Disclaimer: The author does not own Naruto, anything related to Kishimoto Masashi's works and ideas, except for characters, plotlines, or ideas invented by the author.

Rating: T (mild to severe language and some mildly graphic imagery, no overt sexual references or imagery or graphic death as of the writing of this chapter)

Last time: As the first stage of the Chūnin Exams winded down, the field was whittled down to a mere 27 teams thanks to Ibiki's imposing personality. As he moved aside to allow Anko to take charge for the second stage, the chūnin candidates were introduced Training Area 43, also known to the residents of the Hidden Leaf Village as the Forest of Death. Much to their dismay, Naruto and Sakura were forced to change their plans due to Sasuke's flu diagnosis. As the second stage began, Naruto concocted a plan to quickly obtain the other scroll required to pass and managed to obtain not one but two of the enemy teams' trophies, though not without one of them in hot pursuit. As they rushed to the tower in record time, Team 10 made camp for the night before Shikamaru was alerted to the presence of a Hidden Waterfall sibling team that had located them, including a girl named Fū who had the ability to grow wings and fly. Elsewhere, as a yet to be identified team made shelter for the night, a dark figure observed them from a distance…

AN: Chapter 11 time! Let's see how the Chūnin Exams look when Team 7 isn't the focal point.

(Chūnin Exams) Chapter 11 – Danger Looms! The Hidden Perils of the Forest of Death!

Elsewhere

Still hidden under the disguise that he had used to enter the Hidden Leaf Village, Orochimaru quietly observed his prey as his sharp eyes and well honed instincts allowed him to discreetly peer through the genjutsu laid on the area. The Hidden Leaf rogue's tongue slowly emerged from his mouth and drew lightly over his lips in anticipation. "At least I will have one of my prey in hand before this night is up," he hissed softly, "The Kyūbi boy may have caught me off guard and spoiled one of my plans, but his team was only one of my objectives." His face briefly contorted in anger at being caught with his guard down, but the expression was gone as quickly as it had appeared. "The one before me…yes…that one is much more important to me. He is vital to the success of my plan." Without any sound, his body began to sink into the ground, and within moments there was no evidence that anyone had been there.

At Team 10's campsite

"Ino, Chōji, are you ready?" Shikamaru muttered, using the sibling bickering as a cover to begin their attack.

"Ready to be done with these exams?" the beautiful blonde snapped, "Yes, please." Still, she drew her hands up into a prepared position as she leaded back against Shikamaru's back and aimed at the hovering female in front of her. In front of them, Chōji said nothing and simply nodded his confirmation as he began to mold chakra into his limbs.

"Alright, on my mark, we strike," the de facto leader of Team 10 whispered, "We still don't know which of them has the scroll, or if it is the one we need, so we need to hit fast and hard before they catch on to our attacks." The Nara heir closed his eyes briefly and reestablished the link with his shadow.

Unknown to any of the Waterfall siblings, the Leaf genin had chosen their shelter quite strategically. Despite being quite an open and easy to spot target for enemies, the light being cast by the fire draped shadows all over the surrounding area. And having a good grasp of his clan's techniques, Shikamaru had set up a sensory net in the immediate vicinity to catch anyone who stepped within a shadow within a few hundred feet of the campsite. Now, he was consolidating the tendrils of his own extended shadow into three, more defined groups.

Their targets were still arguing amongst themselves about the whole issue of the female sibling's rage at her parents' choice of name. "I just don't get why you're all worked up," Hisen was saying, "It's your name. You'd think you'd like your own name."

"You don't see us complaining about our names, do you?" Tarumi added.

The enraged tomboy hadn't moved much from her spot under the overhang, but she now blew past the Leaf genin and got right in the face of her brothers. "Let me tell you something about complaining…" she said as she began to rip into her siblings once again.

Shikamaru really didn't care what was being said, but he was pleased that they were all now in one place. Ino shifted her position so that she was kneeling in front of her teammate instead of standing behind him, and Chōji made sure to move himself out of her line of sight. The Nara heir made the slightest movement with his hands, and unseen to the Waterfall ninja, their shadows all lengthened by a significant margin. "Alright, let's go!" he shouted, and that momentarily stopped the bickering siblings as they heard his exclamation.

