Chapter 10~ yay! Holy crap my lovely reviewers! I've never had such a response! There have been so many helpful and insightful reviews I can't even say how appreciative I am for the support! I love you all!
Just some fun facts: This story has 243 reviews, 42,442 hits (almost the answer to life, the universe, and everything), 280 favorites, and 394 alerts at this point in time. Thanks again to everyone who's reading!
-Stepping backwards for a moment in a 'kinda but not really' omake-
Sasuke tensed the moment the doors opened and the woman stepped through. It wasn't due to the fact that the woman was the hottest thing he'd ever seen (he furiously worked to beat down the blush that threatened to overtake his face, he was an Uchiha after all and it wouldn't be good for his broody, uncaring reputation), but because she moved like a kunoichi.
Kunoichi could be deadly.
He kept close watch on her every move even as the two boys next to him went down in a spray of blood, this could just be a diversion for a surprise attack.
"No, it was my coin!" another woman had joined the fray and Sasuke's reaction instincts were turned up another notch (as well as his battle with the blush because, oh boy, were those women attractive!).
One woman (was that blue hair?) leapt over the row in front of him to go after a pinkette behind him and ended up smothering him with...
…and Sasuke hit the floor, a small trail of blood slowly dripping from his nose.
.!.
Sakura was about to jump up and attack the woman with pink hair (even though she secretly admired the color, not quite as light as hers but very attractive all the same) for blatantly going after Sasuke like that. All the women had training of some sort, the way they all moved so effortlessly in those ridiculously high heels proved it at least in part.
They were dangerous. Sakura opened her mouth to shout something when: "Ladies, ladies," broke through the escalating din. It was the sexiest voice she'd ever heard.
When the owner of the voice stepped through the door Inner Sakura went ballistic, 'WANT!'
'What about Sasuke?' the rational portion of her brain tried to reason with Inner Sakura.
It was no use, 'Who's Sasuke? LOOK at that man! The voice! The muscles! The hair!'
He turned his sky blue, sparkling eyes on the room, 'The EYES!' Inner Sakura swooned, regular Sakura did the same.
"I'm sorry everyone for the trouble my ladies had caused. Say you're sorry girls," he looked straight at her and winked…
…she was gone before she hit the floor.
.!.
"No Kakashi!" Kurenai shouted, hands moving in preparation for a debilitating genjutsu.
"You… can't… interfere!" Asuma added between grunts trying to hold his friend back.
"Must… go…!" Kakashi intoned as if in a trance. They'd seen all the Naruto clones transform into the buxom women and they'd all gasped in shock (for different reasons). But when the cat-fight started Kakashi couldn't control it any longer, he needed to be in that room!
Asuma and Kurenai were doing their best to hold him back, but he'd been a jōnin for longer than both of them combined and they were quickly losing the battle.
"Oh Youthful Rival!" Gai called out dramatically, "If you so desire the unyouthful scene in the examination room I will give you one here!"
There was a poof and in the place of Gai stood a voluptuous Gai. Bowl cut bangs with large pig-tails on the sides of… her?... head. Same wide eyes, but -her?- eyebrows were smaller and more shapely. It was the green spandex and orange leg warmers that really did the trick though.
"GAH!" Kakashi backed away into the corner with his eyes clenched tight like a caged animal and Kurenai and Asuma curled into the fetal position with their hands over their eyes. Kakashi started muttering under his breath about being forever scared and maybe giving up on Icha Icha if he could just remove the dreadful scene he'd just witnessed from his mind.
"Youthful Rival?" Gai-ete questioned, Kakashi's muttering increased tenfold as he started twitching.
-okay, done with that! Onto the real start. Go!-
.!.
"Ibiki! Seventy-eight! You left twenty-six teams!" the woman shouted.
"Yeah," Ibiki shrugged, "But there was a cat fight with twelve women in here bustier than you, they probably stayed just to see if they'd come back."
Anko, who was about to shout something no doubt obscene, paused, "What have you been smoking." Ibiki only laughed. Anko glared at him, "Whatever. At least my exam gets to cut your numbers by at least half!" she smirked sadistically at the genin again.
"Follow me you whimps!" Anko's sadistic grin increased tenfold when she jumped out the window at top speed, certain that she'd thrown all the genin off and they would be scrambling to follow her to the destination of the second exam.
"Hey, Proctor Lady!" a voice directly behind her nearly made her slip off the rooftop she was currently jumping over.
