Rbear1231:- Thanks for the positive review, it helps alot

Exodus12345:- I never wrote Kakashi was the best lighting user, I said he was one of the best users. As for Naruto, I have wrote before, Sarutobi was careful as he trained Naruto, he didn't wanted another Orochimaru.

Thanks for the reviews

Enjoy the Fic

Chunnin exam: phase one:-

Naruto was seated afar from his teammates, apparently the members of a team were distributed across the examination hall. Sasuke was three desk from his left, while Sakura was four desk back from his right.

Hinata hyuga seating beside him came as a surprise, I mean what were the chance of one of his friends sitting right beside him. He smiled toward her as a sign of encouragement.

Before they could start a conversation, paper were distributed across the room, and Ibiki's rough and deep voice echoed around the room.

"This is the first phase of Chunnin exams, a written test consisting 10 questions. You all have 45 minutes time to finish up the written test, there are 9 questions on your paper, the last one will be verbally announced by me at the end of this exam. If you're caught cheating 5 times, disqualification and end of your and your team's exam is definite. Use any method you want to collect the answer, just don't get caught, now begin" shouted Ibiki.

Naruto looked at the question paper, something was fishy, he noticed that the questions were too tough for a genin. Trigonometry, Statical analysis, Quadric equation of high level and much more, the questions were definitely not for genins.

He looked around the room to see similar facial expressions of most of the genins, only a few were calm and composed. He focused on those individuals, instantly he could see the almost unnoticeable shadow of a half vest on their clothes, Chunins. The Chunin thought-so were writting their answers effortlessly, it was like they already knew the answers.

'Could it be? Why else? These are the Chunins with the answer, the proctor said that we could use any method to collect the answers, as long as we are not caught. He wants us to cheat, as a genin will only be disqualified if he gets caught five times' contemplated Naruto inside his mind.

Seemed like most of the genins too understood the motive of the exams, everyone was trying to acquire answer for himself/herself and his/her team by some or other methods.

Kiba had akamaru perched up on his head, barking answers as he observed throughout the room. Sasuke had his Sharingan on and was copying the hand movement of a Chunin infront of him. Hinata and the other Hyuga from before had their Byakugan activated, while Shikamaru and Sakura were smart enough to answer the questions.

Naruto had to find a way to acquire the answers, he couldn't just sit still. He formulated a plan, he took out three smoke tags out of his seal and rolled them in the form of a ball. He threw it infront of his desk discreetly, it would surely create uproar around him, and sure it did. In midst of the smoke and ruckus around him, he formed a T-shaped hand seal, one clone appeared beside him, he nodded toward thr clone. The smoke dissipated out of the room as one of the proctor fired a mild wind jutsu across it, while Naruto seemed to be sitting normally.

Ibiki wasn't a fool he knew about the reputation of the blonde brat, in his academy years, even anbu weren't safe from the pranks of Naruto. He knew, despite Naruto's factitious look of innocence, this whole fiasco was surely plotted by Naruto. He looked around Naruto's desk to get a hint of his trick, but instead of a lizard on the roof nothing was Unusual. Wait, a lizard? He looked up again toward the roof but no lizard was there, it wasn't an illusion surely, he was confused, no known lizard summoning contract was present.

Apparently, Naruto had discovered a Chunnin two desk infront of him. He formed a shadow clone and ordered it to transform into a lizard, that went on to stuck on the roof with the help of chakra sticking technique, as a henge was just an illusion. He scanned the paper of the Chunin thoroughly and then puffed out to transfer his memory back to Naruto, that was a pretty indigenous plan.

In midst of this fiasco many teams had been disqualified, the proctors had caught many of the participants cheating for more than 5 times.

Ibiki contemplated for a moment but couldn't understand the plan, not everyone in the village knew about Naruto's use of shadow clones. He never truly displayed his true capabilities, each of his fights, either with Mizuki or Haku, he always fought his battles in sync with Sasuke. Only Sarutobi and Jiraiya knew what Naruto was truly capable of, even Kakashi was unknown to many of the skills Naruto possessed.

Afterwards, he wrote all his answers peacefully, he glanced toward Hinata's paper to see her paper full with answers, the right ones precisely. 45 mins passed on like a tortoise on a walk, when the situation is straining time passes too slowly.