Chōji wasted no time, as his arms ballooned in size with a shout of, "Bubun Baika no Jutsu (Partial Expansion Technique)!" A burst of energy from his legs gave him a running start at the enemy trio, who ceased their bickering and tensed in anticipation.

"Nice try with the sneak attack," Hisen muttered, "but you'll have to do better than that!" He and his brother made to extract weapons from their hip pouches, but their arms, along with their bodies, suddenly locked up, and they were unable to move a muscle. In the air near them, Fū remained hovering thanks to her wings, but she too had lost all movement in her limbs. However, she did not look all that worried, as did her brothers.

Shikamaru smirked and unclasped his hands. "Kage Mane no Jutsu (Shadow Possession Technique), success," he said confidently, as his shadow made contact with all three of the shadows of the Waterfall ninja. Thanks to his teammate's work, Chōji was able to quickly ascent the hill and grasp both of the two males in his enlarged hands, making sure to allow his best friend time to disengage the technique and focus solely on the hoverer. He pinned them to the ground and kept his gaze on their sister. Ino was up next, and with nary a sound, she took aim at the flying female and slumped back against Shikamaru's legs. Again, he made sure to release her once she had been completely possessed.

Noting that everything was going according to plan so far, the Nara ninja raised his voice slightly and addressed his other teammate, "Chōji, see if they're holding the scroll. I'll check…"

His statement was loudly interrupted by the unexpected return of Ino's spirit to her body, and her mouth let loose a loud scream of pain. He caught movement out of the corner of his eye, and as he knelt down to see what was wrong with the Yamanaka, his eyes narrowed as he took in Fū's hovering form, obviously free from any restraints.

At the same time, Chōji yelped in agony and jumped away from his captives. Shikamaru was able to see large gashes on both of his enlarged palms as the twins rose to their feet, both wielding kunai attached to wrist holsters. Both of them retracted the blades, and Tarumi reached behind his back and withdrew the scroll from a pouch on his belt, the kanji for heaven visible. "I'm not too worried about you getting this, but it'll be much more fun to play around with you if you have a target," he stated smoothly.

"Especially if you have two of us to target," Hisen added, as he withdrew another scroll from his own pouch, this time being an earth scroll. Both of them quickly replaced them into their hip pouches and settled into relaxed but prepared battle positions.

Chōji warily took them in and rushed in once again. Swinging his enlarged right fist with much more dexterity than his size would indicate, he managed to catch them off guard, and Tarumi was forced to bring both hands up to block. That wasn't enough to stop the momentum of the Akimichi's strike, as he flew through the air past his brother and landed in a heap at the base of a large oak. Still, it did open the door for Hisen to charge in swinging, and he began to exchange blows with Chōji, keeping up with surprising efficiency at the mauling lunges of the larger fighter.

Meanwhile, making a last ditch effort, Shikamaru sent his shadow after the Waterfall female, who had begun to watch her brothers fight the large Akimichi. While it was a seemingly successful ploy, he watched in dismay as she shattered his control as if it was nothing. His eyes narrowed in thought as the gears in his head began turning. Changing tactics, he knelt down and softly asked his teammate, "What happened?"

Ino was still clutching her head in pain, and even speaking was an effort. "There's something else in her," she managed to whisper, "I only got a glimpse of it before I got forced out, but it looked like a giant bug of some kind."

Thanking her for her effort, Shikamaru ceased talking and settled into a contemplative pose. Taking in all the factors thus far, he could only come to one conclusion, and it was a rather horrifying one, if he was honest with himself. The foreign girl hovering in front of them had the ability to manifest wings from her body, seemingly out of nothing but chakra. Ino was unable to get anywhere with her Shintenshin no Jutsu (Mind Body Switch Technique). Well, if he was being honest with himself, she was completely rejected, and she seemed to think that there was something…else…inside of her. Even he had felt that, when his Shadow Possession failed to restrain her at all, and now that he thought about it, she probably could have freed herself at any time when he captured them all earlier.

All of these factors led to the same conclusion that he had drawn already, so he decided to switch tactics. "Hey!" he shouted, "Fū, was it?"