She swore loudly before she turned to face the voice, "What?" she snarled.
"Where are we going?" Naruto quipped with a smirk, Anko could tell that the blonde knew she had been caught off guard.
"Your worst nightmare," Anko's smirk now replied Naruto's, but to her surprise the threat didn't make the blonde's face even twitch.
In a calm voice, almost eerily so as if she was discussing the weather, she replied, "Oh… I'm sure it won't be that bad. My worst nightmare is something I wouldn't wish on anyone." Anko's thought process ground to a halt when she recognized the look in the bright blue eyes of the young girl in front of her. The look of someone who knows the pain of being completely alone
Sensei… Anko swore again as her thoughts took a dangerous turn to the past, forcing herself pack to the present she spoke and her trademark sneer overtook her face again, "Brat."
Naruto grinned and leisurely placed her hands behind her head in a relaxed position. The other genin were catching up now and Anko suddenly realized something.
"How the heck did you catch up to me so fast? You're supposedly the dead last of the academy!"
Naruto's grin widened to blinding proportions, "That will remain a trade secret," in mocking jest she playfully stuck out her tongue (honestly, though, you don't pull pranks on ANBU headquarters without having, or developing, the skills to get out of windows and other such unofficial exits, such as air ducts, quickly and on demand).
"Heh, I like you kid."
.!.
"This is training ground 44, otherwise known as The Forest of Death," the fearful silence made Anko giggle like a school girl, "And you'll all soon find out why!"
"HA!" Naruto shouted, "If you think some old forest is like my worst nightmare Proctor Lady you'll have to try harder than that!"
Anko laughed, "Oh I knew I liked you!" In an instant she was behind the genin with a kunai to the throat, "Too bad ones like you are the first to go," she whispered threateningly, "I'd love to… play with you sometime," in an almost languid manner she pressed the razor-sharp kunai to the skin on Naruto's neck and let a thin sliver of blood run down to the tip. With a smirk at the blonde's horrified face she licked the throwing knife clean, "if you survive."
Naruto shivered at the tone of voice, but stood her ground and returned the vicious smirk with one of her own.
Anko's face changed back to a normal look, "Oh yeah! I need you all to sign these waivers," she pulled out a large stack of papers from somewhere on her person ("Where did those come from?" Naruto shouted), "There will be deaths in this portion of the exam and while I would love to kill you all myself I'm not allowed. So if you sign this and you die it won't be my fault and then I won't get in trouble and then I won't get assigned to pull door duty for three months again."
"You've forgotten to have groups sign the waivers before?" a brave genin dared ask what they were all thinking.
"No!" Anko replied cheerily, "I've killed them before," the atmosphere darkened considerably, "Needless to say the higher-ups didn't like it. Not good for international relations or something like that," she made a hand motion as if to wave it off like it was no big deal. Several of the faces before her paled, "Anyway. I'll explain the rules and you can all sign the waiver. Got it? Good," without pausing to see if they actually had understood she rolled right on and continued with the rules of the exam.
"Alright! Just for recap the things that will disqualify you are: One. You do not reach the tower with both scrolls in the time limit. And two. Teams that lose a teammate or one of their teammates is killed. You will stay in the forest all five days and with will not look in your scrolls. Any questions?" several hands went up but she ignored them completely, "Good! Now sign your waivers and get your scrolls over there!" she pointed to the small shack with the curtain. A chūnin stood in the doorway.
"Wait! What about-!"
Anko happily cut off the question, "the exam starts in forty-five minutes, I suggest you hurry if you all want your scrolls so you can get to your gate on time," she laughed sadistically as the teams practically mobbed the chūnin she'd handed the stack of waivers to in their attempt to get started, "Oh yeah! One more word of advice!" they paused in the activities, intent on hearing any piece of information that could help them pass, "Don't die."
.!.
The whistle blew and the chūnin in front of team 7 nodded to them and opened the gate.
"Alright! Let's go!" Naruto pumped her fists and then unsurprisingly charged headfirst into the forest.
"Naruto!"
She quickly vaulted into a small clearing and graciously took the head-pounding that Sakura dished out for her.
"We need a plan," Naruto said seriously, making Sakura pause in her ranting about how she needed to be more responsible and not run off without her team.
"A plan…?" Sakura was floored for a moment that Naruto would be the first to suggest it.
