoha Chunin Exam committee was not responsible for, and potential dangers like poisonous insects and plants, falling from trees, and getting killed by other teams. So they were allowed to kill each other...

"Heh. Don't get killed!" She heard a familiar voice mock. Kinako turned around to see Kenji, Sanae, and Megane heading towards them.

Ryuu looked ready to lunge at them while Shun maintained his glaring.

Kinako simply nodded and replied, "Same with you. Please be careful."

Shun noticed Kenji slightly stop a little, like his breath fell short, and the boy gazed at Kinako before looking away. Shun gritted his teeth while his glare intensified. Alright, he decided, that guy and his team will be the first to go down.

"Yo Dead Last!" Ryuu called out to him. "Are you done yet? We got to hand these in."

"Yeah, I'm done." Shun handed over his paper. "What about Kinako?"

"Kina-chan?" Ryuu nonchalantly pointed back. "She's doing some reconnaissance work right now."

"Heaven. Heaven. Earth. Heaven. Earth." She repeated in whispers, like a machine recording data, as her eyes were trained on the line of people.

"Really?" Shun went to her and tapped on her shoulder. "Kinako, did you see what Triple B got?"

"Earth." She confirmed.

Good. Now if they could get a heaven scroll, he knew which team to target first.

It was an earth scroll. Fuck. There goes the plan of knocking down their biggest competitor.

Then, they were led away to their starting point which was around twenty meters away from the main committee area. And of course, much to Shun's dismay, Takeru was the one leading the team to their destination. At one point, the elder Tetsuya pulled his brother away from his team.

"Hey! Why don't you two go ahead? I have some family matters I need to talk with my baby brother."

Shun waited for his teammates to be out of sight before turning to his brother. "What is it? Did Mother or Father have something to tell me? Or does Sojiro want to lecture me again?"

Takeru chuckled, "No! None of that!"

"Then what?" Shun began to grow impatient. "My friends are waiting for me."

"I just want to say: good luck." Takeru smiled and patted his youngest brother on the back. He knelt down and leaned close to Shun's ear. "I'll only tell you this once. Our clan's technique comes as an advantage in this type of test. You are the one who's most likely to survive out of all the candidates. You have to step up as the leader in this exam. Ryuu's a strong kid but he's not exactly leader material and I don't think Kinako can survive in a forest. I don't know why she strives to be a ninja, but this test is way out of her league. So I want you to protect them both, but especially Kinako."

Shun gulped and silently nodded in response. At times like these, his brothers would give him little pieces of advice that have actually helped him. But those were rare.

Takeru grinned and patted his brother on the head. "Good to know you can understand. You see, I too was put in the same position where I had to be the leader and protect my teammates from all harm."

"Your teammates were girls. You'll throw yourself in front of them to impress them obviously." Shun pointed out.

"That's beside the point!" Takeru snapped back. "Anyways, don't die in there!"

"Tch. I won't!" Shun playfully punched his brother in the arm and rushed back towards his teammates.

"The second part of the Chunin Exams starts right now! I wish you all good luck! And don't die!"

The gate that stood between the three genin and the forest began to quiver. Then, all on its own, the gate slowly swung open. Right when a sizable crack formed, Ryuu was the first to bolt right through and jump to the nearest tree branch. The albino kid shouted and cheered as he catapulted from branch to branch. Kinako followed close behind her teammate while Shun hung around the back to keep an eye out for his team.

"Freedom! No more tests! No more tests!" Ryuu was definitely living in the moment. He turned back to Kinako and smirked and cackled, "So what was with that face Kinako!"

"What face?"

"You know, that face where we all can tell you're crushing on Kiba Inuzuka." Ryuu cackled once again when Kinako's face turned bright red.

"Sh-Shut up Ryuu-kun! Geez! He's just…a good man!"

"Hey. I get why you have a crush on him. His tall figure, his rugged good looks, his dog, and most likely, his leather jacket; chicks love the jacket." The albino popped his collar of his…rain jacket.

