A/N: Hey! I put off the chapter a bit again. I'm very, very sorry everyone. …I should stop saying that. By now everyone probably knows that I take forever to update but I'm sorry anyways. I'm done since no one pays attention to these things. Thanks to all my reviewers! It makes me very happy to see such positive responses to this piece of work!

(Disclaimer: Hey! This is Breezy's mind. She doesn't, nor her mind, own Naruto. If we own anything it will be stated above or at the bottom. Got that Memorized?)

Chapter 10: Enter the Forest

"Forty-Five minutes are up. Here's the final question." Kiba blinked blearily at Ibiki and with a mental decision that it wasn't worth it, he propped his head into his arms and returned to snoozing. Ibiki twitched at the Inuzuka's nonchalance at the one question that would decided his life, next to "Will you marry me" and "Do you take so and so as your lawfully wedded wife" of course. He was saved from shouting at him when a kunai whizzed through the air and slammed into his sleeping form, blunt edge of course. Kiba blinked awake, turning his head in a half circle and his eyes glowered at the other genin before he turned his attention to Ibiki. The man cleared his throat and his charka spiked slowly. The students froze, eyes wide. "But first, I need to tell you something. If you don't answer this question, you're points are reduced to zero, meaning you fail and your teammates fail with you. If you choose to answer and should you answer this question wrong, you will never be able to take the chunin exams ever again."

"Who died and put you in charge? It's a dumb rule!" Kiba murmured softly and slightly sleepily, voice carrying as though he had been shouting. "There are countless genin in this room that have taken the exam twice or more."

Ibiki merely grinned with his scarred visage and he chuckled, responding with, "Too bad that you have me this year and I am the rule. This is why you have the option of quitting." His grin turned feral and the genin shivered, well most of them. Few, like the Yamanaka girl and the red head from Suna, just stared at him impassively. "Those who are not confident can choose not to take it, and take the exam next year, or the year after that."

"…" It went quiet and there was a nervous cough from somewhere.

"Let's begin." Ibiki almost purred. "If you're not going to answer this question, raise your hand and after we check the lists and numbers, you can go."

"…I-I quit." A genin stood, eyes clenched shut. "I-I'm sorry guys."

"Number 50 fail! 130, 111 you fail with him!" A chunin proctor shouted, looking fleetingly at his clipboard. Naruto gently closed his eyes, sighing softly as the genin marched from the room.

He remembered Mizu Hiro, Number 50, and his teammates Suzuki Inaho, 130, and Wakashi Gennai,111. They hadn't passed this year's genin exam or the year after that's exam either in fact they hadn't passed any until Kiba, newly instated as ANBU captain 5 years later, took them under his wing, training them personally. They made it to higher ranks 9 months later. Inaho had hit Special Jonin while Gennai and Hiro both went for hunter Nin. They were killed when the Sound had invaded the village with Sasuke leading the charge. The blonde smiled faintly. They had taken over 200 Sound Nin with them and Inaho had stabbed Orochimaru's then host before Manda swallowed him whole. In revenge, Kiba had hacked Kabuto to pieces and Akamaru ripped his heart out viciously before he could heal himself. Orochimaru left the dying body pretty quickly. Looking over at his friend, Naruto noticed the tightening of Kiba's jaw.

One by one, cells began to drop out and with each team, Sakura noticed that Naruto seemed to deflate in his seat. Hinata looked at him in concern but he didn't notice. It wasn't until Ibiki had failed Numbers 64, 67 and 78 that Naruto had enough. With a low hiss, he vaulted onto the desk, blue eyes narrowed in the direction of Ibiki and shouted, "You are full of SHIT!!"

"Sit down." Ibiki said bored. Naruto glared and his teammates grew alarmed. Ibiki's chakra rose. "Sit down!"

"…" Naruto didn't speak nor did he sit and an awkward tension began to fill the room. Finally he spoke, "If another country's genin were unable to take the exam because they fail to answer your question, it becomes Politics with a capital P, brining trouble for the old man and the country. I highly doubt that you were given permission to conduct such an outrage."

"And you're going to challenge my authority?" Ibiki asked coolly. Naruto just crossed his arms, dropping gracefully into his seat. He kicked his legs up again and smirked.

"Not now," Naruto purred. "But when I become Hokage, I'll challenge it then. By firing your sorry ass and assigning a friend to your position. Cheerful thought isn't it?"

"Hardly insulting coming from a blonde idiot." Ibiki simpered. "So you'll bet your future on that then and you'll answer this question?"