"Stop writing, your time is over" yelled Ibiki, Every genin stopped writing.

"Now, we would move on toward the last question. But before I announce the last question, there are some terms attached to it. First, whether you would choose to take the exam or not" said Ibiki, but before he could move forward he was interrupted.

"We would of course choose to take it" said a boy from behind.

"We will see about that after I completely explain you the rules, and be quite till I explain all the terms. As I was saying, If you choose to take the exam and fail to answer the last question correctly, you will have to relinquish your rights to participate in Chunin exam again. But If you choose to leave the questions, you'll be disqualified and will be able to retake the Chunnin exam again" announced Ibiki.

This caused an uproar throughout the participants.

"This is not right..." yelled of the girls from behind.

"The terms are impossible to get through, it's a plot to fail us" shouted a boy.

"You couldn't do this, Konoha wouldn't host the exam forever" said another boy.

"Well, you're in tough luck, as the Chunin exams are cooperative events, a single village could make a demand of banning participants from entering again. So, Let's begin now, those who don't want to take the last question, raise your hands" said Ibiki, it was a blasphemy, no village could demand such a thing. Ibiki was known for his psychological method of torture, many prisoners have forfeited their will against his torture methods, these brats had no significance infront of them.

Pindrop silent spread throughout the hall, soon many hands went up in the air one after another, after 15 minutes half of the teams in the room have forfeited the test. As Sakura wasn't unskilled and was now more confident, she didn't had an urge to raise her hands, and neither did Naruto had to give a speech to raise her morale.

It resulted in raised hands of half the number of teams participating, the undeserving genins were flushed out of the room. A Chunin needs to make some risky decisions, the exam would give a second chance, real missions won't.

After 15 minutes, when Ibiki was satisfied with his results, he went on to announce the result.

"All those who remains in this room, you pass" announced Ibiki.

"What?"-"How?"-"What do you mean?"-"Where's the last question?"

Several voices reverberated around the room.

"QUITE!!" yelled Ibiki, the room went as silent as possible.

"There was no last question" stated Ibiki in a calm manner.

"Then, What was all this fiasco about?" asked a girl with glasses on.

"The Chunins have to make come crucial decision, they have to take risks, if you're ready enough to take such lowly risks, you're not capable enough to be promoted to Chunin" explained Ibiki thoroughly.

"Now, for yo--" Ibiki tried to speak forward, but was interrupted by sudden shattering of the glass windows.

Out of nowhere a purple and brown blur passed by the windows inside the room, two kunais were launched and a banner reading "Proctor of the second phase: Sexy Mitarashi Anko" was infront of the hall.

Anko was standing on Ibiki's desk smirking broadly, Naruto just facepalmed himself, His sister was really unpredictable and brash. He knew that it was only the affect of his sister, who he had spent most of his childhood with, that he had a goofy side. He had stopped his pranks after his graduation, but Anko didn't had such restraint.

"What's with the numbers Ibiki? You have cut them half in numbers. You're such a smart ass, you always ruins my fun. Less teams means less violence, and less violence means less fun" whined Anko.

"Yeah..Whatever" Ibiki waved her off casualy.

Anko glared him for moment, but turn around nonetheless.

"What's up brats? I am Mitarashi Anko, proctor of the second phase of Chunin exams. Now, Move your asses, I want all of present in training ground 44 in next 10 minutes" Said Anko as she disappeared in a shushin.

The genins started to move slowly out of the room, but before they all could move outside, Anko reappeared in the room.

"I said, MOVE YOUR FUCKING ASSESS TO THE GROUND" yelled Anko.

The genins startled by Anko's sudden appearance and yelling, scrambled out of the room in hurry. While two teams were moving off calmly, Team 7 and Team 8, Team 7 was familiar with Anko due to Naruto's relations with her, while Team 8 had a few training sessions with Anko.

"You shouldn't scare the participants like that nee-chan, and could't you dress decently if you're being a proctor" argued Naruto.

"Nah, it's my style and move to the ground brat, or I will disqualify you" chirped Anko.

Naruto just huffed and walked out of the room muttering to himself. As they walked out of the room Sasuke offered Naruto to hold his hand, Naruto glared toward him and hit his hand off.

"What the hell, teme? I'll not hold your hands, I don't swing that way" said Naruto.