In response, the pigtailed girl stuck out her tongue and she was ready to strangle him in her wires. "No! He's kind and helpful and good. Akamaru-chan is so cute and playful. There's more than just looks."

"Well I can tell you spent a lot of time with him."

"He's a regular! Just a regular…and he helped me with groceries…sometimes…" Kinako mumbled the last part. "And he's handsome…"

"Ha! I knew it!"

"Guys…are we here to survive in a forest that can kill us or talk about Kinako's love life?" Shun rolled his eyes and suddenly addressed Kinako, "Who do you think would be our best bet of getting a scroll?"

"I don't know. All those teams look so formidable." Kinako quietly said. "Do you know any current locations?"

"I don't sense anyone. Right now, let's head closer to the tower instead of trying to search out teams. If we go closer, we are more likely to bump into teams with both scrolls. But if we get there before any other team, we set up a trap."

"But that's a dirty way to get scrolls." Kinako pointed out.

Ryuu sighed, "Look Kinako, this is a test of survival. We are going to have to play dirty. Right Dead Last?"

"Right!" Shun nodded before addressing his group. "Here's how it's going to work. Kinako will be our eyes. She will determine if an impersonator is in our group and if anyone has our opposite scroll. If we do have to set up a trap, use any wire tricks you have. Ryuu, you pull out all stops in your jutsu. Don't hold back. Get the scroll as fast as you can. I will do the same. Once we get the scroll, immediately regroup around me."

Both nodded in agreement.

"Let's move!"

OoOoO

Takeru placed his hands together, formed a seal, and disappeared to his next location. He appeared in the temple, where all the other teachers and committee members have gathered to watch their students' progress. Takeru walked up to his boss and reported, "Temari-san, I have sent Team Five at their starting position."

"Thank you Takeru." Temari dismissed him.

"How do you think my team will do?" Shikamaru questioned as he sat by her.

"They will do fine here. It's the third part I'm worried about..." Temari mumbled before she readjusted herself. "And I'm specifically worried about them, not you. Just so you know, I'm leaving right when this part of the exam finishes."

Shikamaru frowned, "Why?"

"There are just some things I don't want to face..."

"Are you scared of your past?" Shikamaru scoffed. "You're supposed to hold all emotions in and continue with your duty as a ninja. I can't believe the cruelest and most uptight kunoichi I know forgot about her emotional training."

"Look here Crybaby! I'll have you know that I had my situation perfectly under control! You just had to barge in and reveal the problem for everyone to see." Temari sneered back at him while glaring daggers into his eyes.

"He was your student in the third round. He was ready to reveal everything the moment he stepped into that ring." Shikamaru retorted. "Besides, if I didn't take control over that student, the whole world would mistake your entire team and you to be cheaters and murderers."

"It would have been better if you kept this situation under wraps so no one knew. Do you think I can show myself to everyone who shows up in the third round?" Temari crossed her arms and looked away. "How much dignity do you want me to have by the end of this?"

"How troublesome. Then I'll be there with you." Shikamaru nonchalantly proclaimed. "I was the guy who exposed your shady student. They will see me as one of the best proctors here. Surely they can't say anything if I'm with you. Look woman, stop thinking you're alone in this because you're not."

Temari blushed at his sudden statement and she quickly got up from her seat. "I have to go and monitor this." She quickly said and left the room immediately.

Shikamaru merely watched her leave before tiredly leaning back to rest his head. "Troublesome woman." He muttered under his breath as he decided to take this moment to bask in the sunlight.

Temari quickly walked past any ninja in her way, even ignoring the few greeting her. Her mind was filled with him, the man who basically promised to be by her side. Damn him! And she was so prepared to leave as well! Why is it when she wanted to go, he always pulled her back like fish on a rod? Damn him! Because of him, she was never the same as before!

"Hey Temari-sa...not responding I see..." Takeru tried to say, but she passed right by him.

