Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Aforenotes: Yey. I've decided that Ino married an OC named Yoshiaki Benito and had twins, Isano and Isako. And I've also decided that Sakura had three children, twins and a boy, Haruno-Sabaku no Satoaki.

Uzumaki Ritsuko and the Chuunin Exams
By Fleur de Anemone
Chapter two: The Sixty Kidlets

Kiba Jr's POV

I stared at Ritsuko, half-shocked. Why did she tell me, of all people? She could have secretly told Celia and Rufy...

In fact, Ritsuko turned slightly, her eyes swiveling to glance behind her at Celia (I later learned she was nicknamed "Cicada") several rows up. Celia was scribbling madly on her paper, ever smart-ish. Pausing, she lifted her head and looked directly at Ritsuko. What the Hell...? If Naruto and Cerise or the chuunin against the walls caught them even looking at each other...

And then I saw. Under the table, which we could clearly see, Cicada's hands were moving. Rapidly, as if she were scared. All of a sudden, her hands stopped and she went back to her paper. Ritsuko turned and nodded to herself briefly, writing down answers. I began to speak, but she interrupted.

"Shh, Kiba. It was sign language. You can look at my answers if you want."

One of my eyebrows skyrocketed.

Was this a trick?

Ritsuko?

Naaah...

Then again... I know for a fact that Ritsuko was tricky. I narrowed my eyes. Maybe she was tricking me into looking. Maybe if I looked, a chuunin would automatically look my way and take away two points.

But Ritsuko wasn't like that. She was nice, if not loud, and she'd help me. But...

"Why?" I asked.

Ritsuko turned red and reached up to play with her hair. "Well, come on, us rookies gotta stick together, right?"

Ritsuko's POV

What the Hell was I talking about? I couldn't care less if Kiba failed. Or did I? Was Kiba even a rookie? Yeah, he graduated with us. But I never really thought about it before. Oh well. I sound like a total moron.

I looked back at Rufy, expecting him to be sort of chair-dancing. And he was. I turned slightly and looked at Cicada, who had returned to scribbling furiously on her paper. What a bookworm. Weren't we just team seven?

The way I saw it, we were sort of an... Alternate version of my dad's old team.

I was the perky, reckless, loud, annoying, ambitious one.

Cicada: The perfect female Sasuke. Complete with black hair and a snooty attitude.

Rufy was... NOT a Sakura. But he was the closest thing TO a Sakura, so... I guess we WERE team seven.

Too bad we were team one.

Cicada began to signal to me again, but I shook my head and motioned, I'll find my own answers. Thanks anyway.

My eyes flickered, and I was about to use a jutsu, but my head began to throb and I jerked forward. Kiba looked at me weirdly and I opened my mouth, but I couldn't reply.

Oh no.

Heyyy, Ritsukoooo.

Oh, dammit, it was Yoshiaki Isako's mind control jutsu. But...

ISAKO GET OUT OF THIS BODY! I SAW HER FIRST!

Okay. So Isano was in too. So... I had three souls in my body right now.

Nuh uh, I got my soul in first.

Yeah, but it was MY idea first!

You're just slow.

You can cast faster than me!

I'm older.

BY FIVE MINUTES, 35.6 SECONDS!

I'm still older. Now get out.

No, you get out.

You!

You!

It was an effort, but I managed to bang my head on the desk and think to them, Come on, why don't you both get out of my body?

OH MY GOD.

YOU'RE CONSCIOUS!

Ah, durh. Get out, NOW.

I fought their souls off to stand up. I think that their power is weakened when there are two alien souls in one body. Sure, I could have waited for them to get out, but we were never really good friends, and I would strive to great lengths to piss them off.

"What is it, Ritsuko?" Dad asked, cocking an eyebrow.

My voice faltered. "It's... Crowded..."

Dad blinked and Mom asked, "What?"

"Isako and Isano..."

"The Yoshiaki twins? So?" Mom shrugged.

I winced and let down my guard. Isako took over.

"Nah, dad, I just wanted to be noticed. I'm really quite an idiot sometimes, huh?" Isako/me said, laughing and rubbing the back of her/my head.

Naruto sat down, sighing and crossing his legs on the desk in front of him. "Isako and Isano, fail. Caught using any kind of jutsu is considered fighting. Get your teams and leave."

Isano/Isako/Me wove my fingers together and thought, Release! at the same time. I felt something lift inside my mind and sighed, sitting back down.

Isano and her team (Youko Youki and Tinalo Militshu) stood up angrily, glaring at me. Even as they left, I could feel them glaring at me through their heads. Isako and her team (Jujiku Karilan and Hiitsu Duna) ignored me. I could feel them ignoring me until they left the building.

Alright. That's two teams weeded out--

"Number 58, fail."

"84 and 59, fail."

"7 and 43, fail."

Dad chuckled and smiled. "Grab your teammates and leave. I recommend going to train for next year."

NUMBER 58 THAT WAS--

I turned, eyes wide. Ci...

No, it wasn't Cicada. It was the boy next to her, Haruno-Sabaku no Satoaki. Cicada was number 57.

I signaled to her to give me answers again, and I got a feeling we would pass.

Naruto's POV

I looked at the clock; their 45 minutes was almost up. Soon I'll reveal that last question.

I turned around from the genin and did a little hop-skip dance. I LOVED the last question. It was so fun to see the genin looking all freaked. Not only that, but afterwards I'd be able to go home and make out with Cherry-chan.

I turned around and signaled gleefully to the chuunin, who looked at their papers and rattled off numbers:

"Numbers 52, 60 and 28, fail."

"10 and 63, fail."

I could tick off the ones that they caught in my head. I saw them all, but then again, I'm not the one who's supposed to be watching.

"50 and 48, fail."

That's the fourteenth team to be let go. Wow...