"Shut up idiot, I am just taking us to the ground with a shushin. Don't get stupid ideas in your head, I am not that type either" replied Sasuke getting tick mark on his head.

Naruto nodded his head grabbed his forearm, while Sakura too held his hand, Sasuke shushined them out of the hall toward ground.

Naruto didn't liked shushin, the technique was nauseating, it was only his experience with substitution jutsu that held his food in stomach.

They reached the ground in mere seconds, training ground 44, which was less of a training ground and more of a forest, was also called as forest of death, the name did justice to the place. The area was entirely covered in deep and vast forest, it was one of the most dangerous area of the village, and an undesirable one too.

There were many legends related to the forest, one of them was, Hashirama Senju was angry with his brother and to release his rage and frustration, he used one of his Mokuton technique, Deep forest emergence, on the field. The result was this vast and deep Forest, but as he was angry when he formed this forest, his anger changed his chakra. The chakra took a malicious pattern, this resulted in larger and more aggressive life forms. Animals ate those plants and they too became larger and aggressive, as a result several different noises could be heard from outside the forest.

Anko gathered all the qualified participants; "Listen up brats, this is the forest of death, the second phase of Chunin exams would be held here" announced Anko.

"Like if we would be scared by its name" bragged one of the ame-nin smugly.

"You'll be surely scared brat, I can bet you on that. The forest is even avoided by Anbu and Jonins, due the size of animal residing inside it and their untamed bloodlust" warned Anko smirking a bit.

"Now for the test" stated Anko and took out two scrolls from her trench coat.

"Each team will be given one of this scrolls, and you've to acquire the other one. You've to grab the two scrolls, and reach the tower in middle of the forest, in five days time" explained Anko.

"Five days? What about food" asked Choji from behind.

"There are several edible plants and animals inside the forest, just beware of poisonous and man eating plants. Also beware of bears, tigers, crocodiles, giant insects and Wolfs" stated Anko.

"Wolfs and crocodiles? What animal doesn't live in this forest, for god sake?" asked another kusa nin.

"Whatever, now one member from each team should go and collect a scroll for their team, but before you could move on to that, sign these agreement forms. Sumbit them to the stalls after signing it, they will give you a scroll in return" said Anko and took out a bunch of forms from her pocket.

"What are those agreements for?" asked Kiba attentively.

"These? These are consent forms, the village doesn't hold any responsibility for injuries or death in this exams. All of you are participating in this test of your free will, no-one is forcing you to partake the exams" said Anko.

'Deaths?' thought many of the contestants in the ground.

"Since, you have to acquire both the scrolls and the other team will not surrender it's scroll without a fight, deaths are common in this exam" stated Anko.

All of them just grabbed a forms signed it, one member of the team went on to submit them to acquire a scroll for each team.

After 20 minutes each team had a scroll of their own, and they were standing on the gates assigned to their team in particular.

"3...2...1... Begin" shouted Anko from her mic.

The gates opened and each of the team rushed in the forest of death, they didn't even knew what waited for them inside it.

Team 7 rushed in the forest for first 5 minutes and then halted at a clearing, they had to choose a leader for their team and a strategy for acquiring the scroll.

"Now for the leader, Sasuke you've been leading us in most of the missions while I led in battle-like-Situations, it would be beneficial for us if you lead us" contemplated Naruto.

Sasuke and Sakura just nodded their heads in approval, Sasuke was more of a calm and cool minded shinobi that Naruto.

"We will take up an aggressive stand instead of a defensive stand, it's not unknown or unacceptable that we're one of the strongest team in this exam" contemplated Sasuke, it wasn't far form the truth. There were only two team with same skill as them, while a man even stronger than Kakashi.

Team 7 moved forward deep in the forest, their search of another scroll would last for quite a while. As they were moving forward, Naruto sensed a shadow running above them, at a same speed. He signalled Sasuke of an trail, Sakura too intercepted his signal, but before they could take any action, the shadown jumped in front of them. It was an animal, a leopard to be more precise, leopards were common in the forests around Konoha, so it wasn't much of surprise if one if them succeded in entering the forest.

The forest of deaths was known for giant animals, the animals inside the forest weren't of normal proportion. A leopard was infront of them, a 10 ft tall leopard.

Team 8 was moving toward the east of the forest, they have been able to trap a team in the begining, but sadly the team had the same scroll as them. They tied the team, took the scroll for minimising the competition and moved on to search for another one.