"Save your breath, Tetsuya, she and my mentor have had the hots for each other since their preteens." Another voice remarked as a teenage boy appeared from the shadows. He had piercing red eyes and short dark black hair with a bluish tint. He wore his traditional Konoha flak jacket along with trousers and a white and red flag tied to his waist.

"Kurema, how nice of you to drop by?" Takeru patted one of his longtime friends.

"I'm one of the assistant proctors for the third exam. Of course I must report early." Kurema flatly replied.

Takeru smirked at his dull response. "By the way, you know Temari is back again. Aren't you a little scared seeing how you were the reason for her humiliation three years ago."

"For the record, I was not the reason. I was merely facing her stupid cheating student when the whole thing happened."

"Ah! But you see, you are Shikamaru's personal disciple and we both know he would do anything for you because you are his former sensei's son. That alone basically drove him to actually turn against Temari, thus leading up to the whole incident in the first place. So in conclusion, it is your fault!"

"Takeru...you're a sick bastard." Kurema Sarutobi proclaimed, shoving him.

"Glad to be of service!" Takeru snickered.

Kurema sighed in defeat. "Anyways, isn't your little brother taking the exam. Shouldn't you be watching over him?"

"Hey. I may be his big brother but I don't dote on him." Takeru flatly said. "Now, let's do some catching up! You do way too many missions for your age. It's been a while! You still have a crush on my teammate Saki?"

"Do you still flirt with any female that passes by?"

"Oh you've known me for too long!"

"Unfortunately..."

"Hey! You two! What are you doing?" Sakura called. "Report to your assigned floors right now! We have to scout out the failures soon."

"Got it!" The younger chunins sprinted off up the stairs.

Sakura sighed. Even though those two were the younger chunins, and therefore the most successful of their year, they were still lacking in some fields. Like attention. Right now, it was only Team 8 and Ino left with her. "Hinata, Kiba, Shino; your job is to scout out and locate anyone who may have lost their scroll or injured/disqualified genins. Hinata, you scout. Kiba and Shino, you locate the target and direct your dogs or bugs or any assistant proctors to retrieve the genins. Hinata, if anyone is injured, notify me or Ino. We really need to not have any more deaths this time."

"So that's why you had Shino and I memorize all those scents! Do you know how hard it was to eliminate the scents of the people who didn't pass the first round?" Kiba loudly complained. "I only could recognize one scent in that mess of genin."

Shino glanced at him. "Kinako Keiganu's scent, I presume?"

"Hey? How'd you-"

"You've given me enough of her baked goods to recognize her scent."

"Melted sugar with a dash of cinnamon?"

"You cannot deny she has one of the sweetest scents."

"Guys…let's get started shall we?" Hinata placed her hands together and formed her seal. "Byakugan!"

OoOoO

While Team Five was heading further into the forest to reach the tower, Triple B was actually still stationed somewhere in between their starting point and a river. Sanae already started setting up a genjutsu barrier to entrap anyone foolish enough to not sense the obvious chakra trace. Kenji and Megane were busy figuring out the map of the forest. The ninja geek had his tablet configured to pick up traces of chakra through scanning his camera at an open area.

"How does this work anyways?" Kenji asked while he silently watched Megane scan relentlessly through a load of data. He, for the love of him, never understood this mad scientist of a ninja. He just knew that Megane had a special chakra trace or element that enabled him to mess with any technology. Literally…he made lights stop working and drained power supplies and made kitchen appliances stop working. Now he learned to weaponize this ability in a way.

"I power this with my chakra alone. It's an extension of myself." Megane monotonically responded as his attention was too focused on his tablet. "We have some outliers here and there."

"But none we can attack outright. Their shields are just as strong as ours." Sanae reported when she rejoined the group.

Kenji retorted, "I can just worm my way through it like I do with your dumb genjutsu!" And he received a beating from Sanae and Megane for that comment.

"Not all traps are made of genjutsu." Megane rolled his eyes. Sometimes, he thought Kenji was dumber than Ryuu.