"Yes, sweetie? Ready to give up yet?" she asked, still smiling without any worry.

"No, but I do have a question for you, if you're willing to answer it," he said slowly, closely monitoring her reaction. Seeing her nod, he asked, "How many tails?" Even though he too wasn't worried about repercussions, he still tensed because he wasn't sure about how the winged girl would react to his inquiry.

Maybe not pleasantly, but he was surprised by the way Fū's face quickly lit up in excitement. "Oooh, you're a smart one, aren't you?" she bubbled happily, "It usually takes people a lot longer to figure it out. What clued you in?"

"I have a friend who's just like you," Shikamaru shot back, "Fighting you is a lot like fighting him…a real pain in the ass."

She nodded appreciatively and held up both of her hands, with seven fingers remaining upright. "I'm more than happy to tell you since you managed to deduce that just from a little information, but I'm not sure how it's going to help you," she said confidently as she began to slowly hover away from them and back towards her brothers.

"It distracted you, didn't it?" the smart genin retorted. Fū looked confused at the statement, and that cost her. She sensed the oncoming attack but wasn't able to completely defend herself as a giant fist smashed into her side and sent her flying into the darkness of the forest. Both of the Waterfall twins were in fast pursuit of Chōji, who quickly turned to confront them, but Tarumi halted in mid jump, and Hisen was startled enough by the abrupt stop that he was smashed away by another oversized swing of the Akimichi's left arm.

The large genin leapt to the side of his best friend, and Shikamaru carefully lifted Ino's limp form into his arms. "I'll keep her occupied," he said to Chōji and the Yamanaka in Tarumi's possessed body. His face grew weary at the thought, and he added ruefully, "Try not to take too long." With that, he leapt into the woods after the Seven Tails jinchūriki.

"We'll do our best," Ino's possessed body shouted after him.

A groaning behind them drew their attention, and the two remaining members of Team 10 turned to face Hisen, who had begun to rise to his feet. He was favoring his right arm, which hung at a somewhat awkward angle, and his eyes bugged out at the sight of his brother's form standing next to two Hidden Leaf ninja. "You'd think I wouldn't be surprised by anything by having a sister with a giant bug in her, but I'm not sure I get this…" he muttered.

"Do you think you can handle him?" Chōji asked, taking great care to handle his teammate's body carefully in his enlarged palms. As he said that, a large flash of light in the forest behind them signaled their need for haste.

"I'm going to pretend you didn't say that," Ino said with a huff, shooting her teammate a glare before launching herself at the stunned Hisen. The Waterfall ninja, despite knowing something was up with his brother, was still not completely sure about what was going on, and as such, he reacted to the engagement as if he was sparring with Tarumi at home.

That was a grave error. Expecting the slow and deliberate punches and sweeps that his brother favored in the use of his fighting style, the hard elbow to his gut was quite a shock, and the follow up knee to the same place and a fist smash to his head only served to disorient him further.

He had no reason to know the fighting style of Yamanaka Ino because he wasn't a member of the Hidden Leaf Village, but of Team 10 she was by far the most skilled at taijutsu. While Shikamaru avoided all physical confrontations in favor of using his shadows as extensions of his limbs, and Chōji was skilled at brute force but not fine movement in his taijutsu, Ino was another story altogether. Many would look at the pretty teenager kunoichi and automatically assume that she had no desire to get her hands dirty while fighting, and to some extent that was true. However, while it wasn't anywhere near a complete fighting style, she was very adept at elbow and knee thrusts and backhand strikes, protecting her fingers and feet from attack while striking in an unpredictable manner thanks to her natural flexibility.

Hisen was finding this out the hard way, as he was not only expecting his brother's style but also not fast enough to keep up with the young woman's barrage. Being in another body robbed Ino of her limber movements, but it did grant her a greater level of strength behind her blows. Left knee to the stomach, left elbow to the face, double fist slam to the head, right knee to the chin. He was utterly unable to defend himself from the staggering blows, and as he weakly stumbled back towards the tree where partially collapsed, he didn't try to defend himself as Chōji's free fist gently closed around him.

