The Heart of the Demon
Chapter 10
The Forest of Death
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.
"Come on Sakura I know you can do it you have been working on this for weeks, let's go"
"Yeah Sakura you've got it now come on before we're late"
"Alright if you guys think so I'm ready"
"Great on three! One! Two! Three!" with that the three of them disappeared with shunshins
"I guess they're not coming, maybe they didn't even get nominated"
"Come on Choji think about who you are talking about, there is no way Naruto didn't get nominated she was freaking rookie of the year! She could kick all our asses and you know it, she'll be here." Kiba was starting to doubt that Naruto would show up himself there wasn't much time left
"Yeah there is no way Sasuke wasn't nominated!" Ino scolded
"You know Naruto, she is probably going to do some dramatic entrance and make a spectacle of herself." Shikamaru suggested
"Yeah she'll be here soon and show everyone how great leaf shinobi are!" Kiba said with a pump of his arm and as if on cue there were three shunshins in the center of the room.
Naruto appeared in a swirl of flames flanked by Sasuke in a twister of lightning and Sakura in a swirl of cherry blossoms. Naruto gave a quick look around the room before she heard a squeal from behind and watched Ino attach herself to Sasuke's back.
"You're so awesome Sasuke! I knew you would be here!"
"Get off him Ino pig!" Sakura yelled reverting back to her academy self
"Naruto! Amazing as ever!" Kiba called as he ran over to Naruto with Choji, Shikamaru, Hinata, and Shino walking over.
"Kiba long time no see how have you been?" Naruto asked with a smile as she gave Kiba a hug causing him to blush horribly. Sasuke watched the embrace with severe annoyance as he was unable to escape the two girls fighting over him.
"I've been great! Training mostly, look how buff I've gotten" He pulled his sleeve up and flexed his muscles giving a wide smile as he did "You want to touch them?"
Naruto chuckled "I'm good"
"I told you that wouldn't impress her Kiba" Shikamaru said in a snide tone causing Kiba to send him a cold glare.
"Good to see you Naruto, life is not as fun without you around" Choji said as he munched on his chips.
"It certainly has been, quieter."
Naruto gave Shikamaru a mocking glare "It's nice to see you too" she then turned to Hinata and scooped her into a big hug "Hinata!"
Hinata squeaked before returning the hug "Naruto" she said in her quiet timid tone
Naruto broke the hug "Still quiet I see. It's too bad, how many times have I told you how fun it is to be loud?"
"Many times Naruto but I am not as outgoing as you, I am happy being a quiet person."
Naruto pouted "Well that's no fun" Naruto had made some progress with Hinata over the years at the academy she used to have this awful stutter and now she had no trouble speaking clearly. Naruto was sure given enough time she would be able break her out of her shell.
It wasn't long before a tall leaf genin with silver hair and glasses approached the group "You guys are making quite the impression on everyone, painting targets on your backs. Especially you three" he pointed out team seven "theatrics are only going to get you killed, look around you're everyone's number one target."
Naruto looked at the crowd of people staring at the group and before long was able to locate Gaara who was staring intently at her with no expression. She locked eyes with him and grinned for a few seconds before turning back to the older leaf Genin "Why do you think we did it? This was the whole point let them come!" she yelled the last part to the crowd.
Kabuto smiled "Pretty sure of yourself, what's your name?"
Naruto looked back to Kabuto with a small smile "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, and you are?"
"Kabuto Yakushi" He pulled out a large deck of cards and started looking through them
"What are those?" Sakura asked curious
"These are information cards, I have info on every ninja in this place." He pulled out a card and showed it to them pumping his chakra though it to show the information. The card was of Naruto and Kabuto proceeded to read it out loud. "Naruto Uzumaki first year genin, first time taking the exams, completed 43 D rank missions and one C rank turned A rank mission." He widened his eyes for effect, of course he already knew exactly who she was and what she had done "An entry in the Bingo book as an A rank threat, known as the Demon of the Leaf for killing the legendary Zabuza Momichi, one of the seven swordsmen of the mist known as the Demon of the Mist, and his Ice Style wielding apprentice along with massacring dozens of mercenary's and tearing the head off the corrupt business mogul Gato."
All eyes were on Naruto who just stood there with a small smile and a hint of pride
Hinata was especially shocked could Naruto really do such things? She had always know Naruto was strong and maybe a little less sane then normal people but was she really capable of tearing someone's head off? And she looked like she was proud of it, was this really the Naruto she knew? "Is that true, about the head?" Hinata asked quietly hardly breaking the silence that had set in.