As they were crossing through forest they heard someone talking, they moved down and peaked through the bushes in the direction of the voice, suddenly Akamaru started to whimper and went on to hide inside Kiba's jacket.

"What's up boy? What's the problem?" asked Kiba to akamaru sympathetically.

Akamaru just whimpered in response.

"What do you mean? You smell blood around here?" asked Kiba.

They moved on to peek through the bushes infront of them, what they saw in next ten minutes made their blood run cold.

In the opening a boy with auburn hair had his palm up in the air pointed in front, in direction of his hand you could see three shinobis incased in sands. He closed his palm in a fist, the sand inclosed around the shinobis, and soon shower of blood was spilled across the area.

"Gaara, You didn't need to do that, they had surrendered their scroll to us" said the blonde girl beside the boy.

"Yeah, You are just eager to kill anybody who comes infront of us" said the boy with makeup on his face.

"Shut up, or I will kill you too" said now known Gaara.

Kiba signalled his teammates to backoff, they wouldn't be able to fight such a monster with their current level of skills. He backfooted in the attempt to runoff but his foot crunched a branch under it.

~Cruunch~

Gaara's eyes everted toward the bush team 8 was hiding behind, he lifted his palm in their direction and a lot of sand started to move toward the bushes.

"Stop it Gaara, we have found what we need, we should head toward the tower now" said the boy with makeup.

"I said Shut up" said Gaara and moved toward team 8.

"He is right Gaara, I am your sister please listen to me, stop this nonsense" said Temari in high voice.

Gaara glanced behind his shoulder toward Temari, but nonetheless returned to his siblings. The sand receeded to his gourd and he went on to jump toward the direction of the tower, his siblings quickly followed him.

Hinata, Kiba and Shino breathed out for a moment, they too moved on toward the opposite side of Gaara's team.

Big cats were a pain in the ass, the leopard was finally down, team 7 tried to outrun the leopard but it didn't even bulged, chasing them throughout the forest area. At last Naruto and Sakura acted as baits and Sasuke killed the leopard off, they could have used jutsu, but that would gather some unnecessary and unwanted attention toward them.

"You two go on and wait in the base, I will recon the perimeter for any teams nearby, we will rest for the night and search for the scrolls tomorrow. Naruto go on and collect some water and hunt a small animal you can find for our meal, while Sakura collects firewood" ordered Sasuke. It was already evening, and the forest was dangerous enough in the day, they didn't wanted to test it at night.

Team 7 had chose a tree with hollow trunk as their base, they had decided that if they couldn't get the required scroll within the day, they would rest here and move on the second day.

Uzumaki Karin was lost in this terrifying forest, she had separated from her team. It was her motive to separate from her team, it would be her first step toward freedom, she didn't like Kusagakure. Kusa had separated her from her mother, and eventually her mother died due to overuse of her healing properties. As she died, Karin had to replace her but she didn't wanted to do it, why should she sacrifices her life healing those worthless people.

She had formulated a plan, she convinced the head of her village to let her join in upcoming Chunin exams, then she would separate from her teammates at a right time. After that her freedom would be eminent, she wouldn't die like her mother, her mother's sacrifice to save her wouldn't go in vain.

But now she was all alone in this forest and a big bear was on her tail, the bear was chasing her for sometimes now, she wasn't adapt in fighting. She was trained in medical science, not in combat and killing, moreover Kusagakure didn't had much of strong shinobis to train its genin profusely.

She was backed up to a tree, the bear infront of her roaring viciously, she took out a kunai with trembling hands. The bear roared again and lunged at her to castrate her, she closed her eyes, a kunai in her hands facing the bear.

~Slassh~

~Thud~

The claw-swipe never came, instead a warm liquid was sprayed on her right arm. She opened her eyes, the bear infront of her had lost its head, the head was on the ground. She looked up to see a boy, ebony hairs and same colour eyes, clad in black tee and black trouser and a front open dark blue Haori. He was cleaning one of his swords, while the other one was tied to his waist, the boy looked up after he resheathed his sword.

"What're you doing out here? This is a Chunin exam not a test for wimpy kids like you, surrender your scroll to me or you will rest here with the bear" said one Uchiha Sasuke.

"I don't have that, I just wanted to leave this forest, you can search me I haven't got the scroll" said Karin.