"51 and 80, fail."

Sixteenth.

"56, 79, 67, 62, fail."

Looks like this year's rookie nine made it, at least. Isano and Isako... This was their second year at the exam. Ino told me.

The rookie nine were Uzumaki Ritsuko, Aburame Celia, Kaz Rufy, Inuzuka Kiba, Haruno-Sabaku no Ulrio, Nara Shikara, Haruno-Sabaku no Minako, and Hyuuga Hiraku. Team one, six and eight.

As I look around, I count roughly 84 scattered genin left. That's 28 teams. Not too bad.

"ALRIGHT LISTEN UP!" Time for the last question. The genin stared wide eyed; I could tell all of them were thinking BUT I'M NOT DONE YET!

"Anyone who's not done, that's too bad. This is the tenth question." Cerise chided them. "This is the most important question of the entire first part of the exam. We'll let you choose whether or not to take this question."

Ritsuko jerked slightly in her chair. Kiba's eyes widened and Ulrio called, "Wait a minute! What if we choose not to take it, what happens then?"

"If you choose not to take it, you just leave with your team. Better luck next year."

"Alright, I think I get it." Hiraku stood up. "But what if we choose to answer and we get it wrong?"

I laughed. Thier ignorance was funny; I was sort of remembering the first time I took the exams. They're going to go crazy.

"If you get it wrong, well, you fail of course."

There was a sigh among the genin.

"But if you get it wrong, not only will you be failed but you'll never be able to take the exams again. You'll be a genin forever."

Hiraku slowly sat down, eyes wide. "I don't understand anymore..."

Ritsuko almost stood up to yell, but Kiba did that for her.

"THAT'S BULLSHIT, MAN! A genin forever? That's... Bullshit!"

"Sit down, Inuzuka, and mind your manners." Cerise snapped. "We're weeding out those who would not make good chuunin anyway! Now, anyone who does not want to answer the last question, raise your hand and get out.

I smiled at the eight teams that left. That left 20 teams. An even number... Just like in my day, there would most likely be preliminaries. I loved the preliminaries.

"Aiight." Cerise stood and crossed her arms before the genin. "Are you all completely sure you want to answer this question?"

The remaining genin shifted uncomfortably, except Rufy, who really didn't know what was going on. I wonder how he learned to speak and write and stuff in the first place...

"Great."

I stood up and grinned. "Congratulations. You're all in the second round."

"WHAT!"

"The tenth question was a choice whether to stay in the exams or not. You're not going to be genin forever! That's stupid, no one's ever done that before! Come. On." I laughed.

"WHAT!"

It seems they still didn't understand.

"Wait, I can explain." Celia stood and made her way to the blackboard, picking up a piece of chalk.

I think she might secretly be Sakura and Sasuke's child...

Normal POV

Celia traced words on the board, pointing every now and then. "The first nine questions were to test how well we could gather information. See, for those that didn't know, we were supposed to cheat. Just not get caught. That explains why we get five strikes, right? Those that were caught five times were not good enough at getting information. There were two chuunin that were set out around the room-- yes, that's right, wave to the genin-- as cheating targets. Isano and Isako would have much better luck setting their jutsu on one of them instead of Ritsuko. On the battlefield, you'll have to risk your life to gather information. But you need enough wits to tell what information is right and what's not."

"I still don't understand the final question, Cicada." Hiraku said.

"The final question was the true purpose of this test," Celia sighed and began to signal her words for Rufy. "Let me explain. It was a answer-or-don't kind of question. These were hard choices to make, no? Those who choose the latter fail with their team. Those that take it could lose the chance to ever take the test again. A leap of faith, you'd might say. No matter what the danger, there are missions you cannot avoid. If you don't want to take a dangerous mission, well, that's not really your choice to make anyway. If you cling to stupid fantasies and keep your destinies safe, you don't have the right to become a chuunin."

Celia said the word destinies with such scorn, Ritsuko shivered. It was common knowlege that Celia was a big athiest, always had a theory for anything. She knew that things like destiny had religious ties. At one point, she admitted that their might have been a God. But then she said, who knows, maybe gods can die after all?

And then, the window exploded.

Kunai shot up into the walls, tacking up a huge red banner that read WELCOME TO THE SECOND TEST! Feet landed on the ground too quick for anybody to notice, and a raucous voice shouted, "NO TIME FOR CELEBRATING, KIDLETS!" (Behind the banner with Naruto, Cerise cracked up.) "IT'S TIME FOR THE SECOND TEST! LET'S GO! UP AND AT 'EM! WAKE UP!"

"Anko, you're early."

Anko (Spry and perky as every) dropped her fist out of the air. She glared at Naruto and replied moodily, "So? HEY LOTS OF PEOPLE MADE IT! Anyways, kidlets, follow me so I can cut you all in half! Yay!"

Anko paraded out, the genin following. Naruto tore down the banner and smirked. "She's gonna cut them in half like the first time, Cherry-chan."

"So it seems, Naruto. So it seems."

The trees were old and sprang up towards the sky. Old, rotting vines wound up their trunks, squeezing them to the point where the bark chipped and bulged away. There was a sign that read "DANGER! KEEP OUT!" On the tall fence around it.

"Welcome to the second stage of the exams, kidlets!" Anko grinned. "Training area 44, the Forest of Death!"

And that ends the second chapter! Woo! We finished the exams! Sorry to all the God-believers out there. I don't believe in God (DON'T STOP READING MY FANFICTION PWEASE!) either, so I just wanted to make a character like that. Yay. I don't remember if I said anything about that in my rant... Oh well, whatever. The third chapter will be up... Estimated at the end of the week/Friday ish. Wooooo! Review please. I want romance to be in this, and durh there's NaruCeri, but I want something else, too... Probably RitsuKiba...