"Yup. Even if I fail, I'll still become your boss and fire you." Naruto said casually.

"We'll see then. Now, how many of you are willing to follow this blonde idiot and see to it that he becomes Hokage to fire my sorry ass?" Another team quit and Ibiki smirked but all Naruto did was shrug. It was one of the older genin groups and Naruto knew they were hostile to him. No team followed them. Ibiki's eyes scanned the room and he thought, "Of 52 original teams, 24 are left. Apparently they'll all follow said blonde idiot." With a well practiced scowl, he looked everyone over. "Are you all going to risk your careers by following him?"

"No point in going back now." Ino called out. She grinned cheerily and Kiba kicked his feet up to copy Naruto. "He said he'd become Hokage and fire you. When that happens, we can fight for the open position."

"I see." Ibiki leveled the genin with his glare again and no one moved. He smirked. "Very Well. Congratulations. Everyone still here, you all pass."

It went quiet.

"Wha-what about the tenth question?" Sakura asked when the information sank into her brain.

"There is no tenth question. Not one beyond the accept or reject thing." Ibiki chuckled at their flabbergasted faces. A lot of the genin opened and closed their mouths, trying to piece together a coherent sentence.

"Then what of the other nine questions?" Hinata asked quietly. Ibiki looked at her.

"The other nine questions were to test your skills at spying." The jonin said simply. "It was clear from the beginning that these questions are more than genin could handle and therefore you needed to cheat to get your information. Those who were clumsy were spotted immediately and failed. Not that we didn't notice the mirrors hanging or the extra proctor but you were less obvious than the others who made it blatantly clear they were attempting to cheat. In the line of duty, to be that clumsy means pain, lots of it and possible death." A small movement from the corner of his eyes caused him to turn, watching as mini-Gai cringed, raising a hand to his chest. "To be clumsy even if they don't catch you also brings the possibility of bringing back the wrong information that harms you rather than helps you. So we weeded out the hopeless cases and snuck in a pair of chunin who already knew the answers." A lot of the genin nodded while Naruto just stared and tilted his head.

Finally Kiba said, "The impossible task." Ibiki nodded and when all the genin leveled him with a confused stare, the boy continued, "In our possible line of work as chunin and more importantly shinobi as a whole, there is no option of fleeing. Nor is there the middle ground of being safe. Its always going to be complete the mission or fail, putting lives in danger. Thus the question. Morino-san gave us two options, both difficult. Either we took the question and risked never advancing ever again in our lives or reject the question in which the whole team fails. It's a no win situation."

"You know a lot for a whelp fresh from the academy Inuzuka." Kiba just shrugged, a hand going to pet Akamaru while the other went to a silver chain around his neck.

"Everyone in my family is a shinobi. You pick things up." The boy merely responded. Ibiki nodded, he knew of Inuzuka Tsume and Hana, Kiba's mother and sister respectively.

"The first exam ends now. I wish you all luck in the next segment to come." Ibiki inwardly smiled when the realization began to dawn on all the genin. The moment of their triumph was short lived when a blur crashed through the window. Two kunai lashed out, pinning a dark roll of cloth that was unrolling into the ceiling. Behind the unrolling cloth, Ibiki sweatdropped and figured that the genin were all staring in shock at the woman.

"You all shouldn't be resting just yet kiddies. I'm your proctor for the second exam." The woman purred and Sakura recognized her as Anko, the woman who Naruto had chased off their first day as a genin cell1 and the words on the cloth behind the jonin solidified her recognition.. She grinned and a few of the genin waved, the ones that knew her before. Her dark eyes flashed and she hissed out the corner of her mouth, "You let 24 teams pass Ibiki?"

"They're a good bunch this year." Ibiki said from behind the cloth. The woman just hummed.

"Alright. You'll be cut down by half by the third round. Follow me if you want to get to your next exam." And she was out of the room like a rocket, smashing through the window she came from. Few genin were able to keep up; the team with the red head from Suna, the sole sound group and surprisingly enough, cell 8 with Kiba leading them. For a moment the other genin just sat there before Naruto and Ino with their teams burst forward with a shout of, "MUTT! SLOW DOWN!" Every other team hurried after them after the shout. Most of them were gone before Lee approached Ibiki behind the banner.

"Yes mini-Gai?" Ibiki asked the spandex wearing genin, his name escaping his thought.

"Where are they going?"

