Chapter Fourteen:

Recap:

"Quiet down! You punks!" the man at the front said with a smirk. His hitai-ate was on his forehead, the cloth part of it covering his entire head. He also had scars on his face. "I'm the examiner for the first part of the Chuunin Exams, Morino Ibiki."

End Recap

Kagome POV

I didn't even bother listening as Morino Ibiki explained the rules of the test. The message was obvious. Cheat, but don't get caught. I almost gave a little smile at Naruto's panicked face, Sasuke and Sakura giving him a death glare from behind when it was said that if anyone got a zero the whole team would fail. It didn't really matter to me, after all, I was here to kill Naraku, not for anything else.

Sasuke activated his Sharingan and copied the movement of the guy in front of him. I watched, interested as Neji concentrated, and when his eyes opened, there were veins on the sides of his eyes. It was….odd, since it looked like he was looking right through the person in front of him. I looked over at his teammate, I think her name was Tenten. She was constantly playing with her fingers and when I saw the light shine off the threads, I followed them to the ceiling where she was adjusting mirrors.

Giving a sigh I looked at my own test sheet. The questions were easy to me, but would be extremely difficult for Naruto. I could just answer them, but what fun would there be in that? Carefully, I used my powers over the elements and taking a page out of Tenten and Haku's books, I created an ice mirror in the air above the class. I also cast a genjutsu around it so no one would be able to notice it unless they had superior abilities in the genjutsu field. Adjusting it, I took in all the answers and wrote them down, dissolving the mirror back into water vapour and releasing the genjutsu.

Since I finished the test in minutes I decided to look around some more. Gaara was holding one of his eyes closed, and looking ahead of him, the guy in front was rubbing his eyes while an eye hovered above his paper turning this way and that. One of the Sound-nins that attacked Kabuto had his eyes closed and was obviously listening to the sounds around him and getting the answers from that.

'This is getting boring…' I thought, looking out the window beside me. I saw a woman around Kakashi's age, writing something on a huge black….curtain-looking thing. A slight breeze floated into the room and I stiffened. I felt the faint presence of Naraku on that woman. It wasn't her that was Naraku, no it wasn't that. She felt familiar to one of Naraku's offspring. Since I sensed no ill-intent from the woman (only amusement) I decided to let it go.

I stared at the clouds with a wistful expression on my face, not knowing that someone was watching me. I was too busy daydreaming about how things would be if I had never gone down the damn well in the first place. But then, I wouldn't have been able to meet so many people. I had a little internal battle with myself. (why does everyone watch Kagome?)

I then realized that the examiner was saying something, but I only caught some words of, "….If you fail, you will stay a Genin forever. Choose to not take the tenth question….." I snorted. Ibiki was only saying all this so he could get some people to chicken out.

Then Naruto slammed his hand onto the desk and yelled, "Screw you! I'm not going to run away!! I'll take this problem. Even if I stay Genin forever, I'm still going to be Hokage, no matter what, anyway! I'm not scared." I nearly laughed outright. In fact, I had a hard time keeping my emotionless face on. Everyone around the room got more confident as they listened to Naruto. I knew what was going to happen next and nearly smirked when Ibiki said,

"Everyone here….passes!" Everyone's eyes bugged out, or their jaws dropped. He explained that the first nine questions were how to test if you could gather information without being caught. He took off his hitai-ate to show his head. There were numerous scars, and burn marks. It really made me want to puke, no matter how ready I was for it. Getting incorrect information could put your teammates in danger, and that's what happened to him.

People started grumbling about the final question and how they didn't get it. "The final question is the main part of the First Exam. It was a take or not take choice. Let's say you take a mission and you have no information on whether or not there are traps and no information on who or what the enemy can do. Do you accept this mission or not? Just because your life and the lives of you teammates may be in danger, are you able to avoid doing this dangerous mission? The answer is….no. There are missions that carry heavy risks and cannot be avoided. The ability to show courage to your teammates, and the ability to get through a bad situation. That is what we look for in a Chuunin, a squad leader. Those who cannot bet their fate in a critical situation…those who give up when the future is uncertain, fools like that have no right to become Chuunins."

I gave a snort. It was so obvious this was going to happen, compared with the last times he gave the Chuunin Exam. Yes, I looked up his file. It's not like it was hard. My thoughts were disrupted when the woman who had been writing on the black curtain like thing came crashing through the window shouting things like, 'Don't let down your guard!' and 'Follow me to the second part of the Exam!'. I tuned out after that. After all, I knew where we were going. We were going into the 44th training grounds, the Forest of Death.

End Kagome POV

The Next Day…At Hokage Tower…

Kakashi POV

"So, how is your group doing in the Chuunin Exams so far, Kakashi?" the Hokage asked, chuckling at my serious expression.

"You know that's not what I came for, Hokage-sama." I growled. This was the first time I had been pissed off in a long time. "Who is Kagome? She's certainly not a normal Genin."

"Kagome is….well let's just call it, one-of-a-kind. In fact, the only one of her kind." He added the last part under his breath, giving a knowing smile. I was definitely not amused. "Why do you ask?"

"Kagome has been demonstrating…abilities beyond what she should know." I said, choosing my words carefully.

"Abilities?" At his surprised tone, I confirmed it. This was new information to him too. That feeling definitely did not help my ever-growing suspicion of my student.

