Hey everyone ;)

I'm quite surprised.. I was hoping the last chapter would give me some pissed reviews..

but you all kept so quite the last.. well it seemed like months

I'm really sorry.. I know I wanted to stop with apologies but I have some horrible weeks behind me

my oral english test for the A levels.. tests and tests and tests.. just today I had my last physics test

and now there are barely four weeks left until my A levels start.. Bavarian A levels I have to say.. there's nothing harder in whole germany.. So please don't hate me if I'm so slow

After that I'll have loooots of time! (I kinda keep saying this.. -.-)

So here's finally the last chapter of the second exam.. that really took me a while

thanks a lot to GottaLoveItachi for your character proposals :D that really helped me a lot

Second Exam - Passed

The forest seemed like an endless whirl of green. They were moving so fast, that it was nearly impossible to make anything out. You couldn't differentiate between one tree and the one next to it, couldn't see the animals they were passing by, the insects flying in their way, they didn't even recognize the branches they were stepping on. Something was strange. Something didn't feel right.

When they had entered this forest nearly three days ago, they had been three friends. They had been helping each other, kidding each other, laughing with each other. Now they were heading towards the center, towards the tower, towards the end of their mission and so somehow towards the exit. And now? What were they now? Something was different. And everyone knew that this difference was anything else than an improvement.

Seishi looked at Itachi on his right. At their speed he was nothing more than a black flash. But Seishi didn't need to see his face to know what it looked like. He doubted that it had changed since they had set off. One might say it was like always, emotionless, indifferent. But if you knew him better it wasn't hard to read his eyes, to feel the aura around him. He was filled with hate and wrath. Seishi could barely breath in his vicinity. He feared the air was poisoned by his dark thoughts, by his mere presence. Seishi wouldn't be surprised if he dropped dead any moment, crushed by the heaviness of the atmosphere.

He glanced at his left. Where Sayuri was supposed to be, was a silver light. A warm, friendly light shining softly through the dark forest. But this time the light didn't make Seishi happy, it made him sad. She was so frail, she seemed too burst. The lovely light, her lovely face, was drowning in sorrow and pain. And there was nothing he could do about it. Nothing he could say would comfort her, would make her smile return. Just what had happened? Just what had ripped such a great scar in their friendship?

Seishi thought back at the moment he had returned to them. It had been only a few minutes ago.

Sayuri had been on her knees, crying desperately, repeating Itachi's name over and over again. Begging for something, for forgiveness, for mercy, something like that. And Itachi had only been turning away from her, giving her that glare. A glare which had even made Seishi's heart stop, a glare you wouldn't even give your worst enemies. That had made Seishi furious. He had shouted at Itachi, had insulted him and had been about to beat the shit out of him. How could he? Didn't he know what he had been doing to Sayuri? Didn't he know her feelings for him? He might would have killed him if Sayuri hadn't stopped him. Looking in her eyes he had known that he wouldn't be able to raise his fist. It had been far more important to stay by Sayuri's side. Her eyes had been empty, she had cried more tears than she had possessed. And Seishi had known that with Itachi's glare, a part of Sayuri had died.

After that, Itachi had taken over the lead again, like it was the most naturally thing in the world. Without a word they had set off and Itachi had fixed the speed without giving them a reason why he was so hasty. And here they were. In some forest. Three friends who felt like strangers.

The tower was a huge building, reaching high above the trees. On the one side it seemed out of place in the center of such a spooky forest, on the other one it fit pretty well with its rather shabby and old style. Simple yet impressive. Seishi, Sayuri and Itachi entered it without saying a word. It seemed quite unlikely that they would ever talk with each other again. Still, somewhere beyond the destructive atmosphere, everyone was excited to see what would happen now. They stepped into an empty room, nothing and nobody was to be seen. Seishi looked around. There was a big sign on the wall. He quickly skimmed through it. "Blah blah.. earth.. blah blah.. heaven.. blah blah open both scrolls.. and more sentimental nonsense. Okay, I got it. I solved the puzzle. There are two hidden messages in this text: First, it was obviously written by that old geezer, second, I guess we are supposed to open our scrolls."

Itachi rolled his eyes. "Wow, congratulations. And you figured that out all by yourself?" Something was comforting about those words. The fact that Itachi still didn't let any chance to tease him be untaken, gave the situation something normal. Something making him forget for one moment that nothing was normal at all. "It's alright, Itachi, we all know how funny you are." No second later Seishi already regretted saying this. Normally Sayuri would have broke into laughter immediately, laughing because of the mere obscure paradox of using the words Itachi and funny in one single sentence. But she just stayed where she had been, silently staring at the ground as if the floor had been the most interesting thing in the world for the last few hours. Seishi doubted that she was even listening.