Naruto looked to Hinata and her smile turned more comforting "It sounds a lot worse than it was, and he deserved to die, he was killing a whole island of people so he could make a quick buck."
"Yeah she was just protecting people! Naruto is not some crazy blood thirsty murderer!" Kiba shouted in Naruto's defense.
Sakura shot a glance to Naruto, she wasn't so sure.
There were a bunch of shunshins into the room revealing a bunch of chunin and the head of the interrogation division Ibiki Morino. Ibiki looked around and was easily able to identify Naruto, the genin in the bingo book, Jinchuriki of the nine tailed fox, these were going to interesting exams. "I am Ibiki Morino, and I will be the proctor of the first exam. Everyone come take a piece of paper, it will determine where you sit.
The jonin sensei watched the test from the jonin lounge; Kakashi was sitting with Guy, Kuranai, and Asuma.
"The test is starting; I believe there was mention of bets?" Asuma said eager to get it started
"Right, I'll bet that my team will make it all the way to the third exam." Kuranai started
"What if there are preliminaries? It happens and with so many talented young genin it seems likely there will be." Kakashi stated
"Alright, unless they have to fight each other in preliminaries I bet they all make it."
"I'll bet my team will make through the second exam and Shikamaru will make it through the preliminaries if there are any."
"I wager my team will make it all the way!" Guy declared loudly.
"Okay I bet my team will make it through to the third exam, unless they have to face each other, and that Naruto will win the whole thing."
"Wasn't she the reason you almost didn't nominate them? You're betting on her to win the whole thing?" Kuranai questioned.
"I almost didn't nominate them because I was afraid of what she might do, now that I have, I might as well make the safe bet for her to win."
Asuma chuckled "The safe bet, you're pretty sure of her aren't you"
"You haven't seen what she can do, she might even be stronger than me, no genin is going to be able to stand up to her."
Naruto took her seat and not long after Hinata took a seat next to her "Hinata, awesome we get to sit next to each other"
Hinata gave a soft smile "Yes it is nice to be able to sit next to you"
"Everybody quiet down!" Ibiki yelled and room was silent shortly after. He gave an intimidating look over everyone before he continued talking "The first exam with be a written test consisting of 10 questions. The test is on the desk in front of you, you will notice there are only 9 questions. The 10th question will be giving at the 45 minute mark and you will have 15 minutes to answer the question. You start out with all 10 points for every question you get wrong you will a point; every time you get caught cheating you will lose 2 points. Those who lose all 10 of their initial points will be removed from the exam along with their two teammates."
Naruto looked around; this was the perfect time to try out her new jutsu she just had to find someone to try it on. She found Gaara who was still staring intently at her, no she better use someone with more of a guarantee. Then her eyes fell upon Kiba, perfect. He saw her looking and waved at her and she waved back. This was going to be a piece of cake.
"Ready, Start!" Ibiki called and everyone started the test.
Hinata gave a quick look over the questions to confirm what she already knew; this wasn't a test of knowledge but a test of how well they could gather information without being caught. She activated her Byakugan and started copying down the answers.
Naruto decided to wait a few minutes for Kiba to gather the answers before using her jutsu. She looked for Sasuke and Sakura and found they were both scribbling away on their tests, Sasuke had his Sharingan activated, good they figured it out not that there was ever a doubt they would. After a few minutes Naruto saw Kiba put down his pen and decided it was time. She waited until Kiba turned his attention back to her which didn't take long and looked into his eyes. He smiled and looked back into hers, there was a swirl of red in their eyes and Kiba's face went blank for a moment before he returned to normal and started saying something to Akamaru.
About a minute later Akamaru came up and nudged at Naruto's feet "Good boy" Naruto said as she patted him on the head and took a piece of paper from him. Akamaru waged his tail and made his way back to Kiba.
Hinata watched this play out, why was Kiba giving the answers to Naruto? She activated her Byakugan again and saw the stream of chakra coming from Naruto, was this genjutsu? Since when did Naruto know genjutsu?
Naruto quickly scribbled down the answers making sure they were in fact correct, she didn't really need to cheat for the answers but she wanted to test her jutsu.