Chucking the scroll in Tarumi's belt on top of her body in her teammate's hands, Ino quickly crossed the distance to the tree line, snaked her arms into the belt of her enemy and extracted the other scroll. Throwing that one in the same manner as the first, she glanced back and said, "I'm starting to lose control. He wasn't too happy to see me beat his brother up." Taking a length of rope from Chōji's hip pouch, she tied Tarumi's hands together with increasingly difficulty, and with great effort managed to complete the release of her technique.

As she awoke in her own body and stowed the purloined scrolls in her own pockets, Chōji released the exhausted Hisen to the ground, and Tarumi awoke, shouting, "You won't get away with this! I'll get you back for what you did to my brother!"

Ino landed lightly on the ground as her teammate's hands shrunk back down to a normal size. She looked at the twin brothers with the slightest bit of regret and apology in her eyes and said softly, "You know it wasn't personal." As both she and Chōji turned to join their teammate, just as another large flash erupted in the depths of the forest, she threw a last remark over her shoulder. "I hope your brother is okay." With that, they departed, leaving Tarumi to fume.

A short distance away

For what seemed like the hundredth time, the forest lit up with an unnatural light, bathing everything within a hundred yards in a blinding luminosity. Huffing heavily from behind the safety of a large tree, Shikamaru tentatively stuck his foot out enough to create a small shadow and quickly shot it across the slight gap in the foliage. Because he couldn't judge exactly where the sparkling powder had originated, he was mostly taking blind stabs, and his worries were confirmed when he felt his chakra lengthened shadow come to a screeching halt way short of the maximum length. Sighing, he retracted it before Fū could catch a glimpse of his location.

The fights had been going mostly the same since the onset of their one on one fight. Once Fū had caught on to Shikamaru's technique, she surprisingly didn't try to restrict his ability to create light and shadows but rather compounded the effect using her Hiden – Rinpungakure no Jutsu (Secret – Hiding in Scale Powder Technique) to cancel out the flash bombs the young Nara (admittedly) skillfully positioned to her rear. As a result, he hadn't gotten anywhere near her, and his shadows remained hidden in the darkness or eradicated by her illuminating scale powder.

'I only have about 30 percent of my chakra left,' he mused to himself, 'and nothing I've done so far has worked to stop her. While it doesn't grant nearly as much of a boost as the Kyūbi does to Naruto, the bug bijū inside of her and the wings do let her dodge my shadows rather efficiently.' Rummaging in his sack, he pulled his hand out and opened it to reveal one remaining flash bomb, and his face tightened as he began to feel a small amount of anxiety creeping into his chest. 'I'm not sure I like these odds…I'm just not equipped to fight a jinchūriki…' he admitted to himself, though he continued to wrack his mind for other plays.

Way too close to his liking, no more than a couple of trees over from his current location, he heard Fū's singsong voice cry out, "Come out, come out, wherever you are, little caterpillar." Shikamaru had to quickly shift position to preserve his safety as the empowered kunoichi hovered nearby. Her appearance had taken on a shape much more like that of a bug through the use of a chakra cloak. The bubbling green energy around her head was in the vague shape of a pointed helmet, her fingers were longer and her fingernails more sharp, and one of the two insect wings was covered, though the other was left bare, indicating her use of her tenant's energy only up to a level of one tail.

"If you don't want to come out, I can certainly think of a couple of ways to flush you out," she trilled. Her eyes scanned the areas with pupils much more akin to insect eyes than human, and the buzz from her wings echoed off the trees of the forest, creating a dull roar that reverberated through the night sky. Not finding her prey to be amenable to revealing himself, she took it upon herself to flush him out. Forming a few quick handseals, she raised her voice to make sure her target heard her and shouted, "Hiden – Rinpun Dokujiri (Secret – Scale Powder Poison Scattering)!" From both her mouth and wings a sickly yellow haze emitted in all directions, and Fū's eyes quickly scanned the forest floor for signs of any movement.

Her eyes locked on to the sound of rustling coming from behind one of the trees to her right. While the powder she created was considered a poison, it could be retooled for a number of different effects and strengths, and the version she had emitted this time was a paralysis formulation. So while it hurt like hell when inhaled, it was relatively harmless and usually wore off within a couple of minutes. Still, it was enough to grab something from the target, such as a scroll, and the insect host slowly hovered closer to the tree.