"Yes. Sasuke approached me some days ago, asking…well…demanding to know about Kagome." The Hokage's eyebrows raised. "He apparently, has seen her use some sort of special jutsu. He described it as a 'weird jutsu using all of the elements to wipe out the Zabuza clones she was battling'. Sasuke also told me that she had white chakra, but Sakura had told him that when Kagome had been healing him, the energy used had been purple."

The Hokage's eyebrows rose a bit further. "Interesting. Has he told you anything else?"

"Sasuke searched the library archives for some information on the name 'Higurashi'. There have been no records of their existence in Konoha ever." I told him, my eyes narrowing. "And…..she can make weapons out her chakra." The Hokage sighed.

"Did he tell you anything about the jutsu?" he asked.

"Doesn't Kagome tell you what she can do?" I asked. I was stunned. All the times she had meetings with the Hokage, she had never told him about her jutsus? About anything?

"No. She's very secretive."

"Then how do you know she is not a spy for another ninja village?!" I grinded my teeth together.

"Kakashi. I know exactly what Kagome is in the village for."

"So she really is a spy?" I asked, my eyes wide.

"NO." I swear the Hokage rolled his eyes at me. "Contrary to popular belief, Kagome is actually here to save a whole lot of lives. In fact, pretty much the whole world." I gave the Hokage a skeptical look. He chuckled. "For now, I want you to just observe her for me. You know, in case she does something….out of the ordinary."

"Out of the ordinary? How about appearing in your office out of nowhere three years ago?!"

The Hokage laughed. "I was sworn to secrecy by Kagome. The first thing she told me was that information on her was for Hokage's eyes and ears only." The only thing heard was a hiss from me at my quick intake of breath. "Yes. It is that classified."

"So, if you died, and there was a new Hokage, she would tell the new Hokage everything?" I asked, interested.

The Hokage contemplated this for a bit. "I guess. The one thing that I can tell you is, that she is one of the purest people alive. And will not harm another human being, unless it is under extreme circumstances, and she believes that their souls cannot be saved. It goes against her very nature to kill mercilessly."

My eyes widened. 'Against…her nature…to harm a human being?'

"If you are so worried about her, why don't you just try and spy on her? You do know where her house is…" the Hokage said, trailing off and raising an eyebrow.

I nervously shuffled my feet before replying, "I tried to, but every time I try to go within 50 metres of the house, I meet a barrier that I can't pass."

"Barrier?!" Now the Hokage looked alarmed. "People only put up barriers when they have something to hide, or something to hide from."

End Kakashi POV

In the Forest of Death…

Sakura POV

If there was one way to describe the situation we were in, I would say that we were in deep shit. We had all gotten separated by an explosion, so Kagome and Naruto were now god-knows-where, but luckily me and Sasuke had been able to meet up. Some person pretending to be Naruto came up to us, and transformed into the creepy Grass-nin that we had seen at the briefing. She or he (I'm not too sure what it was) had handed back a kunai to Anko, the next examiner, with her impossible long and creepy tongue.

Right now, we were immobilized by the eyes of the Grass-nin. Just looking at his eyes, we felt like we were being torn apart, and getting hit and scratched. It was a genjutsu, too powerful for us to break. I was shaking badly, not even noticing the tears that came out of my eyes. Blinded by fear, I couldn't even move as a kunai thrown by the ninja in front of us traveled closer and closer to getting imbedded into my forehead. Suddenly, I felt something hit me, but not in the direction I was expecting. In fact, I was expecting an instant death, but this pain felt more dull, like something had hit me hard enough to give me a bad bruise.

I looked in the direction of where it had come from and saw Sasuke had carried me away from the attack after plunging a kunai into his own leg to be able to move. It was at times like this that I wish I was more like Kagome, so I could heal Sasuke and be able to be strong enough to battle with enemy-nins. Sure, I didn't particularly like her, but she was always strong. Always brave. Always so…perfect.

End Sakura POV

With Naruto…

Naruto was currently stuck inside the stomach of a huge snake. No jokes. And the only thought that had run through his mind when he had seen the snake was, 'Holy fuck! Huge snake!!' Not the smartest thing to think, but this was Naruto. He watched his rice ball be dissolved by the snake's stomach acid. He was going to die here. That thought filled him with despair, and he was ready to give up when Kagome's words came back to him.

"If you are so beat up over the fact that someone as young as you beat up Zabuza so easily when you couldn't, then get better so that you can beat Zabuza easily."

He was supposed to become Hokage. He was supposed to gain the villagers recognition. He was not supposed to die being swallowed by a fucking huge snake. Putting his hands together for his favourite move, he yelled out, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

He made so many shadow clones, that the snake burst into pieces, the pieces scattering everywhere.

With Kagome…

Kagome was currently running through the forest muttering some colourful curses under her breath while looking for her teammates. And why was she doing this? Because some goddamn idiot decided it would be fun to try and blow up the particular piece of forest they used to be in, scattering them into different parts of the forest. Since Kagome was the lightest, she was flung the furthest. She kept checking her holster for the Heaven scroll. Before the second part of the Exam had officially started, Sasuke had decided to give it to her to keep because, since he was the number one Rookie, everyone would expect him to keep it.

In a way, this worked to her advantage. Kagome would be able to take scrolls from the other teams and not draw attention to herself. It wouldn't be good to display her skills in front of other people that would be suspicious. It might lead to an investigation, and the Hokage had specifically told her to not get caught. No, it would not be good at all if she were caught.