"Was that genjutsu?" Hinata asked
Naruto looked over to her and smiled "Yeah, I've been working on it for a while and wanted to test it, pretty cool right?"
Hinata nodded "Yeah. Why did you use in on Kiba?"
"I wanted to test in on someone easy first; the jutsu just kind of allows me to influence them. It is easier when the target actually wants to help in first place, I figured since Kiba has a crush on me he would be easy to influence."
Hinata could understand her reasoning but she didn't like it, Kiba was her teammate and even though she already knew Kiba liked Naruto it hurt to see Naruto not only knew but was willing to use his feeling for her own gains.
"Anyway, do you see that guy over there?" Naruto gestured to Gaara who had finished his test and was again staring intently at her.
Hinata looked over and saw Gaara staring at them with his dead eyes; it sent chills down her spine. "Yeah I see him."
"He's a sand ninja, we ran in to each other yesterday. What do you think of him?"
"What do you mean?"
"What do you think I mean. I think he's cute, and he keeps staring at me with raccoon dog eyes."
Hinata looked at Naruto like she was crazy but she was too busy staring at Gaara. She thought he was cute? It looked like he wanted to kill her and she liked it? "um sure, I think he looks, fine" she said unsure of herself. How could Naruto like this guy and use Kiba like he was nothing it didn't make any sense. She seemed so different then when they were in the academy, she had never shown any real interest in any of the boys and this is the guy that catches her attention?
"Alright everybody pencils down!" Ibiki called from the front of the room catching Naruto's attention.
The room was significantly less full then it was when the test began, if so many were eliminated on this test Naruto didn't expect to have much challenge in the rest of the exams.
"The 10th question will be given now, but before we give the question you have a choice to make. You can choose to take the 10th question or not."
"Well why would we choose to take it then?" Sakura asked
"Because if you don't take it, you and your team fail, but if you do take it and get it wrong not only will your team fail but you will be banned from ever taking the chunin exams again."
Naruto wasn't surprised and was sure it was a bluff which her team realized quickly as well.
"What? How can that be! There are plenty of people here who have taken the exams before!" Kiba shouted.
"I wasn't the proctor before; in here I make the rules." He waited a few seconds to make sure there weren't any more outbursts. "Now it's time to decide whether to take the 10th question or not, if you wish to back out simply raise your hand and your team will be called."
Over the next couple of minutes people started raising their hands and the room cleared out even more.
"Anyone else?" after another 30 seconds or so he continued "Alright, to the 78 remaining, congratulations on passing the first test."
Most people were shocked and there was quite of bit of explaining the test afterwards which Naruto found both boring and unnecessary. After about 10 minutes of explaining had passed something interesting happened, a person flew through the window using kunai to pin up a large banner as she did.
"I am Anko Mitarashi and I will be the examiner for the second exam!"
Naruto smiled and sat up in her seat; this examiner seemed far more interesting than the last one.
"Great timing as always Anko" Ibiki said as he pushed his way past the banner.
Anko sweat dropped for a second before going on like before "Wow Ibiki 26 teams? You've gotten soft"
"There are a lot of talented ones this year"
Naruto had to stifle a laugh; if these teams were 'talented' this was going to be a breeze.
"Well it's alright there won't be so many left after I'm through with them." She gave a small smile to the remaining genin, most of which looked unnerved by her. "Come on, follow me" she then leaped out the window she burst in though.
Naruto already like this one she was way more entertaining, hopefully her test was as well.
The teams arrived at the destination and waited for Anko to explain the test.
"How about that first test? I was hoping it would at least be interesting, oh well maybe this one will be better, the examiner is already a lot more fun."
"Of course you would think so Naruto, she's as crazy as you." Sakura teased
Naruto just shrugged "Crazy is more fun"
"All right everyone listen up!" Anko yelled "this is training ground 44 also known as the 'Forest of Death' and it is where the second of exam will take place. The second exam is the ultimate survival test. Training ground 44 has 44 gates around the perimeter, each team will start at one of the gates and have 120 hours (5 days) to retrieve these and the bring them to the tower in the center of the training ground." She pulled out two scrolls one with heaven written on it and the other with earth on it. "Each team will be given one scroll, half will get a heaven scroll and the other half will get an earth scroll. You are allowed to use any weapons and jutsu you can to retrieve the scrolls, there will be deaths in this one so you will have to fill out these" she pulled out a form. "Now you can be disqualified for several things, first, if you fail to bring both scrolls to the tower within the allotted time, second, if one of your teammates is lost or killed, and third, if you look inside your scrolls before you get to the tower. Also you can't quit in the middle so once it starts you are spending 5 days in the forest. Now exchange your three completed forms for a scroll and choose a gate, the exam starts in 30 minutes."