"Yes a plan!" Naruto sighed, "I thought you were the smart one here, Sakura-chan! First off we have to have some way of telling if we're all still us because people might try to impersonate one or more of us to get our scroll. Secondly we have to figure out an effective decoy in case we are attacked outright with several backup escape routes. Thirdly we need to head to the river and make out way to the tower as we fourthly set up several traps for other teams to be able to take their scrolls. Now to do this we need to know what kinds of things are in this forest and what materials we have between us to use," Naruto kept going while her teammates stared on in shock and awe. Unbeknownst to them she was in full-on Pranking Mode™.
"Who put you in charge?" Sasuke asked with a slight glare at being outdone by the Dobe of all people.
"I didn't see anyone else taking charge," Naruto stuck out her tongue, "besides! I've already got several plans in the making here! Do you guys remember that one time in our third year at the academy when I got Iruka-sensei upside-down in the middle of taijutsu practice for that one prank?"
The gears in Sakura's head started to turn, "Oh! I remember that! You think you can do that here?"
Naruto nodded easily, "Piece of cake! All I have to do is modify it a little to compensate for three people instead of one and then rig it with kunai or something instead of paint-filled water balloons and-," she snapped her fingers, "instant trap."
"You never did the lessons on traps, Dobe," Sasuke pointed out, he remembered because that was one of the many points he'd teased the blonde about in the academy.
"Oh yeah!" Sakura added, "Iruka-sensei would always call you inside for something when we all went out to practice setting traps! How can we know this'll work?"
Naruto glowered petulantly at her teammates, "Honestly you guys! You seriously think I can't put together a simple trap like this after all the pranks you've seen me do? Iruka-sensei just didn't want my awesome skills to kill all my classmates," she smirked (Iruka, in fact, had taken her out of the lessons because he knew she had proficient skill in the area and used the time to teach her something more useful, like reviewing chakra manipulation and the basic academy taijutsu that she'd needed help on).
Sasuke frowned, Sakura looked concerned but eventually she saw the logic in the slightly exaggerated statement, "Alright, you can do that as long as me and Sasuke supervise to make sure, you never did take the lessons after all," Naruto continued to pout, but Sakura ignored her, "Okay," she pulled out a small map of the Forest of Death, the circular forest had the one large river running right through the middle, "What you said about following the river was a good idea but we have to be careful because a lot of other teams will have the same idea. We don't want to get ambushed ourselves."
"Easy!" Naruto replied, she was grinning from ear to ear, this test was just her style, "I can come up with some great camouflage for us. No one will be able to spot us!"
Sakura hesitated, "Uh… Naruto, you realize that you're wearing bright orange, right? That'll never blend in."
Naruto's grin fell, "I knew you guys didn't pay much attention to me in the academy or while we've been a team, but honestly! Didn't finding out I was a girl teach you anything? Look underneath the underneath. I wear orange to train myself," (also it was the only thing the shopkeepers would sell her), "I was wearing bright orange when I painted the Hokage monument and no one caught me until after I was done. Does that tell you something?"
"But-!" Sakura was starting to feel almost as foolish as when their teammates gender was revealed, "you've never told us that!" it was a weak excuse and she knew it.
Naruto's face fell further into a sad frown, "You never told me that you were really trying hard to keep up with Sasuke and me so you do extra studying about the things we learn to really understand how to use it. And Sasuke didn't tell us that when he goes home he does at least three hours of extra practice on his own so he can come back and do it perfectly. Neither of you told me those things, but I noticed every time you both grew while we were practicing together."
Sakura didn't know what to say to that, Sasuke turned away.
Naruto sighed, she was used to people underestimating her but she didn't expect the pain of having it come from her own teammates, "We should go," she said shortly, "I can hear someone coming."
Sure enough when Sakura listened she could hear the sound of three people moving through the trees who obviously had never tried to move stealthily through a forest before. She stood and made a decision for the team, "Naruto, I think you should be in charge this time around. We haven't given you enough credit so far and you seem to know what you're doing in this sort of situation so…" she turned hesitantly to Sasuke, almost afraid that he wouldn't agree.
Sasuke turned back from the direction of the incoming team, "Don't mess this up, Dobe," he almost smiled, but as soon as they thought they saw it his face was a blank mask again.
It took a moment, but Naruto suddenly realized what her teammates were doing and a wide grin spread across her face, the earlier pain completely disappearing, "Great! Come with me and we'll get some camouflage!" she darted silently into the side of the clearing and Sakura and Sasuke were surprised that the orange almost completely vanished into the foliage around it. They moved quickly to follow lest they lose it completely.