"Training Ground 44." Lee nodded his thanks and then his team shot out with Lee crashing through a second window. Ibiki groaned and he bellowed after them, "I hope you're going to pay for that window!"

Anko grinned and waited patiently for the other genin teams to arrive. Around her were Cells 7, 8, and 10, the Suna team of siblings, the Sound team and surprising them all, Cell Gai, who had arrived first. When asked, Neji had just looked at them while Lee took in their surroundings and Tenten answered, "Lee asked Morino-san where we were to meet." After about a half hour, the other teams arrived to a slightly annoyed Anko, they treaded nervously around the woman.

"Ano…where are we?" A Konoha genin asked meekly. Anko looked at them and smirked, her sadistic nature coming forward.

"Welcome…to the Forest of Death." She said. Some of the genin flinched and Naruto whistled, looking up at the training ground.

"Big place." Kiba mumbled while next to him, Hinata trembled and whispered, "It looks kinda creepy."

Anko's sudden, and slightly insane giggle made the genin jerk and they stared at her with wide eyes. She smirked and leaned slightly, settling her weight to her heels.

"You're about to see first hand why it's called the Forest of Death." She purred. The genin swallowed nervously while Kiba and Naruto snorted.

"'You're about to see first hand why it's called the Forest of Death,'" They mocked. The two rolled their eyes and said in unison, "If you're trying to psych us out it won't work."

"Cocky runts aren't you?" Anko sneered. She reached for a kunai and it sped past Naruto and Kiba only to meet with a clang against a tanto. If anything, all three looked surprised and Shino just merely deflected the thrown weapon with the blade he apparently had had in his sleeves. Shino sent Anko a look that she took as a warning if his narrowed eyebrows were any indication while Kiba quietly got his teammate to place the tanto away. Sliding the blade into its sheath, Shino slid the weapon back into his sleeves. Anko watched the Aburame for a moment before she huffed and turned to the genin, procuring a large stack of papers. She was about to speak when a freakishly long tongue reached out for her, her deflected kunai in its grasp.

"Your kunai…" The owner of the tongue rasped. Anko nodded and took it back, a free hand going to rub her neck in a nonchalant manner. The action was not unnoticed. Naruto's eyes narrowed and Kiba's hand went to his katana while Ino and Lee took a step towards their teammates.

"Now I have some consent forms for you all to sign. Just in case you know? It releases us from being responsible for you deaths since you all know what to expect." Her voice was cheerful enough and she handed out the leaflets of paper. "This segment of the Chunin exams is a no-holds-barred survival test. The point is to make it alive to the tower about 10 kilometers in from any entrance you wish. The entire training ground is circular and they're all evenly spaced from the tower so any entrance is the same. You may use anything in your arsenal to reach the tower. It's going to be a fight to the death version of "Capture the Flag" or in this case, "Capture the scroll"."

"Scroll?" Tenten asked. The woman nodded and motioned to a chunin nearby. He tossed something at her and she caught both, two scrolls, one with heaven written on it, the other had earth.

"The point is to get to the two scrolls before the five day limit is over. You need both to be able to enter the tower." Anko said cheerily. "There are 24 teams so half of you will have the Heaven scroll and the other half will have the earth scroll. Like I said, there is a five day limit to get to the tower. You may be disqualified for any of the following, failing to reach the tower within five days, a teammate is lost due to death or severe injury, and leaving the forest before the permitted time. Oh and reading the scrolls before reaching the tower is also absolutely forbidden." The woman scanned all the faces, some nervous and others impassive. "We'll trade a scroll for every three forms we receive from each team. When you have your scroll, go to a gate. There's forty-four around the perimeter and you all will start at the same time." The teams began to line up and Anko couldn't help but add, "One last bit of advice, stay alive."

Outside Gate 20, the sole sound group prepared for the venture into the forest. The two male genin just looked around lazily, eyes taking in everything and giving nothing back. The only female looked a bit nervous. An eye glanced her over and the other asked, "First mission out of the village?"

"Yea…" The girl mumbled. The half mummified one just hummed.

"Just don't fail." And the clock chimed. Gates bursting open, the genin charged through.

Over at gate 12, a certain blonde grinned and with a quick seal, was off before his team realized it. Shaking his head, Sasuke followed with a slightly nervous Sakura behind him.

"Slow down Naruto!" Sakura cried after her blond teammate. Naruto looked back and with a sheepish grin, he slowed and waited for his two teammates to catch up. "What's the rush?"