As she peaked around the trunk, she did find the source of the rustling noise, but to her horror it was merely Shikamaru's vest tied to a spring-loaded branch so it flopped back and forth through the underbrush. Fū whirled around as her ears caught another sound, but this time she was too late to counteract the flash bomb that erupted in a literal blaze of glory behind her. She was briefly able to make out Shikamaru's form in front of the flash bomb, but she couldn't prevent the searing pain that shot through her retinas, compounded by the influence of the Nanabi inside of her.

Her ears were unaffected, though, and to her dismay, Fū heard the Nara ninja murmur, "Kage Santen Fūin (Shadow Three Point Seal), success." She heard rather than saw his steps as he approached her, and this time, her attempts to disrupt the shadow lock on her were much less successful. Slowly, as additional bodies landed in the clearing and her eyes regained their sight, she could see that Shikamaru's teammates had rejoined him, and a three-pronged seal wrapped in a circle restrained her feet, using her shadow as the base.

The finally victorious Nara turned to Ino and Chōji and asked, "How'd you fare?" Though weary, the Akimichi smiled softly and gave a thumbs up, and the female member of Team 10 pulled out the two scrolls that she had taken from Hisen and Tarumi. "Excellent," he nodded in satisfaction, "Now, let's say we get out of here, huh? That won't hold her for long, and it burned through all of the chakra that I had left."

"No objections here!" Ino muttered in disgust. Her eyes flew down to her hands, which had been dirtied up quite a bit in the struggle, "I could use a shower and some food. I keep forgetting she…" and the Yamanaka jerked her thumb at the restrained jinchūriki, "…ate our dinner."

As Team 10 took to the trees in their journey to the central tower, Chōji astutely noted, "Your dinner? I thought you just wanted a salad?"

"…shut it."

Approximately ten minutes after they had departed, and Fū was completely sure that they were gone for good, she shattered Shikamaru's seal like it was nothing, having put on an appearance for show. Noting that there was no need to sustain her increased power, she let the chakra cloak shimmer away, and her wings slowly disappeared. Exhaling as the slight pressure of the bijū's power lifted from her body, she reached into her own hip pouch and withdrew both a heaven and an earth scroll, just as Tarumi landed in the clearing, supporting his weakened brother. "Good job, boys," she noted, "They didn't suspect a thing."

"You're one to talk," Tarumi muttered, "You didn't get slapped around like a bunch of rag dolls." He indicated his brother, who was awake and alert but still very beat down. "That Yamanaka chick really did a number on him, and she did it in my body."

The injured brother grinned through the pain and added, "Still, it was kinda sexy the way she did it. I like girls with some spunk."

"Really?" Tarumi questioned incredulously, "Really? You think that was sexy? You've really lost it."

Fū shook her head in amused disbelief and turned in the direction that the Hidden Leaf team had departed. "Let's forget about them for now. They're not our problem any more. Soon enough they'll figure out that scroll is an earth scroll under a genjutsu, and they'll either be extremely happy or pissed off."

"You're welcome for that, by the way, sis," Hisen groaned in pain, "It took a lot to keep that illusion up the entire time I was getting my ass handed to me."

She beckoned the two of them over, and she slung her injured brother's more damaged arm gently around her shoulder, eliciting a slight hiss from him. "Shall we?" she asked rhetorically, as the Waterfall team took off in a leisurely manner towards the tower.

Second day of the second phase, early evening

The lone group of genin participating from the graduating class right before that of Naruto's age range were currently en route to the center of the Forest of Death. They had gotten very lucky with the location of their gate, as they had encountered another team from the Hidden Leaf Village only twenty minutes into the start of the scavenger hunt/battle royale hybrid test. Lee and Tenten were both unfamiliar with the members of that particular squad, and while their faces were vaguely familiar to Neji, he didn't feel any particular impulse to hold back just because they were comrades of the same village.