"Huh..? What's your name girl? Why are you alone, where are your teammates? " asked Sasuke.

"Uzumaki Karin, and I got separated from them" said Karin trying to not give up too much information about herself. Apparently, she didn't knew the value of Uzumaki name, the name itself was a valuable information.

Uzumaki and Senju clan were two partners of once feared Senju-maki clan alliance, when they both got separated from eachother during clan wars they wholeheartedly supported the other one. The Senju clan resided in Konoha while Uzumaki clan moved to a island, that later came to be known as Uzushio, the land of whirlpools.

'An Uzumaki? I thought Naruto was the last one of them' thought Sasuke.

"Are you sure, you're an Uzumaki?" asked Sasuke.

"Are you blind, can't you see I have red hairs and eyes like an true Uzumaki" replied Karin boastfully.

'Naruto doesn't have red hairs or eyes, in contrast he had blonde hair and blue eyes, rather a distinctive combination' Contemplated Sasuke.

"Whatever, Do you want to meet one of your clan?" offered Sasuke.

"One of my clan? But mother said there were only a few left of us, and why should I trust and enemy shinobi?" asked Karin.

"Which village do you serve?" asked Sasuke.

"I don't serve any village, Kusagakure had forced me to serve their village" replied Karin a bit angrily.

"Come with me, I will meet you with someone of your Clan" said Sasuke and moved on toward the base.

"Hey! How can you be an Uzumaki, you don't even have red hair" said Karin suspiciously.

"It doesn't matter if I have red hairs or not, I am an half-Uzumaki, Baa-chan told me that one of my parents was an Uzumaki while the other wasn't the one" said Naruto.

"And why should I trust your words?" asked Karin.

"Ok, If you'll not believe my words then I will prove it the otherwise. I have read that our clan had very huge chakra reserve and the quality of chakra was too potent" said Naruto.

"Now as we are of same clan, the potency of chakra should be similar, even if I am a half-Uzumaki the potency should be near yours. No other clan than senju could compete us in the potency of our chakra" explained Naruto.

They both formed a similar hand seal and started to focus, soon their chakra started to swirl around their bodies, and unsurprisingly they had near similiar potency in Chakra.

Karin now understood that the boy infront of him wasn't lying, even if his appearance wasn't same as a normal Uzumaki, his chakra was the same.

Karin smiled for the first time in long time, she didn't remember when did she felt such comfort before, it was probably infornt of her mother. Naruto mirrored her and smiled his best, but there were several hurdles they have to overcome to claim her as a family.

She was foreign ninja, and they wouldn't let a asset leave the village so easily, moreover a weak village like Kusagakure.

"My squad have been killed, they were ambushed by Ame ninjas, my sensei is also acting strange" said Karin.

Naruto formed a hand seal, and an another Naruto rose up from the ground.

"Go and wait in the tower, after we complete our task, I will find you and we would see what to do then" said Naruto and told the clone to lead her toward the tower.

Karin moved out with the clone toward the tower.

As they saw Karin move forward, they too moved on to search for a scroll. They only took a few steps when suddenly the peace around them distorted, Naruto was hurled up back by a wind jutsu while Sasuke jumped aside with Sakura as to avoid it.

Naruto stood up as his dizziness receding back, he needs to find his teammates, this type of strong ninjutsus couldn't be casted by mere genins or even chunins.

He was about to run forward when he had to jump back, a 30 ft long snake was in front of him, hissing aggressively. The snake again attacked him, he sidestepped that attack, leading it to hit the ground. He has to quickly handle this, he had to support his teammates, even if Sasuke was capable, fairing against a whole group wasn't favorable in any way.

He took out his bo and ran forward, he touched a seal on the bo with some chakra infused in his fingers, small spike grew on both the sides of bo. The snake lunged forward toward him, he took the support of his bo and jumped up in the air, he rotated his bo in a vertical position and fell down on top of snake head.

~Clenchh~

Blood leaked out of the hole on the snake's head, the snake puffed off in a cloud of smoke.

'A snaked summon, there are only two snake summoner in entire Elemental nation, Nee-chan and...' As Naruto contemplated this, his eyes widened, he quickly dashed toward the direction of his team..

The snake is ready to attack its prey...

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto; All rights are reserved to Kishimoto.