There was a myriad of complaints during the explanation but nothing especially important.
'Finally a chance for some fun'
'Yes but we need to get away from the others to truly relish it'
'You're right; I'll come up with something'
After filling out their forms and gathering their scrolls the teams gathered at their gates and waited for the exam to start.
Naruto bounced in place impatiently waiting for the exam to start.
"Naruto stop fidgeting, we should come up with a plan for the exam"
Naruto gave Sakura an annoyed look for half a second "I have a plan, you and Sasuke make your way to the tower and take out anyone on the way. I will find the scroll we need and meet you there."
"We should stay together, what if something goes wrong? Your might need backup."
"Oh come on Sakura you know I can easily take anyone in this exam"
"This is supposed to be a team exam maybe we should stick together." Sasuke interjected giving Sakura a proud smile
Naruto looked into Sasuke's eyes and made a pleading face "on the other hand Naruto did kill one of the seven swordsmen of the mist and his apprentice alone a bunch of genin can't hope to defeat her, it would be more efficient for us to just meet her at the tower."
Sakura's smile turned to a slight frown "Can I talk to you Sasuke?"
Sasuke nodded and moved in closer "What is it?"
"You've seen Naruto she can't control herself when she's alone, if we let her go we might as well be sentencing the poor souls she runs into to death. What if it is some of our friends?"
"She wouldn't kill our friends they're her friends too."
"Well what about the other teams? How can we just let them die?"
"They knew what they were singing up for, people die in these exams you're just going to have to accept that." With that he turned around and walked back to Naruto who had watched the whole exchange with a small smile.
"I vote for Naruto's plan, you either come with me or try to follow Naruto, it's up to you Sakura."
Sakura glared at Naruto, of course Sasuke would side with her, he always does.
The chunin manning their gate looked to his watch before shoving the gate open "You can start now"
Naruto gave a small wave to Sakura and Sasuke "See you guys at the tower" and darted off before either could respond.
She went a few hundred yards before stopping on a massive tree limb "summoning jutsu" she called as she planted her hand on the bark.
"Hey Naruto, you called?"
"Hey kit" she patted the little fox on the head "I need you to find me some people to kill"
Kit wagged her tail "Sure thing"
The sand trio walked through the forest in a seemingly random direction.
"Do you have any idea where he is leading us?" Temari asked Kankuro under her breath
"How should I know?"
"Well ask him them"
"What? You do it; I'm not risking my skin for this"
"She's close" Gaara said to himself
"Hn she?" Temari and Kankuro both quietly asked each other
Gaara stopped and held up a hand causing his siblings to stop as well, not far away there was a group of rain genin huddled around each other talking amongst themselves.
Temari reached for her fan but Gaara held his hand in front of her telling her to stop.
'He's close, he must be following me, I better give him a show'
'Trying to impress my brother's vessel? Might it be you are interested in him?'
'So what if I am, he is an interesting person'
'Hahahaha there is no problem my child, it seems most fitting one such as him would attract you.'
'Time for some fun'
"Alright, everybody has their jobs, we will meet back here in two hours" The leader spoke eliciting a "right" from the other two genin.
"Hey, over here!"
The three genin spun and pulled out kunai searching for whoever had spoken but all they saw was a little fox staring at them with its head tilted. They started back for a moment before in spoke "behind you."
Before any of them had time to react one let out a gargled scream of pain, the other two spun to see none other than the demon of the leaf herself sinking her teeth into their teammate's throat.
Naruto tore her victim's jugular out and shoved the corpse to the side before she dug one of her claws into the abdomen of the closer of the two stunned genin. Once she had hold of hold of his intestine she ripped her claw out and kicked him hard in the chest launching him into a tree a dozen yards back, his intestines ripping out of him the whole way.
The remaining genin, the leader, having recovered from the initial shock turned tail and ran from the demon that just brutally massacred his teammates in a matter of seconds. He didn't make it more than a few feet before Naruto appeared in front of him with a sick smile on her bloody face.