In fact, he didn't even do much in the way of fighting. After briefly consulting about the best way to snatch the scroll, they had come to the conclusion that a surprise attack was the most efficient method and the one most likely to succeed. Tenten's skill with ranged weapons and pinpoint accuracy were extremely useful in that regard. Of course, she wasn't aiming to kill because they were all Hidden Leaf genin, but her aim was so on target that she could lightly slice up the three before they had a chance to react. Lee immediately followed up that assault with a blitzkrieg of hammering blows that incapacitated two of the chūnin hopefuls before they had a chance to recover. The lone remaining member of that squad was only damaged by one or two of Tenten's weapons, and he was fast enough to avoid the spandex-clad taijutsu user, but in all of the chaos, he forgot that teams contained three people. Additionally, Neji had seen that this last male was the scroll bearer, which is why he made such an effort to avoid being disabled. Unfortunately for the poor young man, he couldn't see that the Hyūga prodigy had silently dropped in behind him, and a quick Gentle Fist strike to the neck put him out of commission for a couple of hours.

Now, with a complete set of scrolls and some time to kill, Team 9 had made the executive decision to rest for the night and keep an eye peeled for any other teams that might be approaching with devious intentions in mind. They were also preparing for the coming days; to try to ensure some success and security, they were planning on camping out within the general vicinity of the tower and ambushing some of the teams that approached to supplement their supply of scrolls.

To that end, Neji's Byakugan was active, even as he slowly chewed on some of the canned baked beans that Tenten had thought to store in her scroll as a part of their rations. A light fire crackled amongst the three of them, keeping Gai's team nice and toasty.

"What's it look like out there?" the bun-styled girl asked as she cracked open a bottle of water and took a large swig.

The white eyed young man's shoulders moved ever so slightly in the motion of a shrug, and he replied, "Closest team is at least two kilometers away. We should be fine as long as someone is keeping watch at all times." That answer seemed to satisfy Tenten's curiosity as she nodded in approval.

"What about the other teams we are familiar with, Neji?" Lee asked, following that up by ripping off a piece of beef jerky, "Do you see any of them?"

Not having thought of that, the de facto scout of Team 9 replied, "No, but I'll scan around." Pumping some more chakra into his eyes, he maxed out the range of his Byakugan, which was just less than ten kilometers. While that meant he couldn't see the outer edges of the far side of the training area, their proximity to the tower (by his estimation they were only about three kilometers away) meant that he could see many of the teams still competing.

He recognized the first set of signatures based more on sheer volume rather than an inherent knowledge of whom they belonged to, though he also was able to discern their identities. It was certainly hard to miss the dual reservoirs of chakra that were a characteristic of jinchūriki, and he had been in the presence of this particular one and his teammates enough to identify them rather quickly. "It seems that Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke have already made it to the tower…" he noted dryly, not missing the looks of shock on his teammates' faces, "…and it appears that they are the only ones there at this point in time."

Wide eyed, Lee said, "That is amazing!" and Tenten nodded her agreement with that statement.

Moving his gaze around some more, Neji quickly spotted two other chakra signatures resembling those of Naruto. These two, however, were not familiar to him, and their secondary chakra sources were not the vibrant orange color of the blonde genin. The volume alone was still enough to confirm something in his mind, so with only the slightest edge to his tone, he added, "And it appears that there are two others like Naruto participating in this exam as well." Concentrating, he was able to gleam a little more information from his Byakugan, though it wasn't much because they were both quite far away. "The closest one is about 7 kilometers due northwest from our position, and I believe that is the team consisting of the Kazekage's children. The other one is just on the edge of my vision due northeast, moving rapidly towards the tower, and I couldn't hazard a guess as to the identities of those genin."

"What about your cousin's team?" Tenten pressed, "And the other rookie team?"

Neji had been keeping an eye on his cousin for most of the exam, so he was quickly able to answer that query. "Lady Hinata's team is actually quite close to us, only about 3 kilometers east of here. They are about as close to the tower as we are, but they only have one scroll at this point." His gaze shifted back towards where he had seen the second foreign jinchūriki chakra signature. "As for Nara, Yamanaka, and Akimichi, they are moving towards the tower, approximately one kilometer ahead of the team I couldn't identify with the large chakra source. Judging by how low on chakra the three of them are, I'd guess that they engaged the squad following them currently."