.!.
Sasuke and Sakura tugged lightly at the cloaks Naruto had handed them, they were made out of woven vines with native leaves and plants tied into the mix.
"It's summer time," Naruto was explaining, "So that's why the vines are woven so tightly," she was working on her own cloak of plants, "in the spring you would wear bright colored clothes and weave a little looser to create the image of the flowers and in the fall you would wear muted browns and oranges and use dying vines to blend in with the changing colors. But you have to be careful because if their too dried out it rustles unnaturally when you move and you have to move specifically to keep them from giving you away."
"How do you know all this?" Sakura asked.
Naruto paused, looking up from her work, "Mostly I figured it out myself when I was younger, but after Iruka-sensei saw I was pretty good at it he gave me some extra lessons," with a quick intricate knot she unfurled her own cloak of green, "the plants I wove into the vines are ones that are found all over so it doesn't look strange when we get to different areas of the forest, sometimes there are plants that grow only in certain locations."
Her teammates were amazed at the amount of detail that she was giving to these cloaks, Sasuke gave the green one more glance before throwing it over himself. He nodded when he noticed they were malleable enough to get to his weapons and attack quickly if needed.
Sakura nodded as well and smiled, "What now Naruto?"
"Our best chance of finding the scroll we need will be near the tower," she pulled out the map again and pointed to the center, "The teams with both scrolls will all be heading there so if we're able to get one there then we know they'll have the Heaven scroll."
Sasuke and Sakura nodded and both moved to go toward the river.
"Wait! I haven't told you guys how to move in these things yet!" Naruto scrambled to roll up the map and flip her leafy cloak on at the same time to follow after them.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes, "We know how to move silently through the trees," he commented.
"I didn't mean noise," Naruto replied, waving his glare away with a wave of her hand, "I meant move. Nothing in the forest moves in a straight line, so we can't either. If you just go walking along like you own the place, even if your completely silent about it, then the camouflage will be for nothing."
"That makes sense," Sakura nodded, "So we have to move like part of the forest."
"Exactly," Naruto grinned.
"Can we go now?" Sasuke frowned at them.
"Oh! Yeah, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura complied easily, "Let's go!"
They followed along the river to the center of the forest all day and passed several teams who had the same idea. They weren't noticed and they all decided it was best not to make trouble before they were prepared to make trouble so they stopped about an hour's walk away from the tower just as it was nearing nightfall.
"This'll be a good spot," Naruto nodded to herself as she wandered around the area, "We can start setting up here."
"Good!" Sakura proclaimed, "I've had to go to the bathroom for the last two hours! I'll be right back."
"Okay Sakura-chan, we'll start without you," Naruto said absentmindedly as she waved over her shoulder while pulling out an unusually large amount of ninja wire.
"How much do you expect to use?" Sasuke asked incredulously as Sakura left the clearing.
"It can never hurt to be prepared!" Naruto shot back with a glare, "Now help me set up, Jerk. We're putting the kunai in with this wire and…" Sasuke rolled his eyes and tuned out her babbling, keeping a wary eye out on the forest around them. Just because they had camouflage cloaks didn't mean there was no one following them. He'd had the nagging feeling that someone was watching them for the last few hours.
"…and then we'll use this boomerang to…" Naruto was still going when he tried to start paying attention so he started ignoring her again and just worked on setting up the trap.
Special thanks to kitsuneluvah who suggested the beginning omake that wasn't quite and omake… :D
I'm so sorry to everyone for the very very late update. But life got in the way and real life has to take precedence over internet life or everything falls to pieces. Sorry to everyone! But especially with school back the updates will be more random and spread out like this cause I'm taking 15 credit hours and still working three jobs (it will be the death of me, I swear!) XD I'll probably move to about a monthly update schedule until next summer, maybe more depending on how much the muses require me to write, but I won't abandon you all! Oh, and just so you're all aware: I didn't proof read this one at all, I figure if there's anything glaringly wrong with it you'll all point it out, right? Right! 8]
So tell me about your outrage on the subject! Or you can talk about what you thought about Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi's reaction to Naru's cheating (thanks again to kitsuneluvah, without whom you would not have received such a scene), or maybe Naru's and Anko's little bonding moment, or perhaps you feel content with just marking this as a favorite or alert! I don't mind either way!
See you next Month!