So now that nobody was interrupting the conversation, this teasing was destined to go on until one of them was killed by the other. To prevent this, Seishi turned away from the others and looked at the sign another time, then he changed the topic before Itachi was able to say something. "All right then. What are you waiting for? Open the scrolls." Nothing happened. Seishi waited for paper to rustle but he waited in vain. He turned around. Itachi was looking in the air, Sayuri still in the ground. They'd both rather die than looking at each other. "Itachi.. you've got the scrolls right? So come on! Give Sayuri one so you can open them.." Itachi hesitated. He obviously didn't like it when Seishi was telling him what to do. He dragged the scrolls out and looked at them. "Itachi? Have you got four hands?" Itachi looked at him confused. Just where was he with his thoughts? "No, you don't! See? It's mathematics. You need two hands to open one scroll. Therefore, you need four hands to open two scrolls. You haven't got four hands so you have to give one scroll to Sayuri. Is that so hard to understand?" Itachi was still reluctant. It wasn't only because he hated it to be made fun of by Seishi, it was because he didn't want to take any notice of Sayuri, not even when he only had to reach her a scroll. Regardless of the fact, that Sayuri wasn't even capable of open a scroll in her state. Seishi couldn't believe it. He rolled his eyes. "Gosh! Where are we? In kindergarten?" He ripped the heaven scroll out of Itachi's hand and made himself ready to open it. "Ready?", he asked Itachi. Itachi closed his eyes for a moment. No matter where he had been with this thoughts for the last minutes, he did his best to concentrate on the things important. He nodded. Then they exchanged one glance. It was only a blink, but this glance was enough for Seishi to discover a little spark of regret deep behind the hate in Itachi's eyes. It was enough for Seishi to understand, that no matter what has happened between Itachi and Sayuri, the relationship between Itachi and him would not suffer. And it was enough for Seishi to realize that he was able to fix the scars in their friendship, that he was the key to bring Itachi and Sayuri back to what they once were.

Someday. Somehow.

As if they had already practiced it a hundred times, they opened the scrolls in unison. No second later the whole room started to fill with smoke. But the smoke didn't come from fire or anything else, no, there was another source. Sayuri was the first to realize. "Drop the scrolls! That's Kuchiyose!" Kuchiyose? The summoning technique? Was this a trap? Did they want to set some animal on them?

Seishi had actually only been joking when he had said that he expected some surprise attack. Hadn't they tortured them enough already? Seishi and Itachi went into fighting position. "Hey, hey, it's alright. Be careful, you two!" They knew this voice too well unfortunately. Sayuri's eyes gasped. It was neither fear nor happiness in her face, yet both at the same time. When the smoke slowly dissolved, a haircut appeared which looked like a silver hedgehog. And then a figure appeared, the face masked except for one single eye. Maybe he was smiling when he looked at his little sister. "Well done! I knew you could do it!"

Now Sayuri was in a pinch. Forcing a smile or breaking down in tears? She looked so desperate. Now Kakashi realized it as well. Her soaked face, her red eyes, her pitiful appearance. "What's wrong? Has it been so horrible? Three day without me?" Was he trying to cheer her up? He should know, just like Seishi did now, that there had been something indescribable, something no forest of death could ever cause. Otherwise her face wouldn't be a mirror image of limitless guilt.

Sayuri stared on the ground. Kakashi turned around towards Itachi to get an explanation. But Itachi responded his asking face with a glare of absolute disgust. Was something wrong with Sayuri's whole family? Kakashi turned around towards Seishi and seemed pretty relieved when he noticed there was at least one person still normal here. Seishi wished he could give him an answer. He'd kill for knowing what had happened. And he was a Ninja after all. Killing was no big deal.

But it was no use anyway, so Seishi couldn't do anything but shaking his head sheepishly and shrugging. Kakashi looked at him suspiciously and gave Sayuri a worried glance. "Well, we'll discuss that later. I have a job to do here after all. The others are already waiting inside."

"The others?" Seishi had already forgotten why they were even here. Kakashi ignored him anyway. "You have successfully passed the second exam. Now I have the annoying duty to talk with you about Hokage-sama's quote there before we can meet with the others to prepare you for the third."

Hearing that Seishi finally started to realize. Those last three days had been nothing more than an exam. Three days. So many things had happened that they appeared now like three years. They had been attacked by those creepy twins and had nearly killed them, had talked a lot about past and stuff, had run into Orochimaru's student and her friends and then had had a fight with some people Seishi still hadn't seen or had any idea about. All of that seemed so far away. The only thing significant now was that mysterious argument between Sayuri and Itachi. And still everything they had gone through had only been in order to pass some foolish test.