Lee bobbed his head as he digested that information, and Tenten appeared satisfied by the assessment that her teammate had given…until both she and the bowlcut genin noticed the darkening of his facial features as he obviously saw something he didn't like. "What's wrong?" she asked worriedly.

"I'm not sure," he replied slowly, locking his gaze in the direction of the Hidden Sand team, "but there is someone in this forest that can't be a genin. Their chakra level is absurdly high, and I know this individual isn't like Naruto because I only see one, distinct chakra well within him."

The lone female looked lost and said, "Is that strange? I know Naruto is a special case, but you have a decently large chakra supply, right? So do Shino and Chōji, if I remember correctly."

Neji vehemently shook his head, and Lee was somewhat startled by the foreign look of fear that was threatening to take over his friend's features. "No, this individual has more chakra than the three of us combined," he muttered, "I don't know who this person is, but there's something unnatural about him." Suddenly realizing something else, the young Hyūga swung his gaze out a little further and narrowed his eyes in recognition. "And whoever this person is, he's stalking the Kazekage's children."

Third day of the second phase, early morning

Moving swiftly through the trees, the team from the Hidden Sand Village consisting of the Kazekage's three children made their way towards the central tower. Being a brutally efficient team whose members played off each other's strengths and weaknesses, it took them no time to locate a team that possessed the heaven scroll that they needed, attack with quick and surgical precision, and escape before they could recover. It had been a Hidden Leaf team, but none of the three Sand genin recognized them as friends or associates of Uzumaki Naruto, so while they didn't kill them, they also didn't feel the need to hold back.

They'd probably recover in a few days…or weeks.

Now that they had the two scrolls they needed to gain access for the next part of the Chūnin Exams, they were leisurely making their way through the forest.

"This place isn't half bad," Kankurō noted, obviously impressed, "I can't remember the last time I saw this many trees in one location."

"You live in the middle of a desert," Temari needled him, "You've never seen trees period unless you travel outside of the country." Ignoring the fact that he stuck his tongue out at her playfully, she took a moment to observe the greenery zooming past them as they moved from branch to branch. "Still, you have a point. We've only come to the Hidden Leaf Village a couple of times, and I can never get over how scenic and lovely it would be to live here."

"Enough to drag you away from the fantastical oasis that is the Hidden Sand Village?" her brother probed, "It's a little hot, yeah, but the food is great, the parties are awesome, and the girls are smoking."

Now it was Temari's turn to poke fun. "If there's a nice guy here who's nice looking, has a great body, and has a nice large, fat, firm…"

"Stop stOP STOP!" the hooded genin erupted in rising intonation, comically covering his ears in protest.

"…wallet for me to burn through," she continued, even as her lips curled up in a smirk, "I would have no objections to moving here." Just as Kankurō was about to object, the fan wielder thought of one more thing to torture him. "And…don't forget, if I live here, you'd have the opportunity to come on vacations here," she noted smugly.

As the young man with the wrapped bundle on his back almost missed a foothold thinking of a late summer vacation at a lake in the Land of Fire, Temari turned her head to the redhead on her other side, who had remained silent in the entire endeavor. "Hey, little bro, you've been pretty quiet for the past few hours," she noted softly, "Something on your mind?"

He slightly turned his head so that the blonde could see her brother's eye, clouded in an emotion that she couldn't decipher. He responded just as quietly, with a minor strain in his features, "Do you mind if we rest for a few minutes?"

Both Temari and Kankurō looked flabbergasted at that; thanks to the One Tailed Tanuki sealed within him, much like Naruto and Kurama, exhaustion was an almost entirely foreign concept to him. "Is everything okay?" Rasa's first son asked gently.

Gaara nodded and waved off his brother's concern. "It's not me. I need to check on something," the jinchūriki stated, not elaborating on why. His elder siblings shared a look of confusion, but both nodded and followed the redhead as he descended from the trees and landed near a small stream.

Temari immediately sat down on a nearby boulder after propping her fan on its side. Kankurō inspected the contents of his canteen, and finding it nearly empty he walked over and refilled it with water from the creek, along with his sister's when she stuck it out in his face. The youngest of the Kazekage's siblings did not sit down, nor did he sip on some liquid or take a quick snack break. His eyes merely roamed the forest around them, searching for something neither of the elder teens could figure out. After a quick war of glares and after huffing in exasperation, Temari finally acquiesced and asked slowly, "Are you sure you're alright, Gaara?"