"The scroll. We only have five days to make it to the tower." Was Naruto's reply. The team landed in a clearing and suddenly a scream split the air. Naruto sighed and looked grim. "It starts now. One team down."

"This place is really creeping me out." Sakura said honestly. Naruto looked at her and sighed. Reaching into a side pocket on his pants he withdrew a scroll. Looking it over he sighed again. "Naruto?"

"Take the scroll teme and you'll do fine Sakura. I gotta use the bathroom." And without another word, the blonde disappeared into the bushes. When he decided he was far enough away, he formed hand seals. Grinning, he slammed his hands to the ground and a puff of smoke appeared. When it cleared, Naruto was staring into the dark eyes of a fox kit. Seeing Naruto, it yipped happily and bounded around his feet. "Go little kit." And it sped off through the forest. He spun, kunai in hand to block the other as they appeared. He smirked. "Let's go."

The ame shinobi looked surprised, eyes widening. The next thing he knew, he was flying back and Naruto had vanished in a blur of smoke. A foot collided into the genin's back and there was a satisfying crack, Naruto looking down on him. The boy's blue eyes flashed and Naruto kicked him into the clearing. The blonde boy just looked at him in disgust and rummaged around his clothing. Grinning, he pulled out a scroll.

"Mission completed."

"I guess we're lucky." Hinata said softly as Cell 8 rushed from tree to tree. "The team that the Flying Leeches attacked had the scroll we needed."

The other two nodded and suddenly, Kiba stopped, landing roughly on the branch and spinning around. He withdrew a scroll from his pockets and with a quick release seal, traps covered the forest ground. The Inuzuka smirked and hurried to his teammates.

"I want you guys to get to the tower first. I'll meet you there." And before they could protest, Kiba and Akamaru were off. Growling, Shino and Hinata ricocheted off a branch and were on the tail of their companion. They caught up quickly and Kiba sent them an irritated glare.

"Fine. Just keep up." And Cell 8 blurred on.

"That feels better," Naruto said brightly when he reappeared. Sakura sent him a disgusted look while Sasuke just scoffed. The Uchiha blinked when Naruto tossed him a scroll. "I was ambushed when I was using the bathroom. Sickos. The other team had another heaven scroll."

"What are we going to do with another Heaven scroll?" Sakura asked. Naruto shrugged.

"Leverage?" He offered. "Maybe a team has two earth scrolls and they'll trade for one of our Heaven Scrolls."

"Who in their right mind would do that?" Sasuke snorted.

"Naruto!" The voice came from above and the team was instantly on guard, looking up at the treetops. A dark green blur dropped down followed by the girl's teammates. "Lee spotted the teme on his way to the tower. Kiba is in pursuit right now."

"Is he with his team?" At Ino's nod, Naruto growled. "Alert Gaara and have them back Kiba up. Then find the Sound team and alert them as well."

"The sound sir?" Ino squeaked. Naruto gave her a smirk.

"They're my scouts this time." At that Ino's eyes widened and with a quick nod, she tried to rush off only to realize Shikamaru was holding her shadow in place. "Shikamaru?"

"Shika-kun?" Ino asked.

"What's going on?" Sakura asked, confused. Shikamaru sighed and he slid his hands into his pockets in a casual manner. Ino noticed something was off when she didn't mimic his actions. Her eyes widened and Naruto looked suspicious. At his current level, Shikamaru shouldn't be able to keep hold of someone's shadow without them moving when he did.

"Permission to speak freely Hokage-sama." Naruto shot him a stunned look and Shikamaru smiled faintly. "Perhaps it would be wise to summon an ally and we would engage the enemy in range of the tower. That way Anko-san and Sandaime-sama will have news of what to expect?"

Naruto looked at him for a moment and the Nara heir nodded. Naruto smiled when he recognized the familiar glimmer of his tactician from the future behind his eyes. Even though everyone else was confused, Naruto grinned and raised his fist, lightly bumping knuckles with the other genin. "Very well. We'll do as you say. Will you do the honors Shikamaru?"

"My pleasure sir." And the other flashed through hand seals before slamming his hands to the ground with a roar of, "NINPO: KUCHIYOSE NO JUTSU!"

A/N: Whoohoo! New twist! Haha! Betcha you didn't see that coming! Actually I didn't either! Anyways! Here's the end of Chapter 10! I think I might have rushed it a little bit but I'm pretty sure it'll even out in the end. Thanks to all my reviewers! Until next time everyone!