"If you lack heaven, seek wisdom, be prepared, If you lack earth, run in the fields, seek advantages. I guess you all know what this means, right? Even your weaknesses. It's only logical. And it's the most important thing if you want to be a Shinobi. Sticking to this and not even the last exam will be a problem for you.." He paused for a moment. "Well.. only one will be able to come through after all."

Seishi gulped. Only one? Did that mean that only one would be able to become Chuunin. Anko had said something about a fight. What would they face? A tournament? "Let's go!" Kakashi turned around and they followed him.

They came into a huge hall which looked like an arena. The sides had platforms for an audience, only one was open. There were giant statues of hands forming a fingersign. In the center of the room they were already waiting. A few jonin surrounding the Hokage and a few Genin standing in two rows. Two teams were left aside from them. And all the eyes in the room were concentrated on them. Anko grinned at them with her creepy face. It was something between confirmed expectancy and evil anticipation. A glance you'd expect from a snake. And Seishi returned it the same way. He couldn't wait. Fighting the pupil of a legend.

The other team consisted only of two people. But neither of them seemed to be of the nicer kind. It was enough to look at their protectors to know that. The sign of Kirigakure. The bloody mist. Seishi gulped. Just what was waiting for them?

"What are you waiting for? Go down already!" As in trance the three followed Kakashi's order and jumped from the platform down to the arena. Everyone had something in his mind now. Everyone was frightened and full of nervousness. Everyone could feel it but no one would admit.

They built their own row next to Anko's with, naturally, Itachi at the front position. Seishi stared at his back while Sayuri's cold trembling hands grabbed his from behind. Was he supposed to decide for one side? How could he?

The Hokage smiled at all of them with his usual smile. The happy smile saying that everything was fine and will always be. "Congratulations all of you! You made it through the second exam!" The hall stayed silent. No laughing, no applause. Everyone was just to tense. Well,... nearly everyone. "Yeah, fine! Stop that talking already and go on with the tournament!" Everyone flinched. That Anko sure had a sharp tongue for a girl. Did she even know who she was talking with? But the Hokage only laughed. Orochimaru was his favorite student after all. Maybe she got some bonus. "Well, then. Let's talk about the third part. Usually we have to make a screening at this point for the actual third exam. But today it's just perfect. We have exactly eight Genin here since one already made his way home." Everyone leered at the Kirigakure-nin. So that was the reason there were only two of them. The one with glasses stared at the ground, the other one with the longer black hair tried to hide his anger in an artificially indifferent glare. He looked a lot like Itachi. Both of them didn't seem quite happy. The third one didn't go voluntarily as it seemed. "As explanation. The third part, as Anko already said, is a tournament. One vs. one. There'll be four fights in the first run, two in the half finals and only one in the final. So in the end only one of you will be the winner. Yet everyone of you has the chance to become Chuunin. It depends on the way you fight and the qualities you show. Got that?" They nodded in unison. "We'll draw you're first opponent. Everyone gets a number and his position. The tournament will be in one month. Until then you have time to prepare. Any questions?" Seishi raised his hand. "Yeah! Why in one month? Why not now?" He was so looking forward to fighting Anko. Or maybe even Itachi. He couldn't resist. He wanted to fight them. One of them. Or both. Now and not in one month.

The Hokage only laughed once again. "I really admire your impatience, but we have a lot of preparations to make. People to invite and so on. And furthermore you just came from a survival trip. Rest first. This month will be very precious to you. You'll see. So please. Everyone come and draw his number." Seishi had to settle for this. He sulked a bit but the excitement about his first opponent made him forgetting everything soon. They all drew there numbers, one after the other. Sayuri panted for air when she got one, she didn't want to be the first. Seishi got 7 and Itachi 5. And one of the Jounin noted the numbers down on the board. "Here's the constellation for the first row! First fight: Sayuri Hatake vs. Utakata. Second: Yugao Uzuki vs. Chojuro. Third: Itachi Uchiha vs Hayate Gekko. And last: Seishi Hyuuga vs. Anko Mitarashi. We'll see you in one month!" Seishi could barely hold his excitement. Just how lucky was he? Everyone looked at him pitifully because they thought he had no chance anyway. But he could barely hold it. He could fight Orochimaru-sama's pupil. And if he was able to beat her, he'd be able to fight Itachi afterwards. He couldn't be more grateful to his fate.

Yet before he could fight anyone he had something more important to do. Sayuri and Itachi. He wouldn't let those two stay that way. Definitely not. He promised this to himself even though he had no idea about what had happened. Would he really be able to stop the ball having been set rolling by the argument of the two? Especially since nobody could imagine the heaviness of that ball.

Two finished – one left to go

so I hope you all had a little fun reading this :)

You see the next chapters will become pretty interesting.. fights and more secrets o.O

I can't wait :) Maybe some of you feel the same way!

Please keep reading