Naruto held out her hand "The scroll"
The fear was so overwhelming he almost broke down into tears "Y-yes here take it just don't kill me please!" he pulled out the scroll and timidly put it into her outstretched hand.
Naruto accepted the scroll gazing at it for a second before turning her attention back on the whimpering genin. She let the terror sink in, soaking it up like nourishment. She waited just long enough so that she could see he was gaining hope he might actually make it through this ordeal before swiping with her claw and ripping his throat out. She relished every second of it, watching the hope leave his face as he fell to his knees gripping his throat before finally falling face first at her feet as the life drained out of him.
Naruto wore a big smile as she started sucking the blood off her fingers. She looked directly at the sand trio; Temari and Kankuro looked terrified by the gruesome display while Gaara was wearing his sick grin and shaking with excitement. Naruto gave them a sly grin before winking at Gaara and disappearing in a shunshin.
Temari and Kankuro looked to each other, this was bad she was even more gruesome than Gaara and she had just stirred him up into a frenzy, they needed to find someone for Gaara to kill before he killed them. Add to that Gaara seemed to have some sort of fixation on her, he had been staring at her all day and apparently led them here to watch her massacre those guys, this could easily turn out very badly.
Naruto walked up to the river bank and started washing the blood off her face 'Sakura would freak out if I showed up with blood all over my face. It's too bad they had the scroll we needed I was hoping to have some more fun, oh well.'
'don't worry too much, there will be plenty more chances for fun'
'Yeah you're right.'
'Someone is approaching, and fast!'
Naruto turned and watched as a man landed a couple dozen feet away from her.
"That was quite the display"
"Yeah, too bad it happened so quickly, hardly any time relish it."
The man smiled and licked his lips "I like the way you think" he pulled off his giant straw had revealing the rest of his face.
Kurama growled 'Orochimaru'
"Oh my I must be special to warrant a visit from the infamous Orochimaru"
Orochimaru let out a laugh "So you know who I am, then you must know I could easily kill you"
Naruto let out a laugh of her own "Please every ninja in the village would be here before you could finish me off"
Orochimaru broadened his smile "Cocky, I like that, at least when you can back it up."
"What is it that you want?"
"Why nothing more than to make an offer, join me, we can do wondrous things together."
Naruto's face became more serious "I have my own plans."
"What has this village ever done for you? They scorn you and reject you, come with me they will learn to fear you, and you will be free to pursue any plans you might have with my full backing."
"They already fear me, and I don't need some washed up pedophile to achieve my goals."
His smile faded "Consider it, I'm sure Gaara would be pleased to have you aboard."
That peaked her interest but before she could respond he used some jutsu to melt into the ground and disappear.
'Don't trust that man Naruto'
Naruto let out a sigh 'Yeah I know Kurama' she finished washing up and proceeded to the tower.
"What's taking her so long, she should be here by now."
"You're the one that insisted she would be fine."
Sasuke glared at her "She is fine, don't say she isn't"
Sakura shook her head "Get a hold of yourself Sasuke I'm sure she'll be here any minute, you said it yourself nothing can take her down."
Sasuke nodded "Yeah you're right she's fine"
"Did you ever doubt it?" Naruto teased as she jumped to them from the tree line.
"Naruto! What took you so long?" Sasuke asked as he wrapped her in a quick hug
"I took the scenic root"
"Did you get the scrolls?" Sakura questioned
"Of course" she pulled out the scrolls "Shall we?" she said as she walked to the door.
They went through the door and proceeded through the steps on the wall until Iruka appeared out of the scrolls.
"Congratulations, you guys are the first to arrive."
"As always I'm the best." Naruto joked
"Don't get cocky now Naruto, you passed this exam in record time but you're not done yet."
"Yeah yeah don't celebrate early yadda yadda. Can't you turn off the teacher thing for a second?"
Iruka sighed "You'll never change Naruto."
The door opened behind them catching everyone's attention. The sand trio walked into the room "Look who's here, guess that means we're in the right place" Kankuro joked at Naruto
"Took you long enough" Naruto said with a grin as she stared at Gaara who stared back
"Do you guys know each other?" Sakura asked confused about the exchange
"We've met" Naruto answered never looking away from Gaara
Sasuke noticed how they were staring at each other "Let's go" He grabbed Naruto's arm and pulled her away into the tower. Naruto let him pull her away but kept her eyes on Gaara the whole way.
Sakura waved to Iruka before following them "It was nice seeing you Iruka sensei."