The idiot responded, "I still can worm my way through it."

Sanae sighed, "What happened to the other team of our graduating class? We would have creamed them!"

"They're taking a year off before taking the exam." Another monotonic answer from Megane. "I see a group approaching near us. Do you want me to scout them with my bug?"

They nodded and Megane released his tracker bug out of their area. Using his tablet, he maneuvered the bug to travel up to the chakra they were sensing and had the image display right on his tablet.

They saw a team composed of two girls and one guy.

The girls were of tan skin and they were twins…except for the fact that one girl had short hair and the other had long hair that hung down. And their outfits were slightly altered such as different belts and sleeves and stuff. They had black hair with slight brown highlights. Their clothes were also black and shades of grey. The only color would be their eyes since the color was of jaded green. Their faces were slim like their body. And their forehead protector rested right on their foreheads.

The guy was different. He wore a simple black shirt and pants with fishnets underneath. He didn't wear a clan symbol like the girls. He was bulky and built, kind of like Kenji. But the most notable feature was his auburn red hair, which was matted down. It stuck out like the girls' green eyes stuck out of their black attire.

But what stuck out more were their personalities. The short haired twin seemed to be a little on the happy and crazy side; the long haired twin was more serious. And the guy looked like some dude just stuck in the middle of their antics.

And they were ninjas of the Mist. And they had an earth scroll.

"They're useless." Megane declared. "They have the same scroll as us."

"How about we take them out to eliminate the competition?" Kenji suggested.

Sanae rolled her eyes. "And risk our own scroll being taken? We're not a team known for brute force. That's Shun's team."

"That's not brute force. They're just intense strategists. The only person I can see brute force is that immigrant from the Mist"

"Don't call Ryuu that name! How many times have I told you that?" Sanae scolded. "Maybe these three are as nice as Ryuu?"

"Hey Sanae, haven't you heard?" Megane passed her his tablet with a few documents on it. "I've hacked into Konoha's system. All the chakra traces of each message Konoha's received have been transcribed into this. It says here that there's been some trouble in the Country of Water."

"Clan trouble?"

"More like a civil war and power struggle wrapped in one. The outlying clans with kekkei genkai are at each other's throats in an attempt to liberate Kirigakure. And the clans inside the village are trying to keep it safe, but even some of the kekkei genkai clans are siding with the outliers"

"Wow…no wonder Ryuu and his mother high-tailed it out of there." Kenji remarked, "Look! A team is approaching them!"

The three Mist ninjas were soon approached by ninjas from the Clouds. These three ninjas were dressed in grey and had masks on that covered their mouths and noses. They moved quietly, splitting up and gaining in on the Mist team at three different angles.

"Hana. They are coming!" The short haired twin cheered.

The serious twin sighed, "Ayame. Stop cheering and let's do our job. Please?"

"Okay!"

Both twins jumped and covered their area with mist that was filled with smoke and water. Everything was blocked. No shadows could be seen. No figures could be seen. Triple B hunched over Megane's screen and listened carefully for any noises. But everyone and everything fell in silence. Finally the smoke cleared. All of the Cloud ninjas were down in a pile like corpses to be buried.

"We got them! We got them!" Ayame cheered again.

"Heaven and earth on the first day." The boy snickered. But he paused and suddenly whipped out a needle and chucked it right at the bug.

Damn it! He got my tracker!" Megane cursed.

Sanae went into full panic mode and she drew out a scroll. "They've found us. We need to make a run for it."

"No way! I'm not running away from two girls!" Kenji growled and he leapt in their direction.

"Kenji! That stupid little boy!" Sanae sprinted after him into the forest.

And the second stage has begun. And cute little Kinako has a crush on Kiba. I was originally going to have her crushing on Neji…my personal favorite…but he died. I cried. I moved on. He's still my number one. But I need another ninja to be a "prominent" man in Kinako's life and Kiba is my second, single favorite. Read and review!