The gourd-wearing genin seemed to not notice his sister's inquiry, and he continued to scan his surroundings. The other two eventually gave up and continued to catch their breath. Gaara's teal eyes appeared to suck in every detail of the leaves, branches, dirt, grass, and rocks within eyeshot of his little section of the Forest of Death. Chirps, barks, growls, hisses, shuffling, even the slow gurgling of the water of the stream didn't escape his senses.

Suddenly, his eyes locked on to a point on the opposite shoreline. "I know you've been following us, and I'm starting to get annoyed that you won't reveal yourself," he shouted, startling Temari and Kankurō, "Show yourself, or I will drag you out myself."

All three heard a slow clapping noise emanate from the trees where Gaara's eyes were focusing. The soft crunching of dried leaves accompanied the slow revealing of a figure that slinked out of the shadows of the forest canopy. The figure wore a long sleeved, cream-colored shirt that draped down to the knees over faded tan slacks and regulation ninja sandals. The outfit was tied together with a purple robe belt, and a straw hat hid the person's face. "Well done, young man. Well done," a feminine voice purred, as the ninja lifted her head to reveal a young woman with a pointed face, black eyes, and long black hair. A headband betrayed the genin's allegiance to the Hidden Grass Village, and the person came to a rest on the bank of the creek, appraising the suddenly defensive Sand genin.

"Do you mind explaining why you've been shadowing us since early yesterday afternoon?" Gaara intoned, his eyes boring into the stranger, "You obviously don't have a team, so your interest in our scroll is born of blind determination to save face with your village. You could have targeted any of the other 3 teams we passed after obtaining the scroll we needed, and then there's the most damning matter…" His nose wrinkled in disgust as it inhaled the faint but pungent smell in the atmosphere. "You have an aura of death, and you smell like a common serpent." The redhead's eyes narrowed. "Explain yourself."

The female's mouth twisted into a malicious sneer. "You are quite astute, son of the Kazekage, I will give you that. But…" The sneer grew sharper, even as a long, snakelike tongue slithered out between the lips. "…why do you sound so suspicious? I'm just a genin, right? No need for such distrust." As the woman's right arm rose up to her face, she purred, "Still…you've said too much, and I really don't feel like explaining myself, so I guess that means we're…going…to…dance!" Her fingers ever so slightly grasped the eyelid of her right eye, and without any warning, the three Sand genin were assaulted with a wave of murderous intent the likes of which they had never felt…

…xXx…

AN: Please review and stay tuned!

I'm going to hopefully put the age problem to rest, as you will see why below. The point of raising the age was done for no other reason than to make romances more realistic. Other than that, and the slight restructuring of the academy curriculum, the characters are only slightly above the skill level they were at the same points in the manga and anime. The insertion of a couple of years was not intended to cause a similar rise in strength and ability. Period. The age increase was for romance only. Everyone, outside of their appearances resembling their post-timeskip outfits, is basically slightly above the skill level they were in the original. Throw canon out the window and forget about how powerful they were at a similar age in Kishimoto's version. For all intents and purposes, they are meant to be reasonable analogues to their originals with slight increases to strength to account for age and (in Naruto's case) an increased parental influence.

Everyone who reads this story knows that I love hearing feedback when it is constructive and helpful, I really do not care if it's inflammatory as long as the reader is not trying to be a know it all and is making an effort to offer it in a helpful manner, and I actually have taken a number of viewers' ideas/comments/critiques to heart for later plots, such as Kamil the Awesome, windwarrior234, and Soten-ni-zase, just to name a few. I just wish people would think before they write.

Review Responses:

Kamil the Awesome: Yeah, man, that's one I've been hiding in my back pocket from the start. I've wanted to get her involved for awhile now, and having Waterfall as a village participating in the exams in the original opened that door! Orochimaru and his genin are an interesting thing. I wasn't considering anything different, but you've forced some doubt into my mind, and I'm beginning to craft